COMEDIAN Michael McIntyre stormed off stage in Darlington this week because a woman in the front row of his audience was constantly using her mobile phone during his performance.

As much as this may have angered Michael, I'm afraid it's just a sign of the times and most of us at one time or another have been guilty of the same crime.

You could be in any restaurant any night of the week and see dozens of tables sitting in silence because everyone at them is playing with their phones.

The art of good old fashion conversation is now simply lost on most folk as they'd rather be texting, surfing the net or be interacting with others online via social media sites rather than with the people they are sitting with.

I had a girlfriend once who was down in the dumps about her love life and complained that there just weren't any decent guys out there so I suggested we get dolled up and head out for a night on the town to go talent spotting over cocktails.

It was a complete disaster because there we were sitting in a lovely busy bar on a Friday night looking all glam and she had her face stuck in her phone chatting to guys on an online dating website rather than trying to interact with real live guys standing at the bar right in front of her.

Don't get me wrong thanks to advances in technology life is so much simpler nowadays with music, email, internet, camera, shopping, diary and so much more available on a small device that fits into your back pocket, but it's also a hindrance as most of us have an extremely unhealthy and unsocial obsession with our phones.

I recently smashed my smartphone into a million pieces and had to wait a whole day until a replacement arrived. It was the worst 24 hours of my life.

As for audiences using mobile phones during a performance, I experienced that first hand during my Edinburgh Festival run this year. I had a large group of women in the front row during one of my shows who were extremely drunk and talked the whole way through.

I decided to just leave them to it until four of the girls wanted a 'selfie' with me while I was in the middle of a story and sat themselves on the stage and started taking pictures on their phones. The best part was they were all waiting for me outside later to tell me how much they enjoyed the night and asking to get another picture of me as the one they got onstage was a bit blurry due to the fact they were swaying and couldn't stand up straight - their words not mine.

I'm reliably informed however that this kind of interruption has been going on during shows way before the mobile phone came on the scene by my lovely and extremely talented friend May Miller. Back in the early 90s she and her husband Robert had sold out a show of 1400 seats at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow.

They had just finished a song and May was chatting to the audience when this wee man came bounding down the middle aisle to the stage and said "May, I'm looking for my pal Heather McGrory and I canny find her anywhere, can you see her from where you're standing?"

May said she just stared at him in disbelief and was so shocked that she stopped the show to find this wee woman Heather.

No doubt it could only happen in Glasgow, but perhaps Mr McIntyre should thank his lucky stars he only had to put up with someone texting during his show.

At the end of the day if people seriously want to pay all that money to see a show only to sit on their phones the whole way through it then more fool them because guys like Michael McIntyre will be earning money that contestants on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire could only dream about.

Something tells me there would be no need for him to phone a friend after this tour cashes up.

IF YOU are an art lover then you will be delighted to learn of the latest exhibition taking place from Wednesday at Soho in Miller Street, Glasgow.

Artist Robert Miller is exhibiting some of his latest work to the public and with his huge fan base it's set to be another major success. Robert recently had completed a painting of the late Amy Winehouse when someone had contacted him to say that Amy's mother had seen a photograph of his work and loved it.

She then got in touch with Robert and that painting of her daughter is now hanging in her home. The exhibition will be opened to the public until November 30 so make sure you get yourselves along.

For information about Robert and his work log on to www.roberthmiller.co.uk