There has been a bit of a kerfuffle over the announcement that Jack Whitehall is to play a big work-in-progress gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in February in the the run-up to his UK tour. I can't see what all the fuss is about. Tickets will only be £20 whereas when he comes to Wembley Arena in March tickets, including booking fee, will be £32.25.

So what is the problem? Fans who snap up tickets for Hammersmith or for warm-ups in Bristol, Cardiff or Manchester will get to see the Fresh Meat star before their mates and although the touring show will be in the round I doubt if the material will be that different. Whitehall has already been doing a lot of try-outs in clubs in recent months so the show is probably well on track. And, as Ricky Gervais has joked at his warm-ups in the past, if some of it is shit it will be dropped, so the fans will have had an exclusive.

Tour warm-ups are clearly a delicate business though when you get to this level. As comedy shows get bigger the road-testing has to get bigger too. The only way you can see if material really works is by doing it in front of an audience. But how do you do this without looking like you are cashing in? Michael McIntyre incurred the wrath of his critics in 2012 when he charged £31 a pop for his tour warm-ups at the Edinburgh Playhouse during the festival and was accused of taking money away from more deserving Fringe shows. 

West End plays and musicals have an official previews period prior to opening to tweak and get things right. Comedy tours don't seem to be able to have such a luxury. The clever acts try to build in a low-key start to the tour. Lee Evans and Lenny Henry, for instance, have started their big treks in small venues before building up to larger ones. Others do warm-ups at the Soho Theatre or Leicester Square Theatre. Whitehall is also doing this in his own way. Fans who are quick off the mark will have been able to pick up £6 tickets for his solo gigs at the Lost Theatre in Stockwell in January. But nothing prepares you for a big gig as well as a warm up in a big venue.

I expect some of the criticism is part of a general wave of Whitehall-whacking. He has just had a hugely successful 2013 and his poshness inevitably gets under some people's class warrior skins. There seems to be an undercurrent that his connections have eased his ascent, but that feels unfair. The one thing you can say about stand-up is that it is a meritocracy. It doesn't matter  what school you went to or who your dad is, if you aren't funny people aren't going to laugh or, more importantly, buy tickets.

Anyway, I like warm-up shows. Sometimes they have a sense of relaxed spontaneity combined with the air of a special event that the proper tour, with all the accompanying anxieties and pressures that go with it, can lack. It feels as if you have been allowed into a special club. OK, the 3500 capacity Hammersmith Apollo is a pretty big special club, but at least it is cheaper and more intimate than Wembley Arena.