Up close and personal with Rob Brydon (From Hampshire Society)

Up close and personal with Rob Brydon

2:47pm Monday 2nd November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Rob Brydon has done everything in comedy.

He has headlined in his own numerous, hit TV series, starred in massively popular sitcoms and sketch shows as well as highly regarded comic movies and has recently replaced Angus Deayton as the host on BBC1’s Would I Lie To You?

Rob is a rare example of a comedian who is as funny off stage as on it and he makes for sparkling company.

He is a dazzling entertainer, an hour spent in his presence simply flies by. The air is replete with laughter, it’s like being treated to a command performance for a specially invited audience of one. The comic, 43, is thrilled by the prospect of going back on tour “I’m really excited about doing it all again,” beams Rob, who has just finished filming the third series of James Corden and Ruth Jones’ multi-award-winning sitcom, Gavin and Stacey.

“It’s easier to perform as my stand-up character Keith (Barret) because his views are set, and I’m not always sure what I think about things! But I’ve really enjoyed being myself on stage.”

The performer, who has also carved a notable career as a straight actor in dramas such as Oliver Twist, Napoleon, Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore, Marple and The Way We Live Now, continues that, “the show is just me talking on stage. I like that natural feeling of me simply chatting to the audience.

“I try to make the show personal and conversational. In general, I don’t talk too much about my family. But I wanted to give this show a sense of truth and authenticity, and I was keen to talk about the things that really matter to me. So in the show I talk, for instance, about the birth of my son. He arrived nine days early and came pretty quickly, so it had to be an unplanned home birth.

It was very nerve-racking!”

But Rob is not restricting himself to chatting about his family in this show. He ranges over a whole array of subjects. He contemplates, for example, the joy of voiceovers.

“I talk about how ludicrous it is doing voiceovers for products such as Toilet Duck.

“I also discuss how having a very flexible voice has been a great help to me over the years. I can make anything sound good.”

In the show, Rob also tackles many of the thornier problems of the day, such as youth crime. “I don’t want to sound boring,” he laughs, “but I do think this is a really important issue. I would never advocate violence – I’m a very un-violent person. I’ve never had a fight in my life the very thought of it fills me with horror. So I find any sort of random aggression very emotive.

“At the same time, there is something inherently comic about the idea of children and violence.

It’s the combination of big and small – that always works in comedy. Remember that great Woody Allen gag? ‘Do you have any regrets in life?’ ‘I wish I hadn’t had the starter at Mindy’s’. It is the incongruity of children and violence that lends itself to comedy.”

Another subject which Rob mines to great comic effect in the show is his native land.

“I married an English girl, so our family is half English and half Welsh, and they have very different responses to everything,” muses the comedian, who studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. “The Welsh have a very emotional side, and we always view everything with a great sense of drama.

“The two sides of our family react very differently to our new baby, for instance. When he goes ‘aargh’, the English response is, ‘that’s right, you’re taking on the world, little fella.’ While the Welsh response is, ‘Aw, have you got a pain?’ That’s a good example of the contrast.”

The performer recently made Rob Brydon’s Identity Crisis, an acclaimed BBC documentary about his attitude to Wales, and that has informed the live show. “Before producing the documentary, I had a niggling sense of disenchantment with Wales,” admits the comic. “I’d been away a long time and had begun to see Wales in a negative light.”

Rob explains that some others in the UK also have misapprehensions about Wales. “To English people, Wales is often a mystery that no one wants to solve. I remember being amazed that when I went to drama school in Cardiff in 1984, a lot of the English students had never been to Wales before.

“In the same way, Hollywood actors only ever say they want to visit Scotland and Ireland, never Wales!

“But spending time there again for the documentary made me remember the things I love about Wales. I realised what a huge part of my life it is, and it made me want to tour with a show talking about the country I love. Spurred on by the documentary, we recently rented a cottage near the Black Mountains. That has some of the most stunning, breathtaking scenery you can find. Wales really is a great place to be.”

The comic goes on to emphasise the enormous contribution that Gavin and Stacey has made to changing people’s perception of Wales. “It’s had a huge effect,” Rob reflects. “It’s made Wales much more palatable to a very wide audience. In the past, Welsh sitcoms have never made it onto the national network. But Gavin and Stacey presents a very authentic view of Wales. It shows that there is much more to the country than the lazy stereotype of rugby, sheep, Shirley Bassey and choirs.”

So as you can see, Rob is really fired up about touring, and he is going to put on a blinding show for you. One word of warning, though, if you’re a couple sitting near the front of the auditorium: beware. Rob has got you in his sights.

With a wicked chuckle, he cautions that, “like Keith Barret, I’m going to be chatting to the audience about their relationships. I’ll see if I can drive a wedge between them. If couples haven’t split by the end of the evening, I won’t have achieved my aim!”

And with that, Rob Brydon lets out another long, loud laugh.

• Rob Brydon is at The Anvil in Basingstoke on Tuesday November 3, 7.30pm. Tickets are £18.50 Visit anvilarts.org.uk for details or call the box office: 01256 844244.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)