2:20pm Friday 7th January 2011
He’s Welsh, a bit gruff and very funny. Comedian Rhod Gilbert tells us why he gave his tour, which stops off in Blackburn on January 8, such a strange name and reveals his success is all down to a nagging girlfriend.
A LOT of thought appears to go into naming comedy tours: John Cleese’s Alimony Tour referenced his latest costly divorce, while Jenny Eclair and Bradley Walsh took on a similar theme with their Because I Forgot To Get A Pension and The Wife’s New Shoes tours, respectively.
Rhod Gilbert is no exception.
He’s chosen the bizarre title of The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst, which isn’t so much a gag as a challenge to one of his biggest fans.
“There’s this guy that comes to my gigs in Canterbury — his name’s Alex Gilbert, although he’s no relation — and he always comes with gifts that relate to the title of my show," he said.
“I did a show called Who’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape and he brought grapes to the gig. When I did the Award-winning Mince Pie, he brought mince pies.
“He comes right to the front and puts them on the stage.
"But last time I was there I got so fed up with him bringing things that I said, ‘I hope you’re going to enjoy next year’s show — it’s going to be called ‘The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst’ and it went from there.”
The name appears to have done the trick as the tour’s been selling out and, although that particular fan’s been to see the show, he hasn’t found a cat bestowed with the features of the Only Fools And Horses star.
Gilbert — who originally planned to bring the show to King George’s Hall, Blackburn, in October but had to change to date due to TV commitments — has made a name for himself by riffing on what he describes as ‘the frustrations of life’.
He jokes a lot about being Welsh, and finds funny things to say about mundane subjects such as baggage handling and duvets.
The ability to find humour in everyday events makes him a perfect fit for panel show Ask Rhod Gilbert, in which he and a panel come up with funny answers to some of life’s nagging questions.
However, the comedian is keen to differentiate his show from the others which currently populate the TV schedules: “It’s more of a chat show, I think.
“I’ve got two comedians in Greg Davies and Lloyd Langford — Lloyd’s my flatmate and Greg’s one of my best mates, but because it’s BBC One you’ve got to have more reassuring BBC One faces than my mates, so we’ve got some celebs on it.”
Gilbert says he’s ‘counting his lucky stars’ now he’s in the position to have his own TV show and a sell-out tour, but admits that if it wasn’t for a nagging ex-girlfriend, none of this would have happened.
He says: “I was working in a market research company in London and I was fairly happily ensconced.
"I just had a girlfriend that kept nagging and nagging and nagging.
"After eight years of, ‘You should do something’, she took me to a little club in London when I was about 32.
"We kept going back until the organiser said, ‘We’re going to run a comedy course, do you want to do that?’
"I was like, ‘Yeah, all right’. And that was it. I gave up work a year later and went full-time.”
* Rhod Gilbert and the Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst is at King George's Hall, Blackburn on Saturday, January 8. 7.30pm. Limited tickets available, call 0844 847 1664 for details.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/trade_directory/