Comedian Jon Richardson talks about stand-up and tidying up

Fans of comedian Jon Richardson – and there are millions of you out there – can breathe an enormous sigh of relief. He has no intention of giving up stand-up comedy.

In the run-up to his latest tour, Nidiot , Jon reassures us that: “I’ll be doing stand-up for the rest of my life.

“The opportunities that it grants you can’t be denied. Stand-up is both the hardest thing I do and the thing I enjoy most. There is no fooling anyone with edits or six people around you – it’s the purest possible art-form.”

Jon, who has built up a huge and loyal live following, said: “I’m very proud of being a comedian and having got to the point where people will come out to see me. They remind me that I’m good at it.

“Paranoia can set in the day after a show. But you’re never closer to the moment of remembering you’re funny than when you’re on stage making hundreds of people laugh.

“At that second, there’s no argument about it. There is no discussion about the Top 100 Comedians. As soon as I come off stage, I’ll tell myself that other comedians are better. But at that moment, the focus is so pure, it’s wonderful. Hearing people laugh is infectious. It makes you feel so good."

He added: “I’m obsessed with keeping things tidy. So when I’m focused on the job in hand on stage, it’s a blessed relief from folding towels in the dressing room!”

The comedian, who last year presented his own Channel 4 documentary, Jon Richardson: A Little Bit OCD, reckons that for him nothing beats the experience of touring.

“I love being on tour. The question I always struggle with is, ‘What don’t you like about touring?’ I love it all – the hotels, the new towns, the new restaurants, finding things to do during the day of a show. I love all that.”

The great news is, we will now be able to enjoy Jon’s tour as much as he does. He is hitting the road and visiting all four corners of the UK this spring with Nidiot, including the Wyvern Theatre on April 6.

Unwinding in his agent’s office before the tour kicks off, Jon is a contagiously amusing man. To use the technical term, he has funny bones.

His comedy stays so fresh because he is always thinking up new routines.

Jon, a popular team captain on Channel 4’s comic panel show, 8 Out of 10 Cats, says: “I itch to do new material all the time. Even when I’m on tour, I’m writing stuff for the next tour.

“I live near a comedy club, and I’m always trying out new material there.

"It’s such a buzz when you say something you’ve never said before and it gets a huge laugh in the club.

“If you then go on to say it on Live at the Apollo, three million people laugh. You think, ‘That came out of the reaction to something I said in front of 40 people in a pub on a Monday night!’”

Jon, who has also hosted Channel 4’s topical comedy show Stand Up for the Week, has always had a rapport with his fans, which is just one reason why his live shows are so electric.

“I meet a lot of people at the stage door. They always say they’re as weird as I am! Meeting me is a cathartic process for them.

“People want to know it’s OK to think some of the things I’ve thought. They say to me, ‘My husband has this compulsion’, and I think, ‘That seems really sensible – I might start doing that myself!’ “It’s so gratifying that they have made a special effort to come out and laugh at my show. There is no way they could have turned up by accident!”

Jon, who also starred alongside fellow 8 out of 10 Cats captain Sean Lock in the Channel 4 series Hillbilly Holiday, goes on to explain the title of the new show.

“It’s designed to confuse radio DJs,” deadpans the comedian, who has previously been known for his pessimistic demeanour. “A ‘nidiot’ is something different from an idiot. An idiot is someone whose problems are caused by not concentrating enough. A ‘nidiot’ is someone who makes his life more complicated by thinking too much rather than not enough. I’m not an idiot, but I’m definitely a ‘nidiot’!”

 

  • Tickets for Jon Richardson’s Wyvern date have sold out, but you can find details on the remainder of his tour at www.offthekerb.co.uk.