For those of us outside TV’s coveted 18-25 age bracket, the extent of Russell Howard’s popularity might not have registered. His topical comedy show Russell Howard’s Good News is currently on its fourth series (with a fifth already scheduled for later in the year). It regularly makes the top-five rated shows on BBC Three, with around 800,000 viewers. His Facebook page, meanwhile, has 1,632,805 fans.
I interviewed Russell for the current issue of the New Statesman, covering his politics (“I don’t really have a political agenda — I just like things to be fair; I get angered by pomposity”), his policy on naughty jokes and the Daily Mail website (“It leaves me utterly depressed”). The full piece will be online later in the week but, in the meantime, here are a few bits there wasn’t room for in the magazine . . .
How much do you police your jokes for whether or not they’re going to cause offence?
The test I always like to do is: would I do that in front of the person? If I wouldn’t, I won’t say it. Also, because it’s my show and it’s me, I would rather — and this sounds profoundly wanky — I’d rather it was beautiful and brilliant rather than just slagging someone off.
When we did the Chilean miners, every comedy show was [doing sketches] about the idea of them shagging each other. It was all quite obvious stuff, I thought. We made it about Mario Sepulveda. They were all offered wheelchairs, after all those weeks and the trial they’d been through, and he said: “I won’t need that wheelchair — but my wife will.” The crowd was like “Wahey!” I just like that utter bravado. So we concentrated on that and ignored the idea of them shagging each other down there, which I think people were a bit bored with.
Is there any topic that is completely off-limits for you?
We look at the merits of each story and try to figure out whether it’s funny or not and sort of go from there. It’s not as if we go, ‘Oh, we must not talk about this,’ or, ‘We must not talk about that.’ We just try to work it out. There was a story last year about a guy who had banned gay people from coming into his bakery and we did a whole load of jokes about that.
He banned gay people from coming into his bakery?
Yeah, it’s amazing isn’t it? And I put forward the joke that any man who makes a living by pumping cream into buns is in no position to criticise the gay community. We’re sort of tucked away on BBC3, really, and they let us get on with it.
Being on BBC3, you’ve ended up with a huge young fanbase. I asked your fans on Facebook what I should ask you about — and one asked whether you were writing an autobiography.
I haven’t really thought about it. I’m only 30, so hopefully I have a bit more time to do more stuff . . . What I should do is let my mum ghost-write it and then we’d have a book! By Christ, we’d have a book!
Do your parents ever offer you comedy advice?
My dad likes to. I mean, he’s a businessman, he designs call centres, but he’s also working on an idea for a children’s TV character and it’s terrible. And me and my sister go: ‘It’s the BFG, it is the BFG!’ It’s about this old guy who gives dreams to children. And we’re like ‘Dad, it’s the fucking BFG!’
My dad occasionally will give me ideas and stuff like that and I have to politely turn them down. But he loves it, he really enjoys it. But my mum is unwittingly funny and I take quite a lot of stuff from her because she just has no idea of how funny she is.
What about your friends? Have any of them ever minded cropping up in a routine?
I ask them and also I change their names as well, so if there’s anything particularly embarrassing, I ask them if it’s OK. If it isn’t, I won’t do it but I always change their names.
Obviously, you live in the glamorous metropolitan hot spot of Leamington Spa. Have you ever lived in London, gone to the Ivy and Soho House and lived the “celebrity” lifestyle?
The reason I live in Leamington is basically because my girlfriend is doing medicine at Warwick, so we moved in together and that was the easiest place for her. And because I’m a stand-up, living in the middle of the country is great. Since we moved there, I’ve been doing loads of stuff on telly so I bought a flat in Maida Vale with my brother, so I have the best of both worlds.
When I’m in London, I spend a lot of time with my brother and my mates around there playing five-a-side football and stuff like that. Not really going to the Ivy. I’ve been once, last week, actually. It was brilliant, I really enjoyed it. But I think it should be wildly exciting and like, “Ahh, this is pretty cool, innit?” because if you lose that, you won’t be a particularly good stand-up comedian. “Y’know in the Ivy when the service is ridiculously good and everything tastes great, what’s up with that?” “Y’know when your butler’s really uppity in the morning? Would it kill him to chew gum? He stinks!” So I try and lead a normal life.
Also, I feel awkward in those situations . . . I might change in a few years. I mean, I got invited to David Walliams’s wedding and that’s pretty nice — but I’d just be on my own, just stood around, eating fucking loads of food at the buffet, going: “Hey Elton, Elton, have you tried these sausage rolls?” Because that’s what happens to me at normal weddings: I always end up on my own in a corner, so it’d be exactly like that — except with famous people.
God knows what it’s like to get into that world where you’re desperate to get into the papers . . .
Have you ever been papped?
No, I get a few photos occasionally when you go into Radio One, basically the doors open then you see flash, flash . . . then — Oh, it’s you — and the clicks stop, which is pretty funny.
I can’t imagine what it must be like seeing various celebrities going, “Oh, I’ll go to that nightclub because there’ll be lots of paps there. Hopefully there’ll be an up-skirt shot of me in the paper!” Those bastards that do that, the up-skirt shots, can you imagine that? It doesn’t get worse than that.
Presumably you’ve had stuff written about you in the papers that you didn’t like . . .
I’m pretty seriously annoyed with Closer magazine. I was talking about getting married with my girlfriend and did this joke: “We are going to get married one day because the further you go on, your girlfriend turns gradually into Gollum.”
They didn’t run the interview with me — they put a photo of me looking really cross and just a speech bubble that had me going: “Better get married soon because my girlfriend’s turning into Gollum.” I said to them, “You know I didn’t say that.” Her mates had seen it and just [asked me] what the fuck are you doing? So now I don’t speak to Closer.
The other thing that pissed me off was the Independent said last year that I earn £4m, which I didn’t. My mates are like, “Alright, moneybags!” and I had to show them my bank balance. That slightly pissed me off because it makes me look like this greedy bastard. I mean, I don’t do any corporate gigs or adverts or things like that. I just do gigs.
Russell Howard’s Good News mixes serious issues and jokes. How do you find the right balance?
We just decide which of the heavier stories we want to slip in. So it’s: “Here’s a funny one, here’s a funny one, but this is a bit fucked up. Here’s a funny one, here’s a funny one, bloody hell! Did you hear about this?” It has to be like a snaking conversation with your mates in the pub. That’s kind of the aim. You chat and you’re being really silly and funny and then suddenly you talk about Colonel Gaddafi. It’s that kind of bizarre tone.
Russell Howard’s Good News is on Thursdays at 10.30pm on BBC3.
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