The arch cynic returns: Romesh Ranganathan adds a third York Barbican gig: Picture: Rich Hardcastle
HE may be a cynic, but Romesh
Ranganathan knows when he’s on to a good thing.
Having sold out his two November gigs at York Barbican, the deadpan Crawley comic, actor and television presenter has wasted no time in adding a third night of The Cynic’s Mixtape next spring.
Ranganathan will complete his hattrick
of Barbican performances on May 10 2020, when the 41-year-old star of Asian Provocateur,
The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan, The Reluctant Landlord and Judge
Romesh will deliver “a carefully curated selection of all the things he has
found unacceptable since his last tour”.
Let the cynicism begin again: Romesh Ranganathan will have plenty more to moan about by next May
On his mind will be why trying to
save the environment is a scam, why none of us is truly free,
and his suspicion that his wife is using gluten intolerance to avoid
sleeping with him.
Ranganathan ditched his burgeoning career as a Maths teacher – maybe it
just didn’t add up to much – in his early 30s to focus on comedy, with plenty
to moan about in such subsequent shows as Rom Com, Rom Wasn’t Built In A Day
and Irrational.
Agent provocateur Ranganathan and his Rob & Romesh Meet co-star Rob Beckett hosted the 2019 Royal Variety Performance on Monday at the London Palladium, to be aired on ITV in December. This was the first time that two comedians had hosted the event together in more than 30 years.
Tickets for Romesh Ranganathan: The Cynic’s Mixtape are on sale at yorkbarbican.co.uk, on 0203 356 5441 or in person from the Barbican box office.
“You just think, ‘Come on, make a decision’,” says Al Murray as Brexit lumbers on and on and on
COMEDIANS had been strangely reluctant to discuss Brexit, seemingly for fear of alienating half an audience. Three years in, however, and no nearer to finding a fixit, they are joining the rest of a divided nation in frustration at Mission Implausible.
If one comedian were guaranteed to lose his rag over Brexit Britain, it would be the garrulous Guvnor, bellicose pub landlord Al Murray.
His July show at Pocklington’s Platform Festival had been billed as the “last hurrah” for his Landlord Of Hope And Glory tour, but Brexit is the wanted/unwanted gift that keeps giving.
So, here we all are, post-October 31 impasse, rain sodden and shivering as we go to the polls in darkest December, Boris and Jezza fighting to be the next Guvnor, and Murray’s bilious bulldog still barking his take on Brexit on his autumn travels that stop off at the Grand Opera House, York on November 18.
A comedian seeks to be side-splittingly funny; now Murray is having to deal with split sides. “That’s the interesting thing: they really are split, and you can’t predict how people will be on each night,” says Al, who conducts his interviews as the real Al Murray, satirical comedian, TV presenter, author and military history documentary maker.
” What you have to do is burrow down into ‘Who are we?’; ‘What does this say about us?’, and that’s the thing you then mine for comedy,” says Al Murray, defining the comic craft.
“There are people who still care about it, with everything that’s going on in parliament, but the rest are fed up. Who could imagine people being frustrated with politicians promising things that couldn’t be delivered?!”
Given the Little Englander persona of Murray’s larger and louder-than-life caricature, you might expect him to line up with Boris/Farage/No Deal/Brexit Means Brexit, but Murray thinks as much as the Guvnor drinks, and so Landlord Of Hope And Glory does not take the path of least resistance.
“You write the kernel of a show a couple of months before going out on the road, so that was back in March and April, when it looked like we might go No Deal, and you just think, ‘Come on, make a decision’.
“But whatever way you voted, you have no say in what’s been happening, and as a comic, you’re thinking, ‘How can I find a fresh angle on this?’.
“You don’t want to sound like anyone else, so the conclusion to the show came to me pretty early on, but for the show to merge together perfectly, it took 20 gigs to get to that point.”
Social and political satire requires exaggeration to lampoon its targets, and yet the Westminster and Brussels playgrounds keep surpassing such comic imagination.
“People talk about that a lot: that there’s this problem for comics being outflanked by the behaviour of our politicians, so what you have to do is burrow down into ‘Who are we?’; ‘What does this say about us?’, and that’s the thing you then mine for comedy,” says Al.
Preparing for a dressing down: Satirist Al Murray in the dressing room with The Pub Landlord’s garb
“Get Brexit Done/Not Done” may exasperate many, but Murray is revelling in picking at its bones. “The idea that this thing was going to go on forever didn’t have bite in April, but it does now. It routs us – and I’m rather pleased about that.
“Brexit is now being paraded full bore at the centre of our national debate, yet people were telling me a decade ago that the Pub Landlord’s anti-European stance was outdated!”
Murray is not predicting an end to Brexit deliberations any time soon. “I think we’re going to go back out with this show next spring, when it still won’t be over.
“The reality is, you will never find anything to satisfy everyone, so you just have to balance it,” he suggests. “Is there a way out of this mess? The Pub Landlord thinks so: the whole of Europe goes on the pound and the EU changes its name to Great Britain!”
Is Brexit a step backwards or forwards for Britain, Mr Murray? “The thing is, I haven’t heard yet how it’s a step forward. I’m open to whatever ‘Brexit’ is, but you get the feeling a lot of people don’t know what it is, or that people won’t like it, whatever it is.”
AlMurray: Landlord Of Hope And Glory, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, November 18, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/York
Golden opportunity: Tom Rosenthal announces Pocklington date
TOM Rosenthal, star of Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner and ITV2’s Plebs, will bring his new stand-up show, Manhood, to Pocklington Arts Centre on March 14 next year.
His 8pm performance will tell the story of how he spent his life trying to avenge the theft of his foreskin.
Tickets for this past winner of the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year award will go on sale at £17.50 on Friday at 10am on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Arts centre director Janet Farmer says: “We’re delighted to be able to bring Tom Rosenthal to Pocklington as part of his latest stand-up tour.
“This booking only strengthens an already fantastic line-up of comedy, which features our popular Punchline Christmas Comedy Gala on December 13 and TV regulars Arthur Smith and Andy Parsons on January 31 and April 28 respectively.
“As with all our live comedy, Tom is likely to sell out, so I would advise you to book your tickets in advance.”
So….why does Elf Lyons love guinea pigs? Find out on November 21
ELF Lyons concludes her autumn travels at the Burning Duck Comedy Club in York on November 21, but this tour might never happened.
In August 2018, comedian, writer and actress Elf – real name Emily Ann – was planning a physical clown show with dance, tap, rock’n’roll and the splits, but soon disaster struck.
She was taken to hospital and told it would be best that she never performed again. After months spent lying on her back and being wheeled in and out of MRI machines, she had to rethink how to return to the stage. Thankfully inspiration struck, and Love Songs To Guinea Pigs was born.
Elf, the 28-year-old daughter of an economist and painter, presents a surreal tale of love and loneliness, embodying her inner Katherine Hepburn through an absurd narrative of heartbreak and love with live music, terrible mime, silly characters, enthusiastic accents and true stories. “This is Brief Encounter, but with rodents,” she says.
Love Songs To Guinea Pigs is billed as “the perfect show to take a tinder date to, a friend who is going through a difficult divorce, your step-mum as an attempt to ‘bond’ or indeed just come on your own and be a legend”.
Tickets for next Thursday’s 8pm show in The Basement, City Screen, are on sale via thebasementyork.co.uk/elf-lyons or burningduckcomedy.com
