Top American comic Rich Hall brings his new stand-up show to the Gaiety Theatre.
He will be performing ‘Rich Hall – 3:10 To Humour’ on Mad Sunday as part of his spring tour of venues around the British Isles.
The comedian’s plain-spoken, growling indignation and waspish observations have won him fans all over the world.
He regularly appears on shows such as QI, Live At The Apollo and Have I Got News For You and is the star of BBC 4 documentaries including ‘Rich Hall’s Continental Drifters’.
Rich said: ‘What I love about stand-up is the immediacy of it. Having run the gamut of TV panel shows, after a while you know how to do them and they are not so much fun anymore.
‘But now I know I’m going to be on stage somewhere like Melksham, and that prospect is really exciting.
‘For those two hours, no one is looking at their phones. It’s a true non-media event. Those sorts of occasions are rapidly disappearing, and that’s why I value them so much.’
The stand-up, who was the inspiration for the curmudgeonly barman Moe Szyslak in The Simpsons, says he gets a kick out of touring the British Isles.
‘I may have become overly familiar with the motorway service stations of the UK, but I really like discovering new places. It’s important to visit out of the way towns because it gives you a new perspective.’
One of the aspects that distinguishes Rich’s live act is the way that he can craft delightful on-the-spot songs out of the smallest items of information that he gleans from the audience.
He explained: ‘I do what Americans call “crowd work”.
‘I really enjoy that because I can turn it into improvised songs, which is a big thrill for me. I always have a guitar beside me on stage in case something happens.
‘If you told me I would have to listen to anyone – apart from Richard Pryor – on stage for two hours, I’d think: “Oh God”. So it’s good to break up the show with musical interludes.’
Rich said he does not need a lot of material to work on: ‘It’s funny, the less I get from people, the more you can improvise. Nothing is out of bounds. I want them to tell me: “I’m a clerk” rather than: “I work for the council finance department and am involved in the end of year expenditure”.
As soon as I hear the word “clerk”, my head immediately starts formulating rhymes for it.’
The fuel that powers Rich’s act is a marvellous sense of simmering fury.
Of course, Rich is not that irate in reality – it is simply a persona he adopts for comic effect on stage.
‘It works because people know that I’m not really that angry. Anyone that angry should not be doing comedy.
‘With my style of slow-burn comedy, the crowd know that you can’t be that worked up. The worst thing you can do is get really angry on stage – then you’ve lost it and you’re in Michael Richards territory.’
The Gaiety show starts at 8pm.
Tickets cost £16 (inclusive of 2 per cent booking charge). Call 600555 or go to www.villagaiety.com