Russell's big adventure

3:23pm Friday 15th February 2008

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It's been quite a year for Russell Howard

The comedian's last stand-up show was nominated for an If.comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival and a Barry Award in Melbourne.

He became a hugely popular regular on BBC Two's topical panel game, Mock the Week. Quickly building up a reputation as one of the funniest young comedians around, Russell went on to appear on BBC One's Would I Lie to You? and BBC Two's Never Mind the Buzzcocks, as well as testing his stand-up mettle with a group of surfers on the West Coast of Ireland in ITV1's Tough Gig and hosting the backstage coverage for ITV at both The Brit Awards and The British Comedy Awards.

He also made a barnstorming appearance on BBC One's Live at the Apollo.

In addition, Russell hosts his own BBC 6 Music show at 10am every Sunday morning. That programme is also available to download as a weekly podcast from the BBC; on its release, it went straight into the iTunes Top Ten Podcasts chart. Phew!

As if that wasn't already quite enough for one person to be getting on with, Russell is now back on the road with an extension of his "Adventures" tour. The show was a complete sell-out at the Edinburgh Festival fringe, with every ticket sold before the festival had even started, and five extra sell-out dates in a larger capacity venue added during the run. One of the most eagerly-anticipated shows of the autumn, it has already been lauded by the critics. Dominic Maxwell in The Times commented that Russell is "a huge talent," while Christopher Collett in Metro concluded that, "you'll find more laughs here than many comedians manage in an entire career."

It is no surprise to hear Russell praised in this way. In just a few short years, the 27-year-old has established himself as one of the most exciting acts on the comedy circuit. In "Adventures," he gapes in wide-eyed wonder at the world, engages in razor-sharp interaction with the audience and recounts life-affirming tales of human stupidity and kindness.

Whether he is reliving extraordinary childhood memories, exploring the hidden joy that is to be found in the depths of despair, failing to put up a tent, or musing on just why his grandmother wants a shredder, Russell delights in communicating his infectious passion for life's simple pleasures.

Also, we can exclusively reveal, he has a special treat lined up in "Adventures" that will be for your eyes only. Bubbling with his trademark enthusiasm, Russell explains: "I've put a load of messages on My Space asking for things to do and places to go in all the towns where I'm playing. Then, whatever happens in a particular town, I will weave that into the show. The plan is to do lots of weird and wonderful things all over the country. It's so much more authentic than doing a lot of routines beginning imagine if ...' It also means that every single gig will be unique."

Russell, who hails from Bristol, laughs that, "a lot of these activities will involve going to barbeques with strangers. It's a nice idea, but it could be a horrible way to die! It would be terrible to have to cancel the tour because some bloke in Darlington has invited me to his barbeque and then tried to eat me!"

Hitting his comic stride now, Russell continues that, "if he just ate my hand, that wouldn't be so bad because I could still turn it into a routine for the gig. I could do some material about how difficult it is to flag down a cab with no hand."

Russell recalls where and when he came up with this inspired idea for gathering fresh material every night. "When I was in Gloucester one time, I went to a ceremony known as The Cheese Roll'. All the locals roll a huge amount of cheese down a hill and chase after it. There are always loads of accidents - and ambulance crews wait at the bottom of the hill - but it's a fantastic, crazy occasion. That evening, I incorporated stories from The Cheese Roll into my gig in Gloucester, and they went down a storm."

The comic carries on that this approach, "just gives the whole show so much more freshness. I remember reading how the stand-up Tommy Tiernan once hitchhiked round Ireland for an entire tour and collected stories along the way. I thought about trying that, but knowing my luck, I'd never get picked up and would end up having to get the Mega Bus at the last minute. How humiliating!"

Russell goes on to provide other hilarious examples of the way he wove local events into his show during the autumn leg of the "Adventures" tour. "One of the coolest places we went to was the Heavy Horse Centre in Wimborne Minster. It's a rehab centre for fat ponies, and I'm ashamed to say we were gawping at these sad-eyed beasts with pot bellies. We expected to see horses with chocolate smeared all over their hooves, sighing I can't help it - I comfort eat!' I talked about it at the gig that night and it was really well-received."

On another very amusing occasion, according to Russell, "we went paint-balling in Sheffield. It was very scary, out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, real Deliverance country. The bloke showing us how to use the guns was getting quite excited, saying, if you're good at paint balling, you're good at women'. He was like something out of The Fast Show. It was all very jovial, until we started playing and he went mental. I suddenly realised that if I was in a war, my place would be back in the barracks writing poetry!"

Russell adds that by immersing himself in local cultures, "I collect so many diverse experiences. It means that my show is not all clichéd stuff about travelling on the train, being stuck in a succession of soulless hotels and getting drunk every night. That would bore me.

"This is a great way of generating fresh material. I might go to a cool indie record shop or try out a local ice-cream parlour. I have never liked the idea of standing still comedically. This way, I'm creating my own infrastructure. Each morning, I can think, shall I go to a car boot sale in Blackburn today because I've never done that before?' Every day on this tour, I'm going to try and do something I've never done before."

Russell goes on to underline the unique buzz he derives from stand-up. "I'm looking forward to taking Adventures' back on the road," he beams. "With live comedy, you get these unforeseen moments of genuine connection with the audience. You can wander on stage and immediately strike up a rapport with people. I love that."

He gives a telling example. "I did a gig in Telford recently. The moment I came on stage, someone in the audience shouted out, Russell, do you want some cheese?', and we were off. We explored why he had brought cheese along to the gig and why he thought this was the right moment to offer me some. Rather than sticking to a script, I ditched my pre-planned material for fifteen minutes and just responded to this guy because he was there in the room.

"I adore that feeling of just seeing where a riff takes you. I find people fascinating, so if someone shouts something out, I don't just put them down and move on. That seems rubbish to me. I don't want to simply hammer out the same show every night and then go back to the hotel and get drunk. I love just going with the flow." Which is what makes Russell such a coruscating performer.

Ever self-deprecating, Russell adds that his family prevent the adulation from ever going to his head. "I still find it really odd to go and perform somewhere like Darlington and have people coming to me and saying, thanks for coming'. When I get back home, I say to my mum, show me some respect - they love me in Darlington', and she replies, stop being such an idiot!'"

He looks back on a phenomenal year. "It's been mind-blowing," the comic enthuses. "You have to pinch yourself when you find yourself doing shows with great people like Dara O'Briain and Armando Iannucci. I met Frank Skinner the other day, and it was like reverting to my fifteen-year-old self. As a teenager, I was a huge fan of Frank's - I had all his videos.

"I'm a comedy nerd, and it's fantastic getting to meet all my heroes. I wanted to ask Frank for his autograph, but I felt embarrassed. So I ended up saying, can you please sign it for my mum? She's called Ussell' - and adding the R' later!"

Russell was equally delighted when he performed his very well-regarded act on Live at the Apollo. "I never banked on doing a gig like that," the comedian almost whistles in astonishment. "I couldn't believe it - on the afternoon before the show, Jack Dee came up and asked me, feeling alright?' I felt like I was going back to my childhood, looking at Jack's DVDs in HMV and thinking, I can't afford that - I'll have to get a paper round!' I became a spluttering child once again."

The actual Live at the Apollo gig proved equally memorable. "It's an extraordinary feeling to hear 3000 people laughing at your jokes," Russell beams. "The waves of laughter just hit you. You feel you're orchestrating the whole thing - it's like an out of body experience. A joke explodes in front of you and rolls back across the stalls, and you stand there just thinking, wow!'"

So Russell is an enviable position right now - producers and promoters are banging on his door like over-enthusiastic double-glazing salesmen. But he is taking nothing for granted.

"I love my job," the stand-up declares. "The great thing is that there are so many wonderful comedians out there - Daniel Kitson, Wil Hodgson, Jon Richardson, Alun Cochrane. Their sole aim is to get better - as soon as you lose that, you're in trouble. I never think, I'll just turn up on stage and be funny'."

Russell carries on that stand-up gives him all he has ever wanted. "I've had lots of strange offers, but I haven't really fancied any of them. I was asked - as was everyone else, I presume - to a charity boxing match on television. But why would I want to go on TV and get seven bells beaten out of me? Viewers would think, oh look, that funny bloke is being beaten up by Les Dennis'. I find real people far more interesting than celebs or, worse still, people who want to become celebs."

He is more than happy to focus on perfecting his live comedy. "In his book, Bob Dylan has this great mantra: every great artist needs to be in a permanent state of becoming.' He means that no artistic creation will ever be quite right, but there is a real beauty in striving to achieve it."

Finally, Russell reveals that in "Adventures", he will be zooming in on an incident he witnessed. "I don't want to ruin the story, but it highlights the kindness of strangers. For me, that's what it's all about. Life isn't about The X Factor or Ant and Dec. It's not about seeing the world in a cynical or ironic way. It's about those rare moments where you sit back and say, wow, that meant something'."

Genetically incapable of remaining serious for long, the comedian adds with a broad grin: "for the rest of the show, of course, I'll just be trying to make people wet themselves laughing!"