We chatted to him about the show, and about his recent documentary,The Trouble With Dad.
What is your show that youre bringing back to the London stage?
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Basically, I evolved this way of doing stand-up comedy.
I hadnt done it for years.
Its very autobiographical, very personal.
It involves using stills and films, and its long form storytelling.
But not in a bohemian way.
I think a lot of people now would see it as quite a damaging way.
But the show takes that on board in a celebratory way.
If I was to say one thing that its about, its about memory really.
My mum died in 2014, and the show is more about my mum than my dad.
I talk about this in the show.
Its an erasure of self and identity.
You try and hold on to the person as they were.
The show does talk about dementia, but thats not the primary subject of the show.
The primary subject of the show is memory, but how you remember people.
My manifesto is remember them warts and all, wash your dirty linen in public.
Its a way of celebrating the truth as to how your family were.
I happened across aDaily Mailreview of the show…
Its the only bad review I think its got.
Even that was three stars!
Ive never seen theDaily Mailsit on the fence before.
He didnt really sit on the fence if you read it!
He doesnt like it.
Ive never had a bad night.
I would in a way prefer to get a one star review off him.
If youre going to get a bad review in theMail, Id rather they didnt sit on the fence!
Anything you say can be taken as offensive.
In a way Im challenging the audience.
But Quentin Letts thought he was!
That theyre then opening up about things they wouldnt open up about?
Thats what it does.
The show has had a weird, but really good, impact.
I didnt expect this to happen.
I come to this stuff wanting to talk about things that are important to me.
My mum dying, my dad has dementia, these are big chapters in my life.
I thought Im going to talk about that.
The floodgates open, on Twitter and after the show.
People come up to me and tell me things like it is group therapy.
I guess it proves something about the British, that I think still remains true.
That the British dont normally talk about stuff unless they are given permission to do so.
The show, and comedy, seems to give people permission to do it.
As long as its done with love, you’re able to laugh about it.
Once you laugh about it, it releases some of the terror.
Do you think terror is the word too?
I think people are often frightened of talking about stuff thats very personal to them.
I always write back and say its up to you, but I think youll be alright.
Its mainly comedy, its a comedy show.
Even though it does have an emotional impact, nobody has come away feeling broken or upset!
What is the emotional impact on you, doing the show?
How many of their faces can you see, and what reactions are you getting?
I do a Q&A and turn the lights on.
It normally lasts around ten minutes at the end, an encore.
Extraordinary stuff happens in that.
Both with people telling me about themselves, and also about my life.
He read out a letter about my mum saying her prayers when she was eight.
My mum was prescribed a name by the Nazis, her Jewish newborn name.
I never called her that name, but he called her that name in his letter.
In terms of the impact on me, I find it good generally.
Making it into comedy makes it feel better.
Its more productive for me too than talking to someone in a room about it.
Its not really a theatrical performance, it is stand up.
I dont learn it word for word.
Its a series of stories that I tell every night and then do some jokes around it.
I dont always cry or anything like that, but I always feel it.
And if I stop feeling it, I think I should stop doing the show.
Because then its not authentic anymore.
I saw you live in the early 1990s in Birmingham.
It was a huge crowd, and one that was tricky to interact with Id imagine.
This ones very different.
Thats what I wanted to ask about.
Im guessing this one, albeit to smaller crowds, is the more satisfying?
Artistically, no question about it.
I think what I did then suited who I was then.
Which was dour, very political, very puritan.
And also not as politically correct.
When I came back I thought, right.
I dont just want to do patter.
Im actually not going to put in anything thats irrelevant to what I want to talk about overall.
The humiliation that often involves.
This show, everything is about my family.
Even the bit about my cat is about family life.
For me, artistically that is more satisfying.
But it also leads to a more emotionally satisfying place.
How would you feel if your children did this show about you?
I get that question quite a lot in the Q&A.
I always say Id be totally fine with it.
I am a big stickler for truth.
I want my children to be like that.
We are all flawed people, and not perfect.
I am someone who worries about how theyre parenting.
My parents didnt even have the word parenting.
They carried on doing their mad 1970s shit!
They werent terrible parents, they just didnt stop their lives for us.
Whereas me and most of my generation, we have.
I think that leads to them being more sane human beings.
CALM I think has a relationship to this show.
Most of my shows, but this one more.
But men are able to express their emotions.
My question to you, then: you have an extraordinary writing talent, and comedy as an outlet.
Id say what CALM said when I was patron.
And thats that being silent isnt being strong.
Its always better to talk about things.
Stand-up is a good thing from that point of view.
I think that is helpful.
Your Channel 4 documentary,The Trouble With Dad, I thought was really extraordinary.
Theres a little sequence in it where we see you watching Twitter responses come in.
And we get a taste of your reaction to how people are reacting to you.
I wonder whether youve had quite this relationship with your audience before?
Likewise, the work you put out in your documentary is getting such personal and emotive responses.
And also, people being witty, and adding to what Im doing.
What you just said about kids, dressing up.
Social media does give you that.
A basic, trivial question, this.
But are you happy?
Yeah, I am.
I went through a period of being depressed in my 30s, clinically.
Im quite an upbeat person.
Im probably happier now.
Without wishing to sound pretentious, my basic standard of happiness is to do with being who I am.
I feel uncomfortable if Im not my self in any situation.
Its why Im a very particular throw in of performer.
I cant really do characters.
I dont do voices.
A completely different character.
But when youre someone like me, you dont want to have a persona.
I want to be exactly who I am on stage.
I dont know why there is that assumption.
I saw something on Twitter the other day.
Lily Allen left Twitter after being attacked over her attitude to refugees.
Then people got really horrible, because they were having a go at her about having a miscarriage.
I always think: what are you talking about?
Theres no track that leads to that conclusion.
Yet people say shes got to accept it because she put her head about the parapet.
Yet thats not true.
Shes a person, just one who happens to be very good at writing songs and singing.
I pre-warned your publicist this question was coming.
Is this about Jason Statham?
We end a lot of our interviews asking what peoples favourite Statham films are.
I never seen one, but theres one thats called something more interesting than most of them.
David Baddiel, thank you very much.
Tickets for My Family: Not The Sitcom can be bookedhere.
David Baddiels website ishere.
Correction: changed BBC documentary to Channel 4 documentary.
