Rhod Gilbert doesn’t like dressing as a woman, but he’s fallen in love with teaching.
We talk to him about his new tour, and his Work Experience show… As series one and two arrive on DVD, he squeezed in some time for a chat…
I caught your tour the other week.
Now I guess inevitably with TV exposure and stuff, theres an awful lot of new people.
It was mainly fans.
Now, it gets a ripple of noise, but from about 2% it feels like.
I think that TV is bringing a lot of new people.
Thats not why I do it.
I do it really because I say that this show sort of follows on in context.
But I find it useful and interesting, and it does give me a gauge.
Well, I tell you what it is.
We booked this tour a bit late for one thing.
And you have to get what you might get.
Thats the problem with booking it late.
And because obviously an arena tour is far more lucrative than doing 115 dates around the country.
I think my tour finished on November 28th, which is seven and a half months of touring.
If Id done an arena tour, Id be finishing next Thursday!
It would have been about 15 nights in just over two weeks.
So this is an enormous workload, and Im taking time out to tour.
But we made the decision, purely 100% based on satisfaction for everyone, the audience and me.
Ultimately, it came down to what is important really is the experience.
And we took the decision that its more satisfying in theatres, for punters and for me.
When you get to Edinburgh, youve done the show, youve previewed it, youve worked the material.
When you go out on that first night, youve done it to death.
Ill do that with every gig.
Also, youre waiting for the little sparks in the audience, that make things go differently.
They dont always happen, but sometimes they do.
Loads of memorable fun things come out.
Youre without a support act on your current tour.
How are you finding that?
Like going to a comedy club.
So they were happy to see a support act.
People wander in and out, standing in the bar… not really being that interested.
I didnt like that happening.
And secondly, Im doing two and a quarter hours, with an interval on top.
The theatre fines you all the costs they incur the staff, percentage of things.
That has happened to me tons of times!
I think youre better off giving people a really solid two hours and an interval than stretching it out.
By the time youre 80, you should be Ken Dodd.
It was looking that way!
Its unsustainable for me really, and I dont necessarily think its what people want.
You new show isThe Man With The Flaming Battenberg Tattoo.
Is that partly to catch him out?
No, nothing to do with it.
I havent heard from Alex on this one!
Im sure I will, but I havent heard a peep out of him yet.
Going onto yourWork Experienceshow, when I first saw that, it was BBC Wales only.
Yeah, well I think BBC Two just went well have a bit of that.
They showed the first series, then the second, and hopefully theyll do the third.
It seems to have caught on, that show.
Its only a small show, done largely by three of us.
Theres the camera guy, the sound guy, and me.
We go out and do it all, then edit it, and then I write it all.
I think thats part of its charm, perhaps.
You dont stretch it, either.
You keep it to four at a time.
I think the next four coming out I think theyre going to be good.
Im editing to day, and have been the last month.
I think its going to be a successful series.
You could not be more wrong!
Absolutely no I am not.
It takes me hours to come down.
Is that when you write and edit, or is your head in a different place?
I try not to work after gigs.
But things got knocked back and delayed, so were still working on it.
Its not ideal, really.
I should now be in an edit suite, in the Welsh valleys, working all day.
After then well do a Skype thing.
Circumstances left us there.
This time Ive done a policeman, a drag artist, a schoolteacher…
Which was the toughest?
I hated drag artist mate, I hated it.
I felt so out of my comfort zone.
Youd think on paper itd be quite close to what I do, but its a million miles away.
And I loved teaching to the point where I may well retrain.
And be a teacher.
Do the comedy for a few more years, then go off and have a third career?
Another change, yeah.
Or youve just fallen in love with something else?
I think I may just have fallen in love with something else.
My last job was in qualitative research, and I loved it.
But I did it for eight years and then got up and left, and did this.
So maybe Ill go and do this.
So youve done 12 episodes ofWork Experience, to find your next career!
Quite possibly, as it works out!
Ive done alright out of that show.
Its given me a live stand-up tour show, and possibly a new career!
The only thing that stops me doing the teaching is that theres so much stress involved.
And there shouldnt be.
Its the most wonderful, inspirational job on the planet from what I saw.
Teachers, we should be molly-coddling them.
Its such an important, immeasurable role.
Its so what teaching shouldnt be about.
We should have a boxing coach massaging their shoulders on their way to school.
Feet rubs between every lesson.
Doing everything we can to double-check theyre as motivated, fresh and enthusiastic.
In three days, I had an impact on kids lives, Im convinced of that.
Youre shaping the future, and we just shit all over teachers.
What were you teaching?
Primary, four to eleven year olds.
One day observing, one day on a school trip, and one day in a classroom.
Even then, I thought my God, this is a job and a half.
But by the end I was belting it out, punching the air!
Rhod Gilbert, thank you very much!
The first two series ofRhod Gilberts Work Experienceare on DVD now.
