Interview Rob Rouse
Thomas Jackson talks to Rob Rouse about comedy, ash clouds and Steve Redgrave
Interview: Rob Rouse
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A third of the way through his nationwide tour, funnyman Rob Rouse, star of ‘Grownups’, ‘Guilty Pleasures’ and ‘Spoons’, is incredibly positive about how it’s going: “We’re having a wonderful time. I played Leeds Library the other night and it was my favourite of the month so far. It all just clicked. I’ve played Leeds loads of times though, and always enjoy it.”
With any long tour, seemingly nonsensical hops are bound to crop up, but surely a former geography teacher could plan better than to go from York to Aberdeen to Liverpool to St. Albans? “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? At the end of the day it’s not that big a country though, and I live in the Peak District, so most nights I’ve been able to go home. It’s certainly helped to keep things together there anyway.”
As well as touring his new show, Rouse revealed he is also developing a new character, Sir Steven Redgrave, “I’m working on him right now,” he says, “he’s kind of a deranged vagrant. I just thought about if I’d achieved what he has – won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic games, a monumental achievement, if I’d managed that, how would I deal with that level of success? I decided that I would become an absolute monster! The character is just a lunatic who starts arguments and then settles them by displaying his gold medals.”
12 years in, Rouse still enjoys live comedy: “If I’m doing a gig with others, I always watch. I never stop enjoying it.” Maybe this courtesy stems from his own formative years as a comedian, which began accidentally in Sheffield. “I was training as a teacher, and I got bullied into doing this charity gig, and it just clicked,” he says. “At 24 I rebelled, I stuck my fingers up to the man. I was hooked.
“Stand-up is immediate. If I have an idea now, I can use it tonight. That constant vent is priceless. Few people have jobs where they can just spout off things in their head, getting paid for it. My job is saying things that normally you’d get told off for saying. Anywhere else, people would find me inherently annoying, and I’d probably get the sack. That’s what makes comedy funny, It’s someone saying things you wish you were saying, so in that way, it is like an affliction, a disease.”
Like seemingly everyone else Rob was affected by the recent volcanic hiccup. “That was frustrating,” he says. “I lost the first three dates of the tour, so it was stressful not being there, knowing people had bought tickets. Granted I was in Dubai and it was nice and sunny, but it meant my girlfriend was home alone longer, so it was tricky. At the same time though it was one of those moments when we realise as a human race that we’re not in charge. Essentially the Earth farted so we all had to stop for a week!”
Conveniently, the tour ends just two weeks prior to everyone’s favourite Scottish performing arts shindig, so no prizes for guessing where Rouse will be in August: “I’m taking a whole new show up there actually, called The Great Escape, so yeah, I’ll be in Edinburgh with bells on.”
Rob Rouse, My Family and the Dog Who Scared Jesus, 9 July, Alhambra, £13
Posted on Thursday 3rd June 2010
Alhambra Theatre
Morley Street, Bradford, BD7 1AJ
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