All this month we are speaking to comedian Alex Kealy. After a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe last year, Alex has been very busy, going on tour as support for Jack Dee, going on his own tour this year and even co-hosting the podcast Gig Pigs with Ivo Graham. All this month we are going behind the scenes of life on the road! This week we talk about tour life…
You are on tour this year with your show The Fear, how exciting! How’s it going?
I’m en route to my first tour show in Leicester as I type this, so I’m excited to find out!
What is the best thing taking The Fear on tour?
It’s really exciting to be in control of the evening – taking a show on tour and booking those venues means you are, for those shows, at nobody’s whims other than your own.
What are your essential items that you take with you?
Noise cancelling headphones for the train, hair wax for the dressing room, a book for the train back which I will of course fail to read.
What is your favourite thing about touring?
Staring out the train window at a rural landscape racing by as twilight descends. (Apart from if it’s a summer tour date, in which case you’re very late.)
What is your least favourite thing?
Whatever the opposite of that is? Treading in chewing gum?
How has touring changed since when you did your first tour to now?
My first tour was in late 2019 / early 2020, a time when we were sleepwalking into a pandemic, a maniac was in the White House and Bong Joon-ho released a film satirising late capitalism, so all very different.
What was your hardest joke to write for this tour?
There’s a long joke about a coffee machine that’s quite complicated to perform and was maybe tricky to write?
On tour you must have your favourite places to eat on the road? What are the top three?
I like Under The Stairs in Edinburgh, just a really nice subterranean vibe (as much for drinks as food). Pierre Victoire on Little Clarendon Street in Oxford is a fun little french place and incredibly near my venue Common Ground this tour. Balans in Soho for a late night treat after the London shows??
You have recently been supported Jack Dee on tour – how has that been?
Amazing! So exciting to open for an act of that stature, and the audiences have been great. Some of the theatres – eg. The Marlowe in Canterbury, where I’m doing a tour date in the studio – have been brilliant to perform in, and I’m looking forward to more of these big big venues.
Have you learnt from touring with someone who is so renowned in the UK comedy circuit?
I think anytime you open for someone, the interesting thing is getting to watch the show multiple times and that can be a really useful learning experience. Getting to see how someone performs honed material with freshness as if it’s being said for the first time each time is at the core of really great stand-up, and it’s always great to see how someone does that.
Why should people come and see The Fear?
Great smart jokes, a bit of vulnerability, a great joke about toblerone?
Alex Kealy is on tour! You can purchase tickets by clicking here
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