Thanks to words of encouragement after a nightmare first gig

Chris Addison has recalled his first nightmare stand-up gig – saying it was only the encouraging words of Dave Gorman that stopped him from throwing in the towel there and then.

It took place at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester in the mid-1990s when it this in ‘this tiny little pub on Newton Street’.

Speaking on Radio 3’s Private Passions, Addison said he turned up the moment doors opened ‘which is ridiculous… It was just me for ages terrified, nursing one pint because I didn't want to drink too much. 

‘Then the next person through the door was Caroline Aherne. who was then nationally famous as Mrs Merton and her then husband, Peter Hook, who I loved because he was in the band New Order. And it was just horrifying. 

‘I can remember being up on stage and getting nothing from anybody,’ he told host Michael Berkeley.  ‘Like, it wasn't boos, it wasn't a death. I just got nothing. 

‘I can remember looking over to my left and just seeing Peter Hook’s chin resting on his palm looking at me, like I'd murdered his dog, or something. It was fully humiliating. 

‘And were it for the fact that the excellent comedian Dave Gorman  (below)was in the audience at the time and more or less grabbed me as I came offstage and went, "This audience are terrible, don't worry about that. You've got some good jokes there", I don't know that I would necessarily have gone back. 

‘So I owe Dave, well, everything really.’

Addison went on to be nominated for best newcomer at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe, and for the man award in 2004 and 2005.

He went on to star in The Thick Of It and be a regular on Mock The Week but now works off screen, having directed episodes of Veep and co-creating Sky comedy Breeders with  star Martin Freeman and comedy writer Simon Blackwell – also directing the show.

He said of that programme: ‘Martin started the whole business by pointing out that we haven't really seen in sitcom, a depiction that is brutally, brutally honest about what it's like to be a parent – about the guilt, the anger, the way that you change your view of yourself as a person. There are aspects of yourself that you have no idea about until this child, this challenge.  comes along. 

‘So we wanted to see if we could make a show that we felt was honest and realistic. And it's been lovely that an enormous number of people have sort of contacted us saying, "Oh, thank God, it's not just me."’

Guests on Private Passions share their favourite classical music pieces, and Addison’s included pieces from Mozart, Rossini, Eliza Carthy and a Christmas song from Sweden.

» Listen on BBC Sounds.

Published: 29 Oct 2023