theQR made first contact with comedian Ian Smith at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His show, Crushing, would prove one of the funniest, most interesting, and accomplished 50 minutes of the month. Actor, Writer, Podcaster, and (obviously) Comedian, Smith is heading out of his first national tour in 2024. So if you missed Crushing in Edinburgh, hold tight, he’s coming to a stage near you. I was lucky enough to sit down for a Zoom chat with Ian, to talk about stress, comedy, the pressures of social media, and fulfilling professional dreams.
Hi Ian! Your show was one of the funniest hours I spent in Edinburgh during Fringe 2023. It’s great to hear you’re taking Crushing on the road. How has that all come together for you since Edinburgh
You always kind of write a show hoping that you’ll get to keep doing it and get more people to see it. Getting nominated for the big Edinburgh Comedy Award is the thing – I think – that got me into the Soho theatre for a week afterwards. That, and the podcast I’m doing have helped push Crushing out on tour. People seem to really enjoy it, and it just feels like I have a show that’s really good. I feel more confident there’s an audience out there who’ll book tickets!
Will you be taking the show on the road pretty much as was in Edinburgh, or have you been tweaking it since I reviewed it?
Well it’s the same of course, but I’ve definitely added a few bits from the Soho run and thereafter. Like, you come up with a joke on stage and it’s almost annoying. You think Why didn’t I have that for the last month?! It’ll be extended since the Fringe: 60 minutes doesn’t feel enough on the road. I’m going to aim to do around an hour and 15 minutes, and maybe allow myself to be a bit looser with more time to talk to people. I’ll maybe add in one or two routines that didn’t quite make it in before.
EdFringe Review: Ian Smith: Crushing
Ian Smith: Crushing is an excellent show, this will be a short review.…
And the show, Crushing, how was it put together in the first place?
Well…I knew that I would be talking about stress – I know that was like the common theme of my material at the time. In my last shows, I’ve always – thought not always intentionally – gone off and done something beforehand. It’s not necessarily been to inspire material, but it’s worked out that way!
So I went to Norway to see the Northern Lights, then I was in New Zealand for the first time doing the Comedy Festival and did a few things out there. Then I went to Chernobyl with my brother, and all of these things seemed to lead to a lot of material!
So I was kind of searching for something to with stress that was out of the ordinary, that might be helpful for stress, but also might play out in a sillier way on stage. So as soon I saw this car demolition experience in Slovakia I thought I’m gonna have to do that! regardless of it being far more expensive than I would have liked it to be!
And of course, you went with your hairdresser! It’s bonkers and works very well on stage! Now, I say this as someone with family in Leeds, but do you think there’s a particular flavour to Yorkshire humour that comes through in your work?
Well, I do talk a fair bit about my home town Goole, but I think it may not even be a Yorkshire thing, but more a small-town thing. I’m thinking of any town that’s small enough not to really have genuine news, but still has an obligation to print a newspaper. You get these tiny, inconsequential stories that have to be dealt with seriously. There’s something in that sensibility that really makes for good comedy.
So you can take the boy out of Goole, but not Goole out of the boy.
I do seem to talk about it a fair bit!
Is that something you feel positively about?
I feel very positively towards it now. I think when I first came south to Uni I sometimes felt like a sort of caricature. Now though it’s something I really embrace.
Having a strong identity helps distinguish yourself, particularly these days when so many people are trying to make a name in comedy.
It’s exciting doing the podcast with Amy (Gledhill), and I love it’s full of these normal stories. I was surprised there wasn’t already a podcast doing this, it feels like such a huge area! However, it’s been overlooked, which is grand for us.
Which proves there are still creative niches to be found even now podcasting is such a well-developed industry. You’re keying in on people, who they are, and the places that make them.
I think it’s nice to have stories where it’s like there’s a man having a bit of a meltdown because someone keeps shoving porridge sachets through his letter box, and doesn’t who’s doing it or why! It’s probably nicer to hear about them than the awful stuff which dominates the news often.
Now, I know that Crushing revolves around stress, but I’d say there’s something kind about your comedy. You very much laugh with the audience, not at them…
I like to think of myself as the joke really. I’m always like, not the idiot, but I’m always the one misunderstanding things and situations, In an early version of the show, I had a bit where I was talking about being stressed on stage – but I’m not sure an audience actually wants to hear about a comedian being stressed. I think you want to laugh at someone who’s maybe got a slightly more unfortunate life than your own.
You have decided you’d like to go to a comedy gig and have a good laugh, without worrying you chose the wrong shirt to wear. Now you’ve paid £15 to sit there whilst a comedian points and says, ‘Look at this guy and his shit shirt. He looks like a paedo.’ F*cking hell, that’s not for me.
Yeah, that sort of intense crowdwork definitely puts off some audiences (though I’m always happy to elect myself as a sacrificial lamb)...
Yeah, and I also don’t much like when a comedian gets famous and starts talking about money or celebrity anecdotes. I just don’t think many folks want to hear that you’ve met Elton John. It’s much more interesting if someone’s giving you crap all the time, or maybe you invest your time, effort and money into something and mess up. It’s stuff we can all relate to.
So, with your material then, are you a planner, or a pantser? Do you sit down and studiously create your own master schtick book, or is it more spontaneous?
I like a bit of everything I suppose! I would always hope to have stuff that’s happening to me to draw on. For example, when I went on Radio 4, I received multiple complaints about how I pronounce the letter ‘h’. I saw this tweet from a woman saying ‘They need to learn how to speak properly, and telling me how to pronounce words properly.’ I looked at her profile and saw she hadn’t tweeted in four years!
And I really was out for drinks with a friend and his new girlfriend, and she did spend half the night asking if I knew what all the big words meant. I think it happened like 3 times! So I have things like that, plus if I can go and do something a little odd then it might give me an anecdote, and off I go.
So that would include events like my trip to the flotation tank. I was thinking well this will be a supposedly relaxing, cool thing with a chance of being so unique I can go back and tell people about it. What I don’t want to do is make the same sort of observations about people and places that you hear every day. So I hear of curious things, do a little bit of searching, and see if it’s on message with my show.
You’re something like a method Comedian. You do it. You live it. You don’t just imagine life, you put yourself in the way of interesting experiences
I just find it so much easier to write. Before Crushing, I entered a Scrabble tournament, a professional-level Scrabble tournament, and I’m not particularly good at it! I knew I would find it quite stressful as a result, and I was able to build on the panic I felt, and the weirdness of the situation I put myself in. I’m always looking for things I could that make me think ‘That could be interesting!’
Do you find your comedy is pretty universal then? You’ve played audiences nationwide, you’ve been overseas, do you have to adapt at all?
I don’t really agree with people who say things like audiences around the country are different. I think there are a few places where there’s a really strong identity, like say Glasgow or Liverpool or Belfast. Maybe they are a bit more discerning given their histories, because they can feel quite tough to play.
On the other hand, you can play these gigs and have some of the best nights of your life, but it maybe feels as if you’ve got to prove yourself a little more. Other than that, say London, or anywhere in The North, everywhere can be good, and everywhere can be terrible.
I have to say through this interview you’ve been reminding me of my wife’s experiences a lot. She’s a scrabble maniac, has family in the North, and had a very unfortunate experience with a flotarium!
I’ve spoken to quite a few audience members about it, and I’d say 80% of them had bad experiences!
When you’re not exploring the slightly stranger side of life, you’re a busy chap! You make work for Radio 4, you’re involved with multiple podcasts, and you’re an actor and a gigging comedian. How do you juggle it all?
Well Stand Up is always thing I would love to be doing more than anything else. I do think it’s good to have a break from it sometimes, just to spend time living, which in turn gives you new things to speak to audiences about.
The podcast I really love doing because I do get along very well with Amy. Just to be in a room with a friend trying to make each other laugh is such an enjoyable job. I just really, really love all aspects of comedy and being in writers’ rooms.
I would like to do more acting, and I did enjoy the sitcoms I was part of in the past. I think that’s the only thing I really miss. However, I think any work where you get to make people laugh, I would happily take.
Now, you’ve already spoken about the tour being something you’ve been working up to for a good while. Does this feel like a watershed moment in your career?
Oh yes! I’ve wanted to do it for a while, and trying to organise it myself which may not be the least stressful option. It’s just very exciting to play to audiences whether they’ve seen you before or not. Hopefully, they’ll be a mix of people who’ve listened to the podcast, or some of my radio stuff, or seen me in Edinburgh or another gig. It kinda feels like you’re playing to your own crowd.
As much as I love gigging on the circuits, it’s so much nicer to know you’re going to a venue where the crowd are expecting you, and looking forward to seeing you. I want to be at my very best and have a chance to connect with people for more than an hour, rather than it being over in 20, or 30 minutes.
And, nice as the Tron basement may be compared to other Fringe venues, you still had that unpredictable air conditioning fan to deal with this year!
Honestly, I’d like to thank that fan in Edinburgh, like really. It helped the show in a way because when you do a month of gigs, with the best will in the world you’re saying things for the 20th time, and your performance can dip without you noticing.
Having this unpredictable element: the air conditioning unit that could go off at any second meant I had to incorporate it, and it kept me on my toes. It could really inject energy into a gig because I was forced to improvise every single day!
I’ll leave you alone to have more interesting life experiences soon, but before that do you have any comedy heroes or people you’ve looked up to in the industry?
I really love John Kearns. I guess he’s different from me stylistically, but he’s maybe a little similar in that we can both be quite exasperated, shouty characters. I love his shows, they’re always excellent. I think I really like it when comedians do a bit more than just Stand Up, so whether you’re adding in some odd structure, or a narrative – something that makes your shows a bit more unique.
James Acaster as well, he just feels like he’s at the top of his game, consistently putting out very, very good shows. I look up to these guys more than say the few folks filling stadiums.
When it comes to yourself, when folks who don’t know you ask, say at a party, do you say you’re a comedian?
I’ve gone through phases. I used to make other jobs up, but now I will say I’m a comedian. People will always ask me to tell them a joke, and I haven’t always wanted to explain I don’t work like that. In the past, I would make something up, but then that could go wrong too! I would say I was a writer, and that I did some topical stuff for Radio 4. (Then I’d write comedy based on the questions they would ask that I didn’t know how to answer.)
Or other times I would make up a boring job, but then find I knew nothing about it when asked, so now I just settle for comedian. I’m much better at telling people ‘no’ when they ask for a joke.
The current comedy world seems to heavily revolve around comedians doing crowd work and sharing clips, hoping they go viral. How do you find that to negotiate?
Yeah, I mean I haven’t really gone in for that much. I mean, it’s good if comedians can build an audience through doing that, but I haven’t wanted the pressure. There are some brilliant comedians who get rightful recognition for it, but I just think of all the video editing I’ll have to do, and how I’ll spend a gig hoping for just the right filmable moment.
That said, I’m certainly going to try and get more social-shareable clips because as you say it is how people are finding audiences right now. I do feel a bit of an old man when I complain about not wanting to set up a tripod at every gig.
Honestly, Ian, I’ve spoken to a lot of comedians, and the majority would be very happy if they didn’t have to set up a camera at every gig and spend their off days editing and sharing.
Yeah, maybe it can feel a bit soulless, but you just have to kind of suck it up. If this is what introduces people to me, and they come and see me do what I really enjoy life, then it’s got to be a good thing, hasn’t it?
I spend my days trying to generate traction on social media, so you’re preaching to the converted! So as we wind down, what’s coming next for Ian Smith?
Well, I won’t be working on a new Stand Up show until the tour is finished, so maybe next Edinburgh I’ll bring a Work-In-Progress. I do have a radio series I’m working on, revolving around stress, so that will be a bit of an amalgamation of old and new stress-based material. So I’ll be sitting off on new excursions, and then start working on some scripts! So yeah, plenty of work! No rest for the wicked, or stressed out!
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