Tom Rosenthal: “I quickly forget good parties and take the bad ones to my grave.” comedy

How did you get into the world of comedy?
I was in the public speaking club at school and competed internationally. I owe a lot to Reading Blue Coat School for giving me the confidence to express myself from a young age, especially to Mr. Holliley. When I left, I had an incredible confidence that I had something to offer the world, wrapped in a profound ignorance of what the world actually was.

I was given a flyer for a comedy competition outside a charity fundraiser that my father took me at the Royal Albert Hall. It was called Comedystars.tv, where I uploaded a video to be voted on in the final at the Edinburgh Festival. It’s brilliantly hosted by Simon Amstell, who unpacks the entire endeavor on the grounds that it has no stars or comedy.

What inspired your latest show, “No matter what people say about me, that’s what I am”?
Short answer: Alex Turner, the Arctic Monkeys and their creative journey so far. Long answer: I took a hiatus from stand-up for about four years after my last tour, Manhood. I found the whole ordeal physically and mentally draining – not least because what was supposed to last four months ended up taking two years due to the global pandemic. My comedian friends tell me that Machynlleth Festival is the most beautiful place in the world to do comedy, so when I was thinking if I wanted to do stand-up again, I booked myself a work-in-progress there. I decided that if I enjoyed it, I would continue. The show is a statement about public perception, identity, and arctic monkeys.

Your show plays on the gap between how people see you and who you feel. When did this stress become the first thing you wanted to confront publicly?
Without standing up, I have the potential to be an incredibly isolated person. What’s great about the format is that it forces you to sit in a room full of people, and the wisdom of the crowd dictates who you are to society. Bringing your own experiences to a room full of people – by validating them, or rejecting them outright in the case of a number of my works in progress – gives one a clearer sense of who one is. Oh, and bringing it back to the show, most people clearly see that I am too [Friday Night Dinner’s] Johnny Goodman. Or peaceface. Which is what they have the right to do.

What’s one of the weirdest fan encounters you’ve ever had?
We recently moved house and I went to drop off some of our excess possessions to the local charity shop. When they arrived they had a sign stating the limit was one digit. I asked an employee to confirm this, and she said, “Well, not Tom Rosenthal.” I dropped six boxes. Charity has never felt so dirty.

What is one of your favorite gigs ever?
Going to school in Reading and being born in the late 80s meant that my friends and I loved The Office, so the time I warmed up to Ricky Gervais at the Cambridge Corn Exchange and we got to take my best friends along is probably my best comedy memory. I’ve been having a lot of fun lately at the Comedy Garden parties, where promoter Will Briggs gets a big tent and sets it up in different cities. But in reality, I will quickly forget the good parties and take the bad ones with me to the grave.

Are there any bogeymen from the world of comedy?
I don’t like it when comedians are negative towards other comedians. Although the industry actively rewards rampant self-promotion, narcissism, and scandalous behavior of all kinds, there is a fine line to walk. You are literally trading on being an outlier – not to mention the fact that you are financially incentivized to remind people of your very existence. It is an inherently annoying job. So I think comedians should offer more compassion and understanding to other comedians, even if they decide to approach the industry in a different way or with a different style. Having said all that I’m doing, I have five minutes in my show when I turn to David Baddiel to write about me and my father [sports presenter Jim Rosenthal] In his book. So I think another concern would be the rampant hypocrisy.

Best structure?
One time, one of my best friends in comedy was teased: “Why are you doing this?”

Can you remember a party that was so bad, it’s now so funny?
The one thing that’s true about stand-up and about life in general is that nothing teaches you more than failure. I played at the Cornberry Festival once, and followed Frisky and Manish, which is a very wonderful musical act. I was inexperienced and not good enough to handle a festival party and follow something much more impressive than a little boy’s talk. I had just dropped out of my public speaking club and was keen to impress the middle-class people of the Cotswolds. My father’s friends were watching me, and then they kindly sympathized with me. But I thought a part of them was thinking less about my father’s ability to have children. I know it’s crazy, but the idea of ​​people losing respect for my father’s sperm is my worst moment in comedy.

What are you most excited about right now?
I’ve become incredibly passionate about the idea that we live in a simulation of a 3D reality that we all create in our minds, and that the reason we think a number of supernatural things are impossible has more to do with our scientific model than with their actual impossibility. That’s why it’s a good thing I’ll have to go out more often in the coming months to do stand-ups.

• Tom Rosenthal: Everything People Say About Me, That’s What I Am, runs at the Soho Theatre, London, from 28 October to 8 November, then touring the UK and Ireland.