American comedian Rich Hall tells Katherine MacAlister why the stage is beckoning again

You’ve got to love being a stand up to fly half way across the world to entertain us. But for Rich Hall, the acerbic comedian from North Carolina, it’s a privilege. Perhaps it’s because we get his sense of humour, his caustic dead pan wit making him one of our favourite comics.

Or perhaps he just wants to share his new show with us. Either way, get down to the Oxford Playhouse tonight to witness the king of rapid-fire for yourself. But don’t bring your phone, because Rich is enjoying this social media free zone.

“For those two hours, no one is looking at their phones. It’s a true non-media event. Those sorts of occasions are rapidly disappearing, and that’s why I value them so much,” he says.

The American-born comedian derives tremendous pleasure from that, preferring to rely on the spontaneity of comedy instead to keep us amused. “What I love about stand-up is the immediacy of it. Having run the gamut of TV panel shows, after a while you know how to do them and they aren’t so much fun anymore.”

Known to millions for his appearances on QI, Stand Up for the Week and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, the master of observational irony obviously also needs to stretch his wings on stage.“Nowadays a lot of performers are simply acting out the role of comedian and going through the motions. They use a very predictable cadence of comedy – ‘here comes the punchline’. If you close your eyes, you can hear it coming. But in order to have a very individual way of saying things, you need to perfect that live.”

Of course, Rich is not that irate in reality – it is simply a persona he adopts for comic effect on stage: “It works because people know that I’m not really that angry. Anyone that angry should not be doing comedy. With my style of slow-burn comedy, the crowd know that you can’t be that worked up. The worst thing you can do is get really angry on stage. But I have a sort of deadpan Walter Matthau visage. People think, ‘This guy looks grumpy’, but that’s just how my face is put together. Your comic demeanour has to match your face. Most comedians fit their face.”

So why is it that us Brits dig Rich so much? “Well, British audiences are always very appreciative of the spoken word. But it’s more than that – people here also find it refreshing that I’m very detached from America. I’m not waving a flag or pretending that I’m hipper than you because I happen to be from the US. You get that a lot from American comedians.”

Rich also enjoys the fact that, “Brits like to insult you. Sometimes they come to the stage door after the show and say, ‘We really prefer Lee Mack.’ But I know the subtext – they must quite like me if they have waited in line to insult me!”

A show which wavers between ditties and improv is always going to be impossible to predict, especially as Rich loves audience interaction: “If you told me I would have to listen to anyone – apart from Richard Pryor – on stage for two hours, I’d think, ‘Oh God’. So it’s good to break up the show with musical interludes. But nothing is out of bounds,” he promises.

And with a new show to perform, the inspiration for the curmudgeonly barman Moe Szyslak in The Simpsons, says he is raring to go.

SEE IT
Rich Hall is at Oxford Playhouse tonight. Box office on 01865 305305 or book online at oxfordplayhouse.com