Good News! Russell Howard is in Dubai

HE IS A family man (and by that we mean he often draws on his mum and brother's everyday lives for material), he's socially conscious with his own BBC programme Good News highlighting the state of the world in an amusing and informative way; but most importantly comedian Russell Howard is simply tremendously funny. And that's why we're happy to have him for a three-night sell-out stint at the Dubai College Auditorium starting tonight.
Shooting to fame on BBC2's panel show Mock the Week, Russell has been a UK household name for the best part of a decade. His popularity is now so bankable that during this latest tour - Round The World - he has been able to perform across the globe, mixing 10,000 seat mega venues with more intimate gigs from country to country.
 
Have you ever been to Dubai before? What do you think of the place?
My brother and I came years ago for a holiday together but his appendix burst during the trip. So my main memory is there is this amazing hospital which gave him a DVD of the operation. We were supposed to swim with dolphins together at the Atlantis, but he couldn't after the operation. I snuck away and did it on my own. He still doesn't know I did it. So, I had a smashing time. I didn't have to hang out with him.

What have you got in store for the gig?
It changes wherever I go. I did this same show in England and it changed as the tour progressed. As the world changes, so does the material. Even here the show we do on the Thursday will be different to the one on the Saturday.

Will the snap UK election decision make an appearance?
It's a big thing that's just happened in England, so I'm thinking about it. It's a strange thing with politics throughout the world.it's a fascinating time to be a standup because every one of us is looking up at Trump doing these things and in England we have such a paucity of leaders. I like looking at these people and trying to figure it out.

Do you think comedy can influence people's politics?
The show I did in England, there were a lot of heavy topics out there. People are tuned into the world more than they have ever been. I actually did a lot about self- harm. One in four girls in England aged 16-25 self-harm. It blew my mind. It's so sad. So I had a chat about it on stage and people responded well to a topic like that being highlighted. I use things like that to show that people like Theresa May cuddling up to Donald Trump saying she's going to fix the economy isn't the issue. She has to fix the country.
Do people ever take the hard-hitting stuff the wrong way?
It's very often that the people offended by comedy are the people who weren't there. They've read the subsequent articles and thought, 'that's bad.' The media may say 'Frankie Boyle said this,' or 'Ricky Gervais did that.' They get tidbits that are designed to keep them angry.

What have you got coming up after this tour?
Good News is back on after the election, so I'll see what happens there. And I'll be doing a Netflix special. The reason why it's good to travel is because you have these different experiences from all over the world and, for Netflix I can use those to make the show globally appealing.
On a recent fight that broke out in the audience at one of Russell's Glasgow gigs...
"What was funny was, there was this massive kerfuffle. I asked what was going on and this guy screamed out "I'm having a fight!" He was commentating on his own brawl. I've never been more English. I was told to carry on and I just did. I worked the fight into the routine. It was so funny to me. That's the kind of world I live in. It's this silly thing that happened but suddenly there were news articles about it. My sister text me asking if I was okay because she'd heard I had to stop a fight. The story has escalated to the point that I probably jumped into the crowd with a pair of nunchucks!"
david@khaleejtimes.com