ADAM RICHES would love to tell you what’s going to be in his forthcoming show, but even he’s not sure.
You see, it changes every day, depending on who is the audience and how they react to his set.
The Edinburgh Fringe award winner is about to make his tour debut and Reading’s South Street is one of the first places he’s heading to.
He’ll be coming on May 2, bringing his off-the-wall and absurd comedy that’s high on audience participation and plenty of laughs. Previous shows have involved games of swing ball and skateboard racing, so your guess is as good as Adam’s when it comes to his South Street set.
“It’s going to be a good time and a good show,” he says excitedly down the telephone line.
“It’s going to be big, it’s going to be broad and it’s going to be silly and there will be a communal sense of fun.”
He adds that there won’t be any political stuff and no edges to it, but it will be “just silly to make myself, and hopefully other people, laugh”.
“I do think it’s ever more important to find a communal space to come together, turn off the phone and sit down and relax and an hour and a half,” he says.
And the improvisation comes when he gets the audience to come along and join him on stage, something he’s been doing since his Edinburgh days.
“I know what I’ve got planned, I learn my lines,” he admits, but “If something comes up on stage within the realm it becomes greater. It could go right or not, if it doesn’t, I’ll guide it back.
“But there’s a trust there between the audience and the performer.”
Adam’s comedy involves him playing a range of characters – when he appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, he spent the entire show as a parody of Sean Bean, for example. But where does Adam stop and the characters begin?
“The characters are a form a therapy,” he jokes. “There’s lots of escapism in there. I can behave in a way I would never behave in real life, in the way they talk and act. It’s a bit like a holiday.”
And his characters are defined by his own comedic influences. As a boy, he grew up watching Leonard Rossiter as grumpy landlord Rigsby in the ITV sitcom Rising Damp, graduating to the Mike Myers and Bill Murray-influenced era of the long-running US sketch show Saturday Night Live.
“The style and performance of their characters [such as the Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World] I liked watching and playing,” he recalls.
Seeing Rising Damp revived as a one-off play made him think he could do the same.
“I wrote 60-70 one-off plays of varying quality,” he admits, spending seven or eight years creating a vast swathe of different characters, before honing them down.
This is the first time that Adam has been on tour, despite being a performer for more than 16 years. He scooped his Edinburgh honour in 2011 for his show Bring Me The Head of Adam Riches, which transferred to Soho. But now is the first time he’s decided to go round the country.
“Why has it taken so long is the eternal question,” he said. “It has many answers, but it just kind of fell into place.”
One of the reasons is that he didn’t originally see himself as a performer, but instead a writer of comedy shows, sketches and the like.
But the tour excites him: “A lot of places on the tour I’ve never been to before and I’m looking forward to seeing different parts of the country.”
Reading though is no stranger to him as his brother used to live here. He also remembers visiting the UK Wolf Conservation Trust where he once stroked a wolf. He’s hoping that there will be the chance for a reunion if the trust books front row seats for the wolves.
Although he’s teetotal, he might even visit The Purple Turtle when he’s in Reading: “I have a pet tortoise, so I might bring it and say hi to the bar,” he jokes.
The touring life will give him some energy too: “The shows have a different element each night. The shape of the rooms, some will be bigger, some will be smaller, all change the show for me, as we try and make it fit and make it work. That show, in that room with that audience on that particular night…”
It sounds like the stars will align and the comedy gods will smile. And no doubt, once Adam takes his curtain call, be laughing loudly too.
The Adam Riches Experience will be at South Street Arts Centre in Reading on Thursday, May 2. The show is suitable for ages 16 upwards. Tickets cost £14. For more details, or to book, call 0118 960 6060 or log on to www.readingarts.com
