TOM Houghton is set to return to Reading as part of his new tour, It’s Not Ideal.
It comes hot on the heels of last year’s tour, which, among other things, dealt with his appearance on reality TV show The Circle.
It led to a new wave of audiences at his shows and a doubling of the number of originally planned tour dates as it kicked off right here in Reading.
And while he said at the time he was overjoyed at being in demand, it also took its toll on him as a performer.
He says: “After a bit of a tough time, I found myself becoming a bit more aware of the issues I needed to deal with and address.
“And that was set alongside some big turning points for the country, such as the passing of the late Queen.
“She was a real figurehead, so it was a monumental moment in our nation’s history which affected many people in ways they didn’t realise.”
So his latest show, he says: “Is about coming to terms with the reality of your own situation, addressing your shortcomings, and becoming something better on more positive in the future.”
Following his appearance on the show he said he noticed a huge jump in the number and diversity of his audiences.
“You do get a different type of audience, which is very interesting to deal with.
“Those who started to come and see me were seemingly less of a traditional comedy audience, and perhaps younger.
“It was a marked difference from when, say, I was supporting Milton Jones, who draws more of a family audience.”
Which, he explains, has helped him develop as a performer.
“But that wider variety of people is great– it’s lovely to see as a performer, but also it means I can talk about a broader range of topics, and that naturally happens as you grow as a comic.
“I think when you first start touring, you talk a lot about yourself, you have that inward perspective.
“Once you establish that, you have to make a shift into how you view the exterior, which ends up being much more exciting.
“But it also means people tend to disagree with you more, and that’s quite important for a stand-up.”
He frames comedy as either a discourse tackling social issues and life more generally, or a break from it.
“It can be many things, but it generally falls into two brackets: there’s escapism, which can be purely silly fun which helps you forget about real life, and I think of Milton as one of the comics who is kind of in that category.
“And then there’s revealing the truth about life, where you tackle things more philosophically.”
“But there’s no one way to do it– if you want to grow, you have to constantly keep pushing yourself.”
Tom says his increased exposure also comes with some more curious trappings– in his last show, he spoke about how photos of him sunbathing found their way to a niche website for admirers of feet.
“People can make a killing off of that sort of thing, but I did also get employed as a sock model a few weeks ago, so I must be the sexiest man in Britain from the ankle down.
“My DMs exploded– and it wasn’t Swedish bikini models who were interested, it was older men.
“But I suppose admiration is admiration.”
The majority of the responses to his work, however, is more typical and more gratifying, he explains.
“One of the nicest things about last year’s show was the response to me speaking about mental health.
“Speaking as a man from a privileged background, who on paper seemingly doesn’t have anything to complain about, I was struggling a lot.
“But the amount of times that I had messages from men struggling to speak about their own mental health, or from their partners.”
This included a woman in her 80s, who said to Tom following his show that her husband had opened up about his mental health for the first time in 40 years.
“So you should never underestimate who you can connect with, what people are going through, and the power that being honest about oneself can have.
“It’s a very freeing art form, stand-up, you really can go anywhere.
“And the response is involuntary– you laugh or you don’t– and that’s an undeniable unification of the audience and the performer.”
Humour is also an acute communication of humanity between speaker and listener, he says.
“One of the biggest issues people have with politicians is how inhuman they can seem.
“So if there’s ever a debate, the person who makes the audience laugh inevitably tends to win over.
“It’s an incredibly powerful tool in that regard.”
And he is aware of how carefully that power should be wielded, especially in an age where many feel they have to be selective about what they say.
“You can talk about anything– it’s just about how you do it.
“Personally, the sort of comics who say ‘you can’t say anything’ are typically not very skilled comics.
“Often it means that the jokes are bad, and the topic is being handled crudely.”
As for whether he feels he has to ‘monitor’ his own material: “I’m not known for being a particularly ‘edgy’ comedian, but I do talk about all sorts of things; abuse, social tensions, mental health.
“But I do it in a more subtle way, and there are those who do so in a not-so-subtle way, but still handle it well and get away with it.
“So it’s a bit of a myth, frankly, that you can’t talk about certain things.”
He muses on an encounter he had while touring with Milton Jones: “We met in the bar afterwards, and we were chatting to these women who worked in corporate.
“And they were explaining that there was a lot of red tape and worry.”
He also recounts a conversation between him and his father, a retired officer in the British Army and former Chief of Defence Staff.
“All the army officers have all of their pronouns on their badges, which he said he’d never have imagined.
“So corporate sounds like a tougher place for watching what you say; comedy by comparison has so much freedom.”
And this is touched upon in his new show: “There’s a bit about realising as a straight, white man that I have the most options for being offensive in the world.
“And learning as I get older how to be more careful.
“Opinions are a bit like erections: when I was younger I would have opinions about everything– nowadays my opinions aren’t quite as good as I thought they were.”
As for what can be expected from It’s Not Ideal:
“I have a prediction about the future of the monarchy which features in the show, and when we might see our first openly gay monarch.”
Tom Houghton’s live stand-up tour, It’s Not Ideal, comes to Reading’s South Street Arts Centre on Friday, April 19.
It is also showing in Oxford in February and Bracknell in April.
Full details and tickets are available via: whatsonreading.com
