John Robins, comedian and Radio X host, who will soon be touring a live version of his podcast, has come a long way from his days commentating on karaoke nights at the St Anne’s college bar. Former Cherwell music editor and English graduate, his comedy has been influenced by his time at Oxford, making his act “more wordy than others,” with 19th century authors being used as reference points in his stand-up. His remarkable career and success in many aspects of the entertainment industry took him from the dreaming spires all the way to Mock the Week.
John’s enthusiasm for his Oxford years is clear from the start. He calls them “the best of times, the worst of times,” and excitedly tells me of his upcoming return for a pub crawl. I ask him if he thinks he made the right choice English at Anne’s. “It was the first thing in my life that I’ve been absolutely sure about, other than that Queen were the best band of all time.” He is hesitant, however, to broadcast the fact that he attended Oxford for fear that people may assume that this put him at an unfair advantage in the comedy world. In fact, the early days of his career were very different, “I sort of found it very difficult making that transition from college life to living in a city. I moved back to Bristol and I was working in Borders’ bookshop.” He continues, “so I went down to a local open mic night and just got up on stage because I used to host things in the bar at St Anne’s when I was at Oxford […] but I had never done stand up before.” John tells me that this was his pivotal moment. “A few months after that I found I enjoyed it so much that I quit my job in order to be able to not miss any gigs.” He says the need to earn was the big motivator in securing himself bookings and speaks of his “lonely Sundays of the soul” as his nerves for upcoming gigs overwhelmed him. This apprehension, clearly, has dwindled somewhat as he recently won a Chortle award for Best Compere.
John also, alongside being a successful stand-up comedian, is the co-host of the Elis James and John Robins show on Radio X. The tour of this show promises to be a resounding success, with some dates already sold out. John says he hopes that the show will not be “too loose” without their producers on hand but more like meeting a group of friends. That is what is most striking about this show and its podcast: the avid dedication of its followers. The fans, who refer to themselves as Podcast Devotees, have a Facebook fan page with well over 4,000 members and the podcast itself has its own merchandise. The unmistakably genuine friendship between Elis and John is surely part of this but we speak about another “point of difference” between their show and others. John is quite open about what he refers to as “the darkness” and his previous struggle with a gambling addiction. It is quite jarring to hear, as a listener, a presenter light-heartedly mention his struggle with mental illness but John believes this is important. “It’s normal. Everyone wakes up and feels shit some mornings or has a lonely evening of reflection and I think that’s part of existence so it doesn’t need to be turned into some kind of big deal. I think people [appreciate] hearing it referred to as off hand, just as if I got stuck in traffic.” It is not always appropriate, he jokes: “We’re lucky in the time that we’re on, if we were on the breakfast show I don’t think that would work, to sort of wake up the nation at 6am saying you feel like you want to kill yourself.” In the de-stigmatisation of mental health issues, John and his fans show this can be done in a friendly and often funny way
On a recent trip to Fringe to watch some of my more talented peers perform, I noticed the distinct need for originality just to get noticed amongst the swathes of similar acts. John insists that this has only happened over the past five to ten years and that there is a strong element of luck involved. “It’s not dissimilar to applying to Oxford,” he tells me. “I didn’t get in the first time I applied. Now, that doesn’t make me any thicker than I was a year later or any more intelligent. But it’s just, if you’ve got a thousand comedians and 500 hundred of them are good and 200 of them are very good and there are say 10 slots a year for new TV projects then that’s going to be 190 very good comedians who haven’t got anything out of it, but it doesn’t mean they’re any worse.” He adds, “it’s just the sheer volume of people, like in the same way as the volume of applicants for a good university. The people they turn down could still be world beaters.”
It is the love of the trade that keeps you motivated, he says, and there is nothing to gain from doing it for the fame. “There are no real shortcuts,” he insists, when starting a stand-up career. His advice to those who aspire to one day fill the Hammersmith Apollo is simple: “going and watching comedy as often as possible is important in finding out what you like and don’t like. And also talking to the people in and around the venues, the staff and the people who book it, just to find out how the mechanics of it all work.” From what I can tell, live and breathe comedy. And avoid karaoke night spoken-word renditions of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’; reviews by John’s university peers dubbed it “intense […] not in a good way”.
The Elis James and John Robins Experience runs from 7th Oct to 6th Nov
Elis and John are on Radio X from 1-4pm on Saturdays
