Tom Stade Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.

Tom Stade

The Eighth Womble?

Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.

“Nothing says I love you like Wireless Beats Headphones!”

Every great Christmas party should have a comedian and this year, it is our honour to welcome to the stage a man who has been out on comedy’s frontline making people laugh for over thirty years, the legendary Tom Stade!

Having first made a name for himself with his irrepressible sense of mischief, Rock ‘n’ Roll swagger and knack for fitting more hilarious anecdotes into one show than many comedians manage during a whole tour on the comedy circuit of his native Canada, Stade has been making British audiences laugh since 2001, when he moved from Vancouver to Edinburgh, home of the world famous Festival. Since then, as well as touring the country virtually non-stop, just some of the exhaustive list of TV shows he has appeared on include BBC One’s ‘Live at the Apollo’, ‘The John Bishop Show’, ‘Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow’; ‘Lee Mack’s All Star Cast’ and ‘Mock the Week’; Channel 4’s ‘Comedy Gala’ and ‘Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights’ (which he also co-wrote); Dave’s ‘One Night Stand’; Comedy Central’s ‘The Comedy Star’ and ITV2’s ‘Comedy Cuts’.

Two years ago, following a near sell out appearance at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival, Stade hit the road with his new show, entitled ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’. Unfortunately, not many people did get to see anything because, along with those from every other performer, his tour was put on the back burner whilst the world dealt with the seismic effects of pandemic. One might have imagined that lockdown would have been a shock to the system of this devout party animal, but instead, his coping strategy was just as unique as his on stage antics. Appalled by the amount of litter that he saw whilst walking his dog in the local park, he went on a clean up mission, collecting a full bag every day for thirty days and only taking to social media to report on his progress.

With the ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ tour now back in full swing in a very different world to the one in

which it started two years ago, I rang the newly appointed eighth Womble whilst (fittingly for an issue with a distinct holiday theme) he was taking a few days off for a well-earned holiday in Weston-super-Mare with his wife Trudy.

“I’m always good, Alice!”, he replies when I ask how he is doing. “You can’t take these things too seriously, Alice! It’s been working for me so far! I’m just going to grab my coffee and sit out on the balcony while I’m talking to you, with my cigarettes and enjoy the lovely scenery”, he says. “We’re in Weston-super-Mare, so I’ve got a nice little beach view, so this feels right to me! We had time off during the tour, so me and my lovely lady, we like to go to places that we’ve never been before. We just sort of rent a room or whatever there and get the feeling of what the town’s like. So, we’re here until Friday. So far it’s a really nice town, it’s really beautiful actually, you know. I think it’s fabulous. Plus, the guy we rented the place off, he did the place up, he renovated this whole thing and it’s a nice little relaxing place. You kind of need it after you’ve been touring! You need to take a while to stop thinking about comedy to actually look at life for what it is! [Laughs].”

So, scene set and hot beverages ready, we began an interview that would prove to include nearly as many punchlines as his stand up shows.

Firstly, hello Tom and thank you for agreeing to our interview, it is lovely to speak to you. Let’s start at the here and now, because from 19th November, you will be back out on the road for another eight dates of the ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ tour. This latest tour was put on hold because of the pandemic, but we believe that you spent that time on a clean up mission in your local park. Could you tell us a bit about this?

My pleasure, Alice, my pleasure! Well, it’s kind of funny. I was just trying to

find things to do and where we live, there’s like a McDonald’s and all that. There were all the McDonald’s wrappers and candy bar wrappers. I would take my dog just for a walk and then I figured, I’ve got all these plastic bags. You know how you have all the plastic bags under your kitchen cupboard there? There was just so many of them, so everyday, I took the dog for a walk and I would take one of them and just start filling it up, you know. Just as I was walking along, I would just pick up little things and then when we were done with the walk, I would end up just throwing it in the garbage and that just sort of stuck, because it was a making me feel really good, [laughs] like I was doing something for the world, my own little piece. But, it was just a little something that started that I kind of kept going. So, everytime I took my dog Lewie for a walk, I would grab a plastic bag and when I was walking in a field somewhere, if I saw any garbage, I would just pick it up and yeah, [laughs] that’s what I did! You know, you can’t go to pubs, you can’t go to work, you might as well pick up the garbage! [Laughs].

That’s amazing, we should all do that!

Well, I remember when we were kids, when we were in Canada and we had ‘garbathons’, where before the garbathon, I would go and knock on peoples’ houses and ask them to pledge how many bags of garbage I could get [laughs], so it sort of brought back that feeling, except without the money! [Laughs].

Did you have the Wombles over in Canada? Because they were into collecting litter. If not, you should look them up after this!

The Wombles? No, we did not. Oh, okay, well, then they’re in good company! [Laughs]. I will check it out, Alice [laughs], that will be my first thing! The Wombles! [Laughs].

Has this diversifying into Wombling in any way influenced the material

that we will be seeing in the current live shows and what else is making you tick as a comedian at the moment?

Hhhmmm, I don’t know if it really inspired comedy! [Laughs]. As I was picking up wrappers, it inspired my anger to the point of ‘Why can’t these guys throw out a Quarter Pounder Cheese Big Mac box?’ [Laughs]. Chuck it out the window ... but, you know I don’t think it inspired the comedy. I mean, definitely, when I was out there, your mind wanders and all that sort of stuff and that. Right now, I guess it’s all the change in the comedy community, I guess, would be the most interesting thing I have seen, like a whole new generation of comedians, the whole new way of thinking and all that sort of stuff. And being in my fifties and doing comedy for thirty years, you know, I’m always hoping to change and all that sort of stuff, but how to change, I’m not too sure yet. You know, I don’t want to be a dinosaur or anything, but the problem is, is that whenever you have new things, if you’re a younger person, you don’t have the same history as I have. So, you know, you’re trying to piece it together if it’s right or if it’s wrong, whereas if you’re a new comedian, you know, it’s just right. It’s just the world we live in, you know. So, it feels like I’m trying to navigate myself through this new world that we’re living in and still trying to keep true to myself too, you know. Because, you know, to me, this is like the Millennials’ world, just like it was my world back in the ‘80s and ‘90s and it was changing for other people then and either they changed with it or they sort of got left behind and now I seem to be in the position of the people I once criticised, you know. So, it’s interesting. It’s definitely an interesting and exciting time to be a comedian, because, you know, you can’t just rest on your laurels, you’ve got to see it for what it is and move with it. You know, that’s what’s really kind of on my mind lately.

Can we go right back to the beginning and ask how you first came to take to the stage as a

comedian and your memories of that night?

Woah, Jesus, that’s going back! That’s going back to the ‘80s! ... Hold on, I need to eat a Rennie, because I ate a Sainsbury’s Shepherds Pie and that ain’t going down so good with me! ... Well, one thing I knew is, I was going to be an entertainer, Alice. I didn’t know what. I was pretty sure it was going to be acting and when I was really young, when I look back on it, my dad was a big comedy fan, but, you know, back in the ‘70s, that wasn’t really a thing, more being an actor was a thing. But I do remember, all through the ‘70s, my dad playing comedy albums and then even in the ‘80s, we’d always listen to cassette tapes of, you know, Sam Kinison’s and records of all these guys. But I never really thought about it until I got to Vancouver and I was doing a bunch of auditions as an actor and then I went down to, I’ll never forget, it was Punchlines in Gastown in Vancouver and I met a good friend there that was doing comedy. And I think my financial situation had something to do with it too, because, you know, with acting, unless you get the role, you really don’t get paid. And so, he told me, you know, ‘If you’re a comedian and you get any good, you can be going out and doing gigs and stuff’. So I thought, ‘well, if I became a comedian and did gigs and stuff, then I could use that instead of being a waiter’, you know. So, I didn’t have to be a waiter and I could write and perform and script-change my own material all the time and so I started doing that and, I don’t know, I just fell in love with it. The acting, we were good at it ... ‘we’? What am I, schizophrenic?! [Laughs]. I was really good at it, but it turned out, I really fell in love with the freedom of comedy and the fact that, you know, you could change lines mid-stream, you got to write your own thoughts down and most of all, you got to see people laughing, which is, you know ... there’s a lot of joys in this world, but I’m pretty sure making somebody laugh is definitely in the top ten, you know.

It is a gift, isn’t it?

Yeah, and, you know, plus the kind of comedy I was into was always risqué and dangerous. Because, I know there’s lots of different kinds of comedians. You know, there’s the comedians you could sit down with the grandmother and grandchild and watch, but I was more adult about it! [Laughs]. If you want to bring your grandkids, I’ll tell them a couple of swearwords! [Laughs].

When you were starting out as a comedian, did you have any comedy heroes that you aspired to be as great as and why?

Oh yeah, of course, I think everybody has. I know over here would have probably been Billy Connolly and Ben Elton and all those guys, but we were never really exposed to them. Like, I remember listening to George Carlin and Richard Pryor, that’s the only thing to say, but I didn’t really start getting it ... because I was too young at that time and I was sort of listenting to it with my dad and I thought it was funny and I can still do George Carlin’s ‘AM & FM’ [1972] album pretty much word for word and it made my dad laugh. But, later on, for me, it was probably around ‘84 when I really got into it and I really started listening to Sam Kinison and your wonderful Bill Hicks there and, oh God, who else was there? There was even the silly ones, like Emo Philips was a good one. Because we would get them when we would rent from whatever video store and they would have all the stand-up comics and that was just a new thing coming out back then, you know. I really do remember like, probably Sam Kinison made me laugh the hardest. I just loved his fearlessness. And I can also remember Robin Williams being a big one, you know, because when we were younger ... forgive me, you probably don’t want to write this down ... we would find a secluded spot and hotbox the car [laughs] and just turn on Robin Williams and Sam Kinison and just laugh our guts out in the car while we’re a little bit high, but doing alright! [Laughs].

Could you talk us through how you

go about writing the material that appears in your performances? Is there a general process to it?

Well, that’s an interesting one. I think, first of all, you need inspiration. Like, a lot of people sit down and, you know, go ‘Okay, I’m going to write a joke about a radiator’, ‘I’m going to write a joke about dog’, or something like that. I mean, there’s that part of it too, you can do that, but I find the process that I have is, I need an inspiration. Maybe it’s at a party, maybe it’s from a conversation, you know, maybe it’s something from just I was walking around and seeing something. You know, I can’t really dip down and pick the topic that I’m going to talk about, but once I do have that inspiration, I like to get into my kitchen, where I have my big whiteboard, and I’ll start writing on that and I’ll piece something together or move things around, how I want to see them, and then I’ll put it away for about a week or two and come back and look at it with some fresh eyes and all that stuff. And, most of the time, I just need to have the material in front of me, so that’s why the whiteboard is so important to me, because I’ll always go in in the morning ... and the kitchen is the best place. You’re just waking up, you’re making coffee and there’s no one to think about and then you just look at the whiteboard with all your silly little ideas and you think ‘oh, I know, that could go there, or that could go there’ and once you’ve got a rudimentary joke together, you can go and bring it to some sort of new material night, you know, or whatever and then you can flounder through it. You know, you normally don’t get it right the first time. I mean, some of the time, the hardest thing is just to say it out loud, you know, because what’s in your head and what’s actually going on on stage are two different things, man! [Laughs]. Yeah, Alice, so that’s pretty much how I do it and then once I’ve got a nice piece that I’m comfortable with and I know where the laughs are, then it usually grows from there, because you’ve got a little bit of confidence in them. So, I guess it goes from inspiration to thought to confidence to

actually being a joke.

Having started your career over in Vancouver, how did you come to live in the UK and is there a distinct difference between British and Canadian audiences?

Hhhmmm! Well, okay, I came over to the UK because a friend of mine [fellow Canadian comedian Craig Campbell] recommended it. They said, ‘They would love you in the UK, Tom, they would really love you’. And, you know, I had no idea of what the comedy circuit was, and this is going back to ... I want to say 2003/2004 maybe. So, there was this big comedy scene going on at the time with glee clubs and comedy stores and it was more than I had ever seen in Canada. You know, because Canada is a big, big country and they have the big cities, but it was nothing like doing five gigs a night. Do you know what I mean? Not only just five gigs, but the time was shorter. In Canada, when you did a headline spot ... well, it wasn’t really, you could be an MC, you could be an opener, you could be a middle or you could be a headliner, but headliners would do 45minutes and over here, it’s only 20minutes and for more money than the 45minutes! [Laughs]. And so I came over here for about two months, I guess, and that was in ... that might have even been before. It might have been around 2001 or 2002, the first time. Anyway, then I came back and on my email, all the bookers that had seen me had emailed me dates and it was the first time I’d seen anything where I was booked like six months in advance! In Canada, we were booked maybe a month in advance, a month and a half. And because I’d married my lovely Trudy, who is really the brains of this whole operation and I’m just the silly dummy hanging off the side [laughs] ... but, she was an English citizen, because her parents were British. And I didn’t marry her because of that, Alice! [Laughs]. The UK wasn’t even in my sights, but it was just a nice happy accident! So, yeah, when we saw that, we decided, ‘Well, let’s just go over to England, because I can get my leave to remain card slash

passport, and we’ll go over there and see if it’s all it’s cracked up and we’ll go and live there for a year’ and a year became two and two became three and now I just ... I haven’t even been back there, I don’t even know what’s going on in Canada! I love this country too much! I feel like the UK left me on the doorstep in Canada and then I just came home! [Laughs]. And there is a big difference between British and Canadian audiences. Well, not a big one, but Canada is a little ... I’m going to say this and this is a generalisation, okay, it’s not true of everyone, because there is obviously exceptions to everything, but Canada is a little more polite, you know, a little more ... you know, they don’t like the darker kind of comedy. Unless they decide who’s saying it. Do you know what I mean? But, in general, they’re more into cleaner kind of comedy, you know. Which is fine, it just doesn’t suit my style, whereas I find the UK ... I don’t know so much anymore, but for my fans anyways, the UK likes a little bit of edge and a little bit of darkness to their comedy. At least my fans do. Do you know what I mean? The people that come and see me enjoy the ‘Ooh, risqué, man!’, or ‘You can’t say that!’ But comedy club is the place for ‘You can’t say that!’ You know, that’s what it should be. Like, I wouldn’t say the stuff that I say up on stage in front of your grandmother, like at Christmas dinner, but if granny shows up in the front row, well, let’s talk about her tits! [Laughs].

For somebody who may have never witnessed a Tom Stade show, what can your audiences expect and what do you feel sets your shows apart from those by other comedians?

Hhhhmmm, well, they definitely can expect a certain bit of edge to it. And when I say that, I’m not lying, because the thing is, I can turn it around and be TV-friendly and clean at any time. Do you know what I mean? It’s more of a preference for me. So, they can expect a little bit of bite, a little bit of edge, a little bit of ‘Ooh, that’s naughty!’, or you know, they might even feel comfortable uncomfortable, if that

makes sense? And I don’t know if it sets me apart from other comedians still, because there’s just so many different styles out there that I don’t think you can compare one comedian to another, because it’s just so subjective to who the comedian is and who you are and to where you are. You know, there’s just too many factors, I think. I would assume anyway. But, you know, if you come to Tom’s stage, you know it’s going to be different from Michael McIntyre’s. You know, I don’t think Michael McIntyre’s going to be railing on about abortion any time soon! [Laughs]. Like, he’s not going to poke fun at it [laughs], because, you know, he’s cultivated his fanbase, but what he is, he’s just as good at what he’s passionate about in the same way as I’m good at what I’m passionate about. And plus, there’s room for every kind of comedian. You know, you don’t have just one band that you like and all the others are horrible. You know, sometimes maybe you want to hear a bit of Pop music and then ‘Oh my God, I feel a little angry, let’s go and hear some Punk! Let’s go and rock out to some Punk music!’ So that would be a nice little comparison, you know. I’m more ‘dirty Grunge Rock ‘n’ Roll’! [Laughs]. Yeah, especially with my Michael Jackson paedo joke! [Laughs]. It’s not going to make it on the BBC, but in a sleazy little comedy club, it’ll stand the test of time!

I was actually going to ask you about your music taste, because as well as obviously being a comedy fan, we assume you are also a music fan. So, could you talk us through your record collection and what you are currently enjoying listening to?

Oh yeah! Well, I don’t know whether I say this, but right now, a friend of mine is in a band called Kasabian and I went to one of their concerts. Me and my wife got tickets and I went to one of their concerts and I really fell in love with them. I fucking ... they were absolutely brilliant. And it was without Tom [Meighan] of all people, so I didn’t really see the original Kasabian, I was actually witnessing the new Kasabian, which was exciting, and I

Tom with Jimeoin and Jason Manford on the set of ‘Live at the Apollo’ (BBC)

was absolutely blown away by them! But they hit the genre of music that I like, you know. Oh God, what’s the one band that I absolutely love right now? Just a second ... The Glorious Sons! Oh, ‘Sawed Off Shotgun’ [‘Young Beauties and Fools’, 2017] is absolutely fabulous! I really started liking ... oh God, what’s that guy’s name ... because what they are, they’re in the genre of my favourite ‘90s ... Pearl Jam, Nirvana and all that stuff, which I would like to think was the voice of the generation that I was hanging out with, even though there were lots of different voices, you know. You know, I wasn’t hating on Notorious B.I.G. either, I thought he was pretty great! And, you know, you had Matchbox Twenty and all those guys. So, that was then and now, I love The Glorious Sons and there’s a Rappy kind of guy named Grandson that I really dig ... “And I will not apologise!” [‘Apologize’, ‘A Modern Tragedy Vol. 2’, 2019] [Laughs]. But then my girl, she loves Country music, do you know what I mean? So, I like a guy named Sturgill Simpson and the reason I like

Tom with Michael McIntyre. Photograph by Ellis O’Brien

him is because he did a Country version of a song by Nirvana called ‘In Bloom’ [original featured on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, 1991 and covered by Simpson on ‘A Sailor’s Guide to the Earth’, 2016] and it was amazing! Sturgill Simpson’s version of ‘In Bloom’, it’s crazy! The ones in the genre of Rock ‘n’ Roll are the ones that I really like, but then again, you know, same as comedy, there’s all these fringe guys, you know. I may not love them, but they’ve got one hell of a good song that I’ll listen to! That’s where I’m at, Alice! [Laughs].

We have obviously seen you treading the boards on television many a time over the course of your thirty-year career, with just some memorable appearances including BBC One’s ‘Live at the Apollo’, ‘The John Bishop Show’, ‘Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow’; ‘Lee Mack’s All Star Cast’ and ‘Mock the Week’; Channel 4’s ‘Comedy Gala’ and ‘Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights’ (which you also co-wrote); Dave’s ‘One Night Stand’; Comedy

Central’s ‘The Comedy Star’ and ITV2’s ‘Comedy Cuts’. Are there any television appearances that you would consider to be highlights of your career?

Oh! Well, I think in Canada, it was ... the first time I ever got on TV was a highlight with a show called ‘[Comedy at] Club 54’ [1990-2001, now airing in syndicated re-runs on the CTV Comedy Channel]. It was really the first time that I did stand up and got invited back, so I did about four or five of those, which was a highlight because the first time you ever get on TV, it’s so exciting. You don’t know if you’re going to be a big star or anything, you’re just happy that you’ve done so much work that you’ve beat out a bunch of other comics to get onto a provincial, maybe national, TV show that like gets syndicated or something. Then, I think, the first special for the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] was next and then we got our first Comedy Channel special and then that was where everything kicked off. And then, from that point on, all of a sudden, my good friend Michael McIntyre put me on his ‘Roadshow’ [‘Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow’, BBC One] and then life changed after that. That was where I performed the ‘Meat Van’ joke and it was like a hit song, like millions and millions and millions of people know it, man! Every now and then, you stumble on to a lottery win and I guess that was the one! And then I did the few ‘Apollos’ [‘Live at the Apollo’, BBC One]. Each one of them was really good, they were really, really funny and then you did all the little fringey things for a little while. But those three are the main ones, I think, because the way I look at it, it was like Richard Pryor. You never saw all his shows, you only saw him at his best. You know, so, for the course of years and years and years, those three shows are me at my best, so I never died! Do you know what I mean? Which is the nature of the beast [laughs], to tell you the truth!

This interview will be in our Christmas issue, so we were wondering, what does Christmas mean to you and is it a time of year that you manage to draw any inspiration from for your comedy?

Well, Christmas is a big deal. And I’m not a religious person, by any stretch of the imgaination, that’s just something in me. But, what I do love is, as for a holiday, it’s at least one of those things where at least you get to see your family again. You know, it’s a really nice excuse for everyone to get together under really great terms, where you ply them with gifts and appreciating who they are. Do you know what I mean? In a way, you want them to smile and you want to tell them that you love them and all that stuff, you know, by buying them Beats Headphones! Nothing says I love you like Wireless Beats Headphones! Maybe this

Christmas I will be inspired to write something, or maybe I’ll just be inspired by hanging out with my family. I couldn’t go that far ahead. I don’t think there’s going to be anything, but I definitely enjoy the excuse to all get together, because it’s one of the only holidays that does that.

Finally, just because I have always wanted to ask this, what is the essence of comedy?

What is the essence of comedy? Oh my God, there’s probably so many answers to that! [Laughs]. Okay, okay, the essence of comedy, beyond stand up, beyond professional, you know, just basic grassroots to you hanging out with your friends making them laugh or they making you laugh, is ... the essence is to be able to relate a human experience of yours that they can see themselves in. I think that would be an okay answer! I don’t know if my teacher would give me an A-plus for that! I think that is the essence, because with every great joke, every great funny thing anyone’s said either professional or non-professional, you have to relate and see yourself in. You know, you can appreciate intelligent comedy, you can appreciate all comedy, but the stuff that really makes you belly laugh is the stuff that ... ‘Remember when you did that, Al?’ It’s your joke, but they’ve just rewritten it with you in it. So, I think that would probably be the essence of comedy, where the other stuff can grow out of that, maybe. Oh my God, did I just say that?! [Laughs].

That is an incredible answer! Thank you so much for a great interview, it has been lovely to talk to you. We wish you all the best for your upcoming tour dates and for the future.

Oh, Alice, I hope this was a good interview!

For all upcoming tour dates and other news, please visit the links below.

tomstade.com

www.facebook.com/ TomStade