Comedian Josh Widdicombe tells Katherine MacAlister he’s raring to go on the stand-up scene again after taking a breather to pen a sitcom

It seems apt that my interview with Josh Widdicombe is farcical from the word go.

He has just conducted an entire conversation with someone he thought was me, where he waxed lyrical about kicking off his new his tour in Oxford and how much he loves it here, only to find at the end that the journalist in question was from Telford.

‘What must they have thought?’ I wonder aloud. “That I love Oxford and am very excited about opening there,” Josh replies, howling with laughter.

It’s nice to talk to him again. Last time around he was in the middle of a mammoth tour while juggling TV shows and was quite tired. So he took a year off, staying at home and writing a sitcom, taking a break from stand-up and recharging his batteries.

Not that you’d know from his frequent appearances on TV shows such as Jimmy Carr’s Countdown, but he promises he’s had a good rest and is now raring to go with his new show Where Do I Go Now? opening at Oxford’s Playhouse on Wednesday.

So does he feel rested? “I feel like I’ve been working all the time, I just haven’t been touring, but yes I feel refreshed and it reminds you why you do it in the first place.

“Because this is the first time I’ve been good at a job. I was a terrible as a journalist, and when I worked in a shop. I never really nailed it until now.

“And the strange thing about comedy is that the better known you become, the easier things get. It’s not like an early comedy gig I played in 2008 when the people in the front row sat with their backs to me while they waited for Kevin Bridges to come on.”

What did he do? “Well I didn’t have the condidence in those days that I have now, so I just battled on,” he remembers. “But yes it was a painful experience, but the further up you get, the easier the comedy becomes because people know what you are about.”

They’ll know much more soon because the sitcom Josh has been writing over the past year, Last Leg is airing on Channel 4 in November on BBC3, in which Josh plays....himself. “It’s about my life four to five years ago when I shared a house and was trying to make it as a comedian and my audiences were full of stag parties,” he explains.

“I just wanted to make comedy more accessible, and my ascent has been very gradual, there wasn’t a gig that changed everything. Things just got easier and better over time.”

So what was it like playing a version of himself? “It took a lot of effort actually because I never set out to be an actor, so it was fun and weird and a great experience. But then I got into stand-up because I loved sitcoms, so if it’s a meagre hit that will do.

“But while it’s been very rewarding, now I’m back to stand up, so the new show is just me grumbling really, not about my work, but just day-to-day stuff.

“And having sat down with lots of ideas and spent six months crafting them into a show, I’m really excited about the first gig in Oxford.

“You don’t realise how much you’ve missed it until now, so I can’t wait for Oxford”

Is that what he told the man from Telford? “Yup”

SEE IT

  • Josh Widdicombe brings his new show Where Do I Go Now? to the Oxford Playhouse on Wednesday. 01865 305305 or see oxfordplayhouse.com
  • He also plays Cheltenham Town Hall on September 24 as part of the Cheltenham Comedy Festival. The Cheltenham Comedy Festival also features Mark Thomas, Mark Watson, Mitch Benn, Arthur Smith and many more. For details and tickets go to cheltenhamcomedy.com