You're a Celeb, Get Me Out of Here
Working with famous folk on TV can be tricky for comedians.
It must be odd, suddenly making it big in the comedy business, be it via stand-up, YouTube or however people get famous these days. One minute you're making videos in your bedroom, or playing to six people and a dog (dogs love comedy) at a car-crash of a gig in the middle of nowhere; the next you're trying to converse with a random celeb on a panel or reality show, which is awkward if you've no idea who on earth they are.
These often eclectic TV line-ups have thrown up some memorable encounters over the years, as a comic who regularly rails against modern life comes up against someone who embodies it. It must be an interesting job, booking guests for those shows - if indeed that is a job. You wouldn't be surprised if the line-ups were randomly selected by some special gambling computer - the Celeblotto 1000 - which calculates the right amount of talent, wit and teeth to find the jackpot booking, then emails the agents directly. Or maybe the Rainbow Riches slot game on Jetbull casino could be programmed with panel show regulars, and pick six 'winners' each week.
Perhaps the most consistently bemused-looking comic in these panel show situations was Rufus Hound, on Celebrity Juice, a regular role that naturally resulted in lots of random celeb liaisons. As Hound explained on a hugely entertaining episode of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast back in 2013, he eventually left the show due to a blazing row with Kim Woodburn, the former How Clean is your House presenter, who is no stranger to TV aggro: last year she was escorted out of the Celebrity Big Brother house by security, and a few months back she stormed off Loose Women.
The Hound/Woodburn beef was edited out of the transmitted show, and Hound quit soon after, having felt unsupported by the producers. "What they never understood was, the thing I set out in comedy wasn't about being on a show like Celebrity Juice," Hound told Herring. Mind you, he's moved in a whole different direction since then, and is better known for big West End stage shows than stand-up nowadays.
That row happened after a gag from Hound went down badly, and it's not uncommon for comics and contestants to clash awkwardly when jokes aren't taken well: remember host Simon Astell causing Preston from the Ordinary Boys to storm off Never Mind The Buzzcocks in 2007, after banging on about his wife's book? Even the other comics thought that went a bit far. Team captain Noel Fielding eventually admitted that the show was struggling to book guests. "The problem is, I think Amstell ruined it for everyone," he said. "Everyone thinks they'll get ripped to shreds."
While shows like Buzzcocks and the old-style Mock The Week encouraged comics to be competitive and sometimes verbally aggressive, panel shows can also give you a more positive impression of a celeb. Anyone who braved Shooting Stars, for example, immediately won brownie points, especially if they mucked in with Vic & Bob's antics, although woe betide them if they tried to be funny themselves. This is a show with actual tumbleweeds in the wings, after all, ready to blow across stage whenever needed.
Appearing on challenging reality shows can also be a good bonding agent, for comics and other famous folk. A few years ago we talked to Marcus Brigstocke, shortly after he injured himself on the notoriously perilous winter sports show The Jump. Another contestant was the reality show star Amy Childs.
"She's really savvy," he recalled. "I spoke to Amy on the second day and I'd never seen TOWIE or anything like that, and she knew and understood that, she was pretty switched on. I'm really glad that I had a chance to be exposed to a bit of that. It's too easy, especially in comedy, to go 'look at these know-nothings'".
That's the reality.