Tom Simons, AKA TommyInnit, on his journey into stand-up comedy

Written by: Kat Mokrynski
Published: Thursday 13th March 2025

After several successful tours as a YouTuber, Tom Simons - also known as TommyInnit - is touring his first ever stand-up comedy show this year. TommyInnit: The Survival Tour is based on his new book, TommyInnit's Guide to Survival, which will be released in April. This tour promises "TommyInnit as you've never seen him before," with Simons splitting the show into two, with one half being stand-up comedy and the other half involving a special guest interviewing Simons about his book.

Recently we had the chance to speak with Simons about his tour. We discussed how he first got started in the world of comedy, what his creative process has been like for The Survival Tour, how his stand-up career has influenced his YouTube videos, and more.

So starting with a bit of a general question, how did you first get started in the world of comedy?

Growing up... Sorry, I might have gone too far back there! [Laughs]

My parents, every night, would put on a sitcom - Parks And Recreation, Community; American sitcoms. And then, when I got to about eighteen, I was very confused at [the fact that] this isn't the thing that absolutely everyone does. So I always enjoyed it. But then in my YouTube channel, I naturally started making more funny videos, and then was like, "Oh, this is the best!" And then started doing stand-up and was like, "Yes!"

What was it like going from filming YouTube videos to doing stand-up?

So, before I did stand-up, I did two years of touring as a YouTuber. That show was almost like a play, this crazy thing. And that first show I did at the Brighton Dome was like... You shit yourself, really! [Laughs] It really puts everything into perspective. It was the most amazing, euphoric feeling.

I was a bit of a lockdown kid, so now to be having the most real-world connection you can have, it was the best. Hearing people actually laughing when you say a joke instead of just typing "hahahahaha" was quite a different energy!

And so your current tour is The Survival Tour. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Yeah, definitely! This tour all came about from my book. Last year I had a bit of a difficult year, but I also already wanted to write this book about how to survive purely based on bad advice from a twenty year-old. So I wrote this book last year, and then I got the opportunity to do a tour off the back of it. So this tour, the first half is scripted comedy mixed with stand-up, and then the second half is a YouTube guest interview that's still got the comedy. Lots of those bits from the stand-up are in that as well.

And what's the creative process like for a show like this where you're splitting it in half with a scripted Q&A?

Well, it's been a lot of sitting down with my dad and drawing on whiteboards and being like, "Yeah, this works." It was a lot of finding out those staple ideas.

I have a joke in my stand-up set where I give the audience member a script, and then I get them to read from this script. Then I came up with the idea for the main show - what if I get the YouTuber to read a script the whole time, so they have to say whatever I want them to? So it's been like writing that and figuring out, "What can I make them say before their agent would go, 'What the hell?'"

And then I've done the stand-up circuit for the past year. And the process for that has been writing stuff and then performing it, and then going, "Okay, all of that didn't work, except one bit", or "I really like this bit, but no one else did. Let's really try and make that work." Similar to how any stand-up works, really.

What has it been like joining the stand-up comedy circuit?

Oh, man! It's been difficult because I couldn't get booked! It's funny, no reputation on YouTube transfers over, which is very humbling and very awesome. Basically, I couldn't get booked in any Brighton open mics - I was having to go up to London twice or once a week to do a five-minute slot. And there'd be some weeks where you'd travel four hours in the night to bomb for five minutes, and you'd be like, "Whoa, why am I doing this again?" Then, when you have a night that goes really well, you're like, "Oh, this is why!"

I didn't mean to get into stand-up, but I rang up Daniel Sloss because he got popular really young, so I just wanted to ask him questions about that, and he encouraged me to do stand-up. He was like, "You should give it a try. You might not like it, but you should do it. And if you're going to do it, you've got to do it properly. Your audience going to love you, but if you can make audiences that don't love you laugh, you've done it." So I tried that. My YouTube performance was, about a year ago, quite a big extension of myself. I remember on my third gig, I went, "Right, I'm just going to try and deliver it like me," and it got more laughs. And so I think it's really helped my creative development overall, in all places - taking risks and figuring out my voice. And that's been just brilliant.

That leads into our next question - what does it feel like to have had a whole YouTube career and then also started this new stand-up comedy path at such a young age?

It's, as you'd imagine, very unusual! A lot of time being like, "What has happened?" But, also, I'm so grateful. I'd always look at other YouTubers and dream of being like them, but then be like, "No, I probably couldn't do that." And now I've got to that point! It's like, "Oh my god, I'm doing it!"

Now I look at my favourite sitcoms I grew up watching, or stand-ups, and I'm starting to go, "Maybe that could be me one day," but it is now, as well - I'm doing the Palladium! But to keep doing more than that, it's just mad, man. It's so cool.

With The Survival Tour, you said that you were having a bit of a rough year, last year. How do you balance the truth of surviving versus the comedy in the show?

I think the show and the book are quite tongue-in-cheek and silly, but with the context of my audience knowing I had a difficult year, you can occasionally sprinkle in these gut punches, and they're like, "Whoa."

So it's not in that format of mining much from that very difficult year. It's a lot to do with tone and where it feels right in the show.
For me, what's becoming increasingly important is everyone's having a bit of a difficult time in the world, so this being an hour and a half of relief from that, and not necessarily tackling that, is quite important to me, and became my mantra with my stand-up as well. So it doesn't really tackle too much on the difficulty of the year, other than talking about the book, which does.

Has the style of your YouTube videos changed since you've gotten into stand-up comedy?

Yeah, massively! When you learn about what it means to be funny and to have to try . . . There's such craftsmanship to comedy and actual grind and work that you have to do to learn about it - all these terms of tempo and rhythm of a joke, the tone of it - is it warm or is it cold? - and the pauses! All this stuff is way more in-depth than anything I've learned about, which is so exciting for me. So I've been able to use a lot of that in my YouTube and think a lot more about it from an artistic lens. And, also, it's gotten funnier because I understand it more now!

And do you have any favourite comedians that influenced your own style of comedy?

Yeah! My number one favourite is Steve Martin. His 1973 stand-up stuff . . . It's the best thing ever. I love Bo Burnham. I love John Mulaney, Amy Poehler, John Oliver. I love Steve Carell, Daniel Sloss, Adam Sandler... I just watched that Tom Walker special on Amazon. I'm pretty knee-deep into learning about all of it!

How does it feel to be performing at the Palladium?

Oh man, on my 21st birthday as well! It's bloody mad, man. It's wicked. There's so many things where you're like, "That's not happening, really," and then it happens. And then there's about ten minutes where you're like, "This is happening," and then afterwards, you're like, "That didn't happen, did it?" [Laughs] It's really exciting!

So you're looking forward to going back on tour, then?

I'm genuinely so excited for it! This is my third tour now, and I'm so excited to be doing stand-up and live comedy. Now I actually can, in a different way to my previous shows, be even more in the moment, interacting with the room and working on the material as I'm going, making small tweaks to make it better. I'm over the moon.

Do you have any advice for those looking to go into either comedy or YouTube or even both, like you do?

With comedy, you basically learn 90% of what you're doing from actually getting up there and doing it. I think the reason I've been able to progress as fast as I wanted to is I've put myself in those awful environments where you're like, "This is seven white guys in a pub basement in London who don't enjoy this!" Even just from saying it, you learn so much. So, for stand-up I'd say: prepping what you want to prep, but most importantly, getting up there.

The second you've done your gig, you have about fifty thoughts of, "I would have changed that, would have done more of that," or, "Oh, that got a bit of a laugh, but I should have prepped more there." And, even now, I try and gig as much as I can because I always have a million notes for myself! And then with YouTube, it's quite easy, isn't it? You just post a video and then it's out there! [Laughs]

What do you hope audiences take away from The Survival Tour?

I hope it's a good indication that I'm building my craft in comedy and that this is the direction I'm going in. Honestly, put simply, I really hope for an hour and a half they have some proper relief and are just laughing their tits off - that's really what I want from this show.

I've been in those rooms where there's ten comics in a basement, and then two go up and suddenly there's just this magic in the room - the laughter, but also the momentum. It's just very magical. I'd really like to create that every evening for my audience - because I think most of them haven't seen live comedy - and to introduce them into that world, so then they can go and watch Bo Burnham and Steve Martin and find their own comedians. It's such a great world that I love that I don't feel like many of my generation even know. For a lot of them, it's their dad likes watching another sixty-year-old comedian - it's an old man's thing. So I'm hoping to be the person that goes, "No, this is so cool! Don't forget about this."

And finally, how would you describe your show in one word?

You want to just say "funny," don't you? Solid.

The Survival Tour tours the UK from 6 to 9 April, the US from 16 April to 13 May, and Australia from 19 to 27 May. Info and tickets at tommyinnit.com