Climate comedian and veteran podcaster Stuart Goldsmith talks about his current tour.
Fresh from performing at Netflix Is A Joke for Adam McKay (director of Don’t Look Up), Stuart confronts his climate dread head-on in Canary, a British Comedy Guide Recommended show about how to turn fear into something useful.
Canary will be at the Glee Club on 13th November. During his 32nd Edinburgh Festival, he told us a bit about what to expect.
Tell us about the new show?
“If you’re worried about the climate crisis or feel like you don’t know how to talk about it and it’s too frightening and complicated, you’re going to love this show. It’s something like my 11th stand-up show, but it’s the second since I really started trying to get to grips with climate in my work.
“The rule is ‘Funny first’, so the jokes are all good enough to get a comedy club crowd on my side on a Friday night when climate is the last thing they want to hear about.
“But Canary is also a genuine attempt to say something meaningful about turning your climate anxiety into something positive and powerful, and it’s also a reminder that the fossil fuel companies would love us to fret over and compare our carbon footprints while they get on with trying to convince us that the science isn’t settled so they can keep making billions.
“It’s non-judgmental and I’m always making fun of my own attempts to change, and my own hypocrisy, first and foremost.”
How can you possibly make the climate crisis funny?
“Comedy exists in the contradictions and the ambiguities of life. We say ‘The problems are the material’, and fortunately for me we have this great torrent of problems to contend with!
“I have loads of different approaches to find jokes: I try to use myself as a prism to simplify complicated ideas; I dig into how we manage to live our day-to-day lives despite the enormous changes we all know we need to make; and if all else fails I just start swearing loads…”
How have you found the audience response so far?
“I’ve spent a lot of time and energy learning how to get people on board with something complicated, frightening and apparently a long way off. As Britain is smashed by one heatwave after another, that’s getting a little easier!
“I’ve had one or two walkouts, and an extremely gentle haranguing from a Facebook granny who believed that Extinction Rebellion were all actors paid by the deep state. I also upset a popular wildlife presenter because my joke about polar bears contained a technical inaccuracy.
“But most of the time people are relieved to hear someone dragging our secret fears into the light and trying to inspire some fierce joy.”
What do you hope to achieve with the show?
“I want to give people permission to feel hope, and I want to smash Edinburgh so hard that it gets back to Elon Musk and convinces him that not only is fixing our perfectly good planet much easier than terraforming Mars, but also that if he helps fix the climate, people might overlook all the deaths he’s definitely caused.”
What are your favourite memories of Edinburgh?
“I was on the original Taskmaster, before they spoiled it by putting it on TV, and would have won the second one if it wasn’t for Josie Long and her fruit-based treachery. I helped stop a riot, when Arthur Smith’s alternative tour of the Royal Mile went badly awry, survived a six-person professional wrestling match, and play a key role in a clown wedding on the High Street.
“Lots of comedians come to Edinburgh and think to themselves, ‘How can I get so successful that I don’t need to put myself through this again?’ I first came to it in 1997 and thought, How can I design my life so that I can come here forever?’.”
Who have been your favourite guests on your podcast?
“Sara Pascoe is one of the wisest people I’ve ever met, Reggie Watts is the most complete artist I’ve ever encountered, John Tothill is a national treasure in waiting, but my first love will always be Patton Oswalt – a consummate comedian’s comedian.”
What’s next for you?
“After the Fringe, I’m taking Canary on a national tour and hoping to turn it into a special. My manifesto for the show is that I want it to be the sort of thing you can recommend to a friend who’s freaking out about the climate, and it will cheer them up, heal them, and set them on a path to helping save the world.”
More details can be found at stuartgoldsmith.com
