Lessons learned from Standup Comedian Russell Hicks

Richard Lucas
8th November 2017

This blog post is to go with my podcast interview with Russell Hicks – which goes live today. There will be the first airing of my new pre-roll, a new ‘old’ music voice over, and very different content. I was very, very pleased to have Russell on the show and it was a great pleasure to have a long conversation with a comedian whose work I genuinely admire.

So, who is Russell? Russell Hicks is a successful American Standup Comedian who lives and works mainly in the UK.

I saw him perform at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017, and so much enjoyed his shows I tracked him down. I hope to get him to perform in Poland – with the support of Krakow Standup Comedy and Ash Deppeler who spoke at TEDxKazimierz this year and is the founder of the Krakow Fringe Festival . To make it work will not be easy, but if we pull it off, I’ll be very pleased. We will probably set up a tour with Wrocław, Warsaw, Prague and Berlin, but this is all a year ahead of us now.

If you only do one thing, enjoy his comedy – see and listen to his talent here – after 25 comedians have been booed off the stage, he manages to bring the baying crowd back- and regain control. More than a million people have enjoyed that Youtube video. There are many more of his videos here (if you are not into English language Stand Up Comedy, just listen to my interview – interviewing Comedians is an idea I got from Stewart Goldsmith, who was the first Professional Comedian to grace the Project Kazimierz digital stage here). Comedians can be really interesting, even if you don’t like comedy, and usually, (surprise surprise), they are entertaining.

You may well be surprised by what you learn from the podcast. We dive into what Russell knows about Krakow, which leads us to Jaws, not the shark, but the metal toothed giant – from the James Bond films “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Moonraker”. Jaws had a real (fictional) name Zbigniew Krycsiwiki – and was from Krakow. (I’m not sure the author spoke Polish).

Zbigniew Krycsiwiki a.k.a. ‘Jaws – – from Krakow!!

After his failed basketball career, Krycsiwiki was arrested during the (also fictional) 1972 bread riots – and was so badly beaten by the communist secret police in prison that his jaw was smashed beyond repair. Krycsiwiki then escaped – and after many operations – his jaw was restored using steel components – creating the famous razor-sharp teeth. As Michael Caine might say – not many people know that.

Russell had no idea that Maus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus was a controversial film in Poland. Poles were represented as pigs. Maus re-enforces the myth of Polish complicity in the holocaust, which is especially bitter when coming from a German artist. But Russell had no idea.

It was only when Russell was 26 that he realised that he was meant to be a Standup Comedian. It is a magical thing to happen to anyone, to realise why they exist. As he he got really good at getting people to laugh, he discovered he wasn’t enjoying it . He changed his approach, understanding that the only way to do comedy properly is to make sure you enjoys and believe in your own jokes. This means taking serious risks. As the room realises you are taking risks, the pay off gets bigger – if it works. If you listen to his podcasts, which I recommend Off The Grid Podcast with Russell Hicks. Also check out his short “Art for f**cks sake” podcast series.

He does what’s going to make him happy on stage – his natural style – even if it gets nowhere, and people aren’t laughing, he’s still happy. The fact that he has a paying audience validates his approach – It he didn’t get paid bookings, this position would not hold water (in my view). He doesn’t want to tell other people how to live, his approach works for him. He believes that making concessions to the “comedy industry” is a trap – people who do that can end up bitter. If comedians are really into well prepared written jokes – if that is their thing – that’s fine, but you have to be yourself and follow your own art form.

He’s a huge TED fan, and I invited him to TEDxShoreditch (but he didn’t come ? ) As a foreigner in Britain he loves London and Britain and regards the anti immigrant attitude as the last gasp of dying generation, in his view young people are much more liberal, open, and accepting of diversity.

Finally, Russell says he wants to be interviewed by Stewart Goldsmith for the Comedian’s Comedian podcast.

I promised him I’d send Stewart a note, and I’m going to. I hope it works.

That’s all I want to share, below a a wide range of links that will be useful if you want to follow up on podcast topics. I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as I enjoyed doing the interview.

Links. which may not make sense, unless you listen to the podcast.

If you want to get an insight into the way he thinks start with The Sad Clown Paradigm” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJTAygodXlM

If you want to book him his agent is Delphine at Beyond Compere.

https://twitter.com/BeyondCompere

TEDx Shoreditch http://projectkazimierz.com/katie-underwood-s4ep3/

John Cage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4

Louis CK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxl2U5DSz9w

Bill Burr

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bill+burr

Joe Sinclitico – Karate (Stand Up Comedy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp72HPBmtNg

Pippa Evans www.pippaevans.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Evans and Sunday Assembly http://www.sundayassembly.com https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22pippa+evans%22

Glengarry Glen Rose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glengarry_Glen_Ross_(film)