Christian O’Connell: Breaking Dad

Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Friday, March 6

ABSOLUTE Radio DJ Christian O’Connell may talk to hundreds of thousands of listeners each week across seven breakfast shows, but he found returning to stand-up after an 18-year break nerve-wracking.

“The first couple of shows at Edinburgh in 2013 were pants – I was so intimidated by it all,” he admits as he embarks on his first national headline tour. “But the show got better and I got better.

“I did stand-up from the age of 17 – I knocked it on the head when the radio started.

“Frank Skinner suggested I should go back to stand-up.

“I booked a room in the Edinburgh Fringe and spent seven months breaking my back putting a show together.”

He returned to Edinburgh in 2014 with this touring show Breaking Dad – which examines both his own childhood and the influence (or lack thereof) he has on his kids.

“I felt like I had something to say, not just stories about kids saying the funniest things, but about dads generally,” he says.

“Things have changed – I’m part of a new wave of touchy-feely dads who have no power to scare our kids whatsoever.

“My dad was part Darth Vader and the other part Joseph Stalin. Even if he wasn’t there my mum would say ‘Wait until your father comes home’.

“The only power I’ve got is I can turn the wi-fi off.”

He has scheduled the tour so he can still continue to do his radio show – which by the magic of modern technology matches up with seven different playlists, ranging from classic rock to hits from the 1960s to the 2000s.

“It still blows my mind – I don’t know how it works,” he admits. “I do four hours every day, five days a week, which means I have no shortage of material – I’ve constantly got my notebook out. If I tell a story on radio it might end up on stage.”

The two platforms are very different though.

“People seem really amazed I can get up so early and sound quite pleasant,” he says.

“You can be vaguely amusing at that time – but no comedy clubs open in the morning.

“Expectations are different when people come and see you in the evening – you have got to be funny.

“The fame can be a double-edged sword – people are interested in coming to see you.

“But when you’re doing rubbish and struggle for 20 minutes you can see them looking at each other saying ‘This is awful!’.”

He is particularly looking forward to playing Brighton again.

“Komedia is one of the best comedy clubs,” he says.

“There’s always a proper comedy crowd who want to laugh. “The world is scary and frightening.

“People still want to hear some guy trying to make sense of it all – in my sense my failing makes people feel less alone.”

Support from Maff Brown.