Lloyd Griffith

Komedia, Brighton

Sunday, March 17

COMEDIAN Lloyd Griffith has spent the last year plying his trade as the newest host of popular morning football show Soccer AM. But as Jamie Walker finds out, stand-up is his true passion. Now Lloyd is back on tour and can’t wait to hit the stage.

Hi Lloyd, how has everything been going?

It’s been good. When I first got into comedy I just thought I’d be telling jokes all the time.

It’s really just 90 per cent admin, figuring out where you are, when you’re certain places, but that’s not a complaint.

Three days a week I’m working on Soccer AM and in the rest of the time I’m working on my stand-up and comedy for other shows.

It does look like you like to keep busy.

You’ll get a weekend off at some point.

I don’t really get much downtime, but I enjoy that.

You can sleep when you’re dead.

You don’t know when things might change.

In ten or 15 years I might not be getting work and I can have a rest then.

Your All-Rounder tour is coming to Brighton. How much are you looking forward to it?

I do a lot of things but stand-up is the thing I love the most.

I think putting your own words to actions with nobody censoring what you say is good.

I got into comedy to have a laugh so when it comes to writing the tour it’s great.

The Komedia is one of the best venues in the country.

When you first start doing comedy you do five or ten minutes anywhere you can.

Everyone says get Komedia when you can because there’s something about it that makes it work.

I don’t know what it is about it but it’s a great gig to play.

I’m in the smaller room and I’ve done a number of gigs there, it’s warm and friendly.

Getting a weekend there as a club comedian, you know you’re going to have a good time.

When you’re preparing for a tour you need to be writing constantly. Where do you find that time in-between everything else you’re doing?

I’m not an advert for Apple but the iPhone is basically a comedian’s office.

You note things down when you can and then spend a day putting it all together.

I’ve been doing comedy for nine years now and you just figure out a way of doing it.

Is it the case that when you’re doing TV you’d rather be doing stand-up and vice-versa?

Yeah I think so.

I’m lucky in that I’ve always loved comedy, even if I’ve got stuff on.

I always try and do stand-up when I’m working on other things, just to keep your hand in it.

Stand-up is really addictive so you just want to keep doing it.

So when you’re doing TV or other projects you do look out the corner of your eye and wish you were doing stand-up.

Likewise if you’ve been touring for weeks you sometimes think it would be nice to do something else.

I’m in a very lucky position that I have a good balance of stand-up to other work.

I have mates who started doing other stuff and needing to rely less on stand-up and that means you can really work on the stand-up and not have to tread water.

You recently did a series called Crypto Factor with eToro and got to do training drills with a number of football clubs. How was that for a self-proclaimed football nut like yourself?

Like a lot of people I always had dreams of being a footballer.

That didn’t happen for the reasons that I think everyone can see.

I wanted to be a goalkeeper and eToro said they had some time with the footballers and asked if I wanted to come on board, and of course I did.

I got to go to Brighton and work with Solly March, Jason Steele and Bruno, then the likes of Tottenham, Southampton, Newcastle as well.

It was really fun going to all those training grounds and all the footballers were so warm and welcoming.

What do you enjoy about the fact that part of your job, especially on Soccer AM, is to chat about football?

You get to sit on that couch and talk to all these amazing footballers from across the country.

There are definitely moments when you have to pinch yourself.

I can’t imagine you ever saw yourself doing this when you first got into comedy?

Of course not.

When you get into stand-up it’s to make people laugh.

Then you get all these opportunities.

It didn’t sink in, with Soccer AM, for the first few months.

I was learning on the job and for the first few didn’t think I was giving it as good as I could get.

It got to a stage where I was less wooden with it and that’s when you can start having a bit more fun.

What can people expect from this stand-up show?

It’s essentially a little, fat, man from Grimsby trying to make you laugh for an hour.

I do silly impressions, there’s a little bit of singing – that’s what I trained as.

The show is called All-Rounder so there’s a bit of everything.

Was it always a plan to add signing to your comedy?

I think it was a case of “I can do this, let’s add it in” I don’t ever want to be thought of as a musical comedian.

I’m a comedian who also happens to be good at music.

I might do a musical one day, but I love stand-up for now.

All the greats end with a song.

If you were writing a musical what would it be based on?

That’s a very good question.

It would probably be about someone who has been in a classical music version of the X Factor and had a fall from grace.

It would be about how he gets back to where he should be.

So why is this going to be the show to see?

It will be a show that will have the audience leaving a lot happier than when they turned up.

Whether that’s because they had a good time or because they’re just glad they’re not me, they’ll leave with as spring in their step.