Omid Djalili shares his excitement about performing in Lancashire & why he will never ever go on the Big Dipper!
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00:00I'm mainly talking to you because you're coming to Burnley, Lancaster and Blackpool.
00:05Yes.
00:05So can I start by asking you how you're feeling about coming up to Lancashire with your new show?
00:10Amazing. I have to tell you, I've never been more excited in my life because the show has been around the world.
00:16It's been to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, America, and it's been all over.
00:22However, I would say in its early stages, I like to develop the show in the Northwest and then I go back down south.
00:31I start. And now that the show is ready, you bring it up to the Northwest where they are the best audiences.
00:37I'd already did leads and coming up north is the greatest experience for a comedian.
00:43Once you've been down south, it's terrible when you've been doing stuff up north.
00:48Then you go down south and you think, oh, my God, I thought I was funny.
00:52They're not laughing at anything. It's such a disturbing experience.
00:56But to do it the other way around now when the show is ready and then coming to the Northwest and actually Burnley Mechanics,
01:03the audience in Lancaster, Blackpool, these are some of the best audiences in the whole of the UK.
01:07So I cannot tell you how excited I am to be coming. And I'm not just saying that I'm genuinely I'm telling that truthfully.
01:14I'm assuming the answer is yes. But can I ask, have you performed in either of these areas before?
01:19Yes, yes. Burnley Mechanics is one of my favourite gigs on the whole tour.
01:23And the theatre in Lancaster is just a beautiful theatre.
01:27And I'm actually very annoyed with them because there's all the pictures backstage of all the posters of all the great people who've performed there.
01:34But I've always performed there and they've never put up. They've never put a poster up of me.
01:38I'm actually, I'm hoping to do so well, they'll finally have to put a framed picture of me backstage.
01:45And what's about Blackpool?
01:47Blackpool's great. The audiences are just fabulous there.
01:50And I've never sold out Blackpool. That's the thing. I've never sold out.
01:55It's a difficult. I've sold out Lytham St. Anne's, which is nearby.
01:58I've never sold out Blackpool. So I'm begging the people from Lytham, please come.
02:02Actually, everybody in the area, everyone in the northwest area, because I've already developed a show in Liverpool and Manchester.
02:09And so I'm really reaching out to Liverpool and Manchester.
02:12Come and see me in Blackpool because it's going to be, it's going to be something such a beautiful theatre and the best audiences.
02:17So come along.
02:19Have you been for leisure before? Do you have any plans for what you could get up to outside of the shows?
02:24Once I came to Blackpool, honestly, and it was the weirdest experience.
02:28I was in a hotel right next door to some kind of Big Dipper.
02:33There was some kind of like ride that was right outside my bedroom.
02:39So we'd hear it. I'd hear it every three minutes go by.
02:42People screaming and they go right past the window.
02:45I can't remember the name of that hotel, but I remember thinking, oh, it was a recommended hotel.
02:49I'm never going there again. It's the most frightening experience.
02:52You've got this big roller coaster, literally 10 feet away from the window.
02:57So I've learned not to do that again.
02:59But it was also hypnotic because it made me, I found myself looking, I've never looked out the window for three hours in one go.
03:06Just before a gig, I was just like, just looking at this thing going around and people screaming.
03:10So I'm not doing that again, but it was quite an experience.
03:13Has that ever made it onto one of your stand-up shows?
03:17No, never. I should, I should talk.
03:19Well, I'm writing a routine about it, so I'll probably do it in Blackpool.
03:22But it was, I can't remember, was it the Blue Boar Hotel?
03:25There was some hotel that's right on the Big Dipper, so it's hilarious.
03:29But yeah, I might talk about it.
03:31So will you perhaps go on the Big Dipper this time around?
03:34No, I hate, I hate, I hate all that stuff.
03:37When I was a kid, I went to Disneyland.
03:41I went to Magic Mountain.
03:42And all those things just scared the hell out of me.
03:46And I don't see, I even went to one small one in Denmark.
03:49I did a gig in Denmark.
03:50I said, oh, come along and do this thing.
03:52And I said, surely I'm too short.
03:53So I'd stand in the queue.
03:55And if you're shorter than this kid, I was going to say, I'm too, I'm too short for this.
03:58He says, no, you're big enough.
03:59And it was just a mild ride, but I was screaming my head off.
04:02And people were looking at me, and I thought, I'm not the kind of screamer who makes it fun.
04:07It's like, woo, yeah.
04:08I was like going, get me off.
04:10Duh, why?
04:11And I remember thinking, why do people do this?
04:13This is ridiculous.
04:14Why would you want to be on these things and shit yourself?
04:17Who wants that?
04:18That's not entertainment.
04:19And actually, maybe I'm just getting too old for this kind of thing, because it used to be exciting.
04:23But now I genuinely worry that I'll die financially for no reason as well.
04:28So I don't see the point of them.
04:30So no, I will not be going to the big deal for one in Blackpool.
04:34Fair enough.
04:36If we talk about real entertainment then, can you describe to me what your show is about?
04:41The show is called Namaste.
04:43It's about me controlling my anger about the last couple of years where all these things have happened.
04:51There's the woman life freedom movement, the suppressed revolution in Iran.
04:55You had Gaza.
04:56You had Uten.
04:58You had all these things that dominate the airwaves.
05:01And it just, you start thinking it's there just to make you angry.
05:04So what I've tried to do as a comedian is put all my anger into a catalytic converter, which I've called Namaste.
05:12So what comes out of it is comedy, insight, and maybe some beautiful things as well, and some resolutions.
05:18And I've been very, very open.
05:21The show could nearly get me cancelled, but I've got to the point where I don't really care.
05:26I'm not bothered.
05:27Whatever I think and say.
05:28And I've cushioned it in a way that these are my opinions.
05:32And actually, by and large, people have said, I don't agree with you.
05:36And that was a wild thing you said.
05:38But actually, there may be some truth in it.
05:40A lot of people said, I didn't see it that way.
05:42That's the one thing.
05:43I'm not there to validate your opinions.
05:46I'm there to challenge you.
05:47Because the way we have been taught and the stuff that we've been fed is very much just a couple of news outlets and newspapers that have agendas.
05:56I think we all know that.
05:58So what I'm doing is giving you a more global perspective on it.
06:01And everyone has said, I've never heard that perspective before.
06:04That's very new.
06:05And if that's the truth, then it could be a game changer.
06:09So people are being shaken up.
06:12People are kind of saying, wow, never saw it.
06:14No one has disagreed.
06:15And a lot of people have come away and sent DMs and say, actually, you're absolutely right.
06:20Never saw it that way.
06:21So that's why.
06:22And if it's cushioned in comedy, people are laughing and they're thinking.
06:25And it's the first time I've done a show which has been controversial, only in the sense that they're hearing things they've never heard before.
06:33But also, there's been a general consensus that there's been a lot of agreement.
06:38So fingers crossed, people will appreciate it when we come to the Northwest.