Interview: Rarely Asked Questions – Ross Smith

Comedian Ross Smith made the headlines earlier this year when he decided to go on a lads' holiday to Hamburg. With a bunch of strangers. And he's not a lad. He was only invited because someone with the same name had dropped out and it meant a free ticket was there for the taking for anybody called Ross Smith. Our hero charted his boozy escapade on Twitter and the story soon went viral. Luckily he just about lived to tell the tale and will be sharing it with audiences in Edinburgh this August in I Am Ross Smith. It also gave him an easy answer to question 3 below.

I Am Ross Smith is at Just The Tonic At The Caves from August 2 - 26. Tickets here.


1. What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies and/or check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt and check for spinach between your teeth)?

 

I do some weird mouth exercises that i don’t think really help, I have a wee even if i don’t need one, i empty my pockets, I stretch my arms like I've seen premiership goalkeepers do and then I tighten my laces- i have no idea why, maybe i’m preparing to run.

 

2. What irritates you?

 

Almost everything. I’m quite an angry man (boy) I get irritated a lot by technology. I’ve spent all morning wrestling with a printer and for now it seems to have won. Technology seems to fail around me as if it knows it will piss me off. Maybe I'm the biggest weapon we have when Skynet inevitably goes live - i'll just walk by the terminators and they’ll all malfunction.

 

3. What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

 

In all honesty it's probably what i did (or maybe didn't) do in the show. Going on holiday with strangers. I'm quite a safe, cowardly person. I order the same thing from the three restaurants I go to. Risk is something i had grown out of by about age 5. I did used to jump from locks into rivers with friend s- that's something village folk do for entertainment, risk their lives by jumping into rivers, getting a thrill from the possibility of maiming themselves and not being able to marry their cousins.

 

4. What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?

 

Oh God, i’ve done a lot. That's like asking a priest ‘have you ever done a mass?’ off the top of my head I guess it’s when i slept with a girl my twin brother had dated. We’re non identical so its not as if i could have gotten away with it that way. Not that that would even make sense - I know we’re different people. It caused a LOT of tension. I cringe at that a lot- he’s a great guy and im definitely the evil twin.

 

5. What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?

 

The community. It's so welcoming and lovely. It can be awful like anything but i find it so weird that a bunch of damaged, insecure, shy, arrogant perverts and show offs can be so welcoming. It’s like the lunatics have taken over the asylum and things are running a lot better. When i really got into comedy it made a lot of things from my past that seemed like the end of the world suddenly make sense.

Interview continues here.

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