RUSSELL HOWARD

UK comedian Russell Howard can – almost – picture himself jogging around the Botanic Gardens with comedy great Louis CK. At least, he’d like to think so.  “It’s like that fantasy of being at Glastonbury and the Kings of Leon ask you to play backing recorder, just cos you look like a good bloke,” he laughs.

This is one fantasy that might come true. Russell Howard – whose show Good News was BBC3’s highest ever rating entertainment series – will be taking to the stage alongside legends John Cleese, Martin Short, Dylan Moran and Demetri Martin. On being booked to such a bill, Howard is humble: “It’s great, because the crowd is excited to see some big names. Then you wander on and people are like, who’s that prick?!” This for a guy whose last UK tour saw crowds upwards of 240,000.

With topics ranging from his brother’s epileptic fits (“It’s graphic, but with an uplifting end”) to nuanced responses to the London riots, his aim is to communicate the heart of the issue, no matter what that issue is: “So it’s not a myopic view – it broadens it up.”

And in response to the accusation (admittedly, on his own press release) that he has been shipped in specifically to lower the tone of the Opera House, Howard says, “I am going to wander in and do a shit on the stage! You have no idea what people write about you – it makes me sound like a filth monger. But I will keep it on an even keel.  It’ll just be a show about various things … it’ll just be funny.” Which, apart from getting to witness Howard pound the pavement with Louis CK, is all we’re after, really.

Sep 4, 7.30pm, Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House, $47.90-69.90, 9250 7777, sydneyoperahouse.com

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