Interview: Stuart Goldsmith

A comedian and former street performer (trained down the road at Circomedia), Stuart Goldsmith is one of the circuit’s brightest talents: his articulate, nicely understated sets feature some fine, ironic tales of life and love.
Stuart has recently returned to Bristol, where he spent his early childhood, and celebrates his homecoming with two Bristol gigs this month.

Tell us your Bristol story, Stuart – where do you hail from, what took you away – and what has brought you back?
I was born in Chipping Sodbury hospital (same as J.K. Rowling but 12 years later!), and lived in Downend until I was about seven. We moved away with my dad’s work (he’s a civil engineer, and apparently helped to build that footbridge over the M32 where people keep their graffitied caravans on the north side), but I returned for a year in 1996-7 and lived in Kingswood while I attended Circomedia circus school.
That was the hardest year of my life, though I have fond memories of one entire day spent falling over.  I am back now living in Totterdown where my partner has lived since uni, and we wanted a lovely wee Bristol baby, rather than some wise-ass London kid hooked on babyccinos.

Your new show goes back to basics – no PowerPoint, no gimmicks, no voyage of discovery. What made you want to do such a pared-back set?
The thing that excites me about stand-up is ‘minting’ an original funny idea or joke that didn’t previously exist in the world. One person and their thoughts, versus stony silence.
I love shows that use PowerPoint, gimmicks, voyages of discovery and all that stuff – but I went to an insane performance art college where people used to hand in shoes full of milk instead of an essay, and so I can’t keep a straight face when reviewers lose their mind over how new and original it is when someone opens their show with, say, a magic trick where it looks like they’ve fallen out of the ceiling but actually it was a dummy.
Hang on. That’s quite a good idea actually. I’m having that.

You were a street performer before venturing into stand-up. How have the two worlds compared for you?
Stand-up will always allow for more sophistication in what you’re trying to say, but it’s a harder lifestyle. The community while still lovely, isn’t as close-knit as the street, and you don’t get to see as much of each other. Although there are far more stand-ups than street performers, there’s roughly the same proportion of jaw-dropping geniuses, hard workers and absolute chancers in each world. 

What are the chief pleasures and tribulations of life as a stand-up?
Well, life as a stand-up has a definite soldier-of-fortune quality to it, but you don’t have to kill anyone (you don’t have to…). It can be glorious, exciting, painful and frustrating – but I can honestly say I haven’t been bored in ten years!

Some comics have a definite persona, and others seem to be just themselves… where are you on this scale? Is onstage Stuart everyday Stuart?
It took me five years to realise that, for me at least, stand-up is about being yourself as honestly as possible. It’s taken another five to try and get close to that. Being yourself when 300 people are all looking right at you is one of the hardest things in the world, especially when you’ve explicitly promised you’re going to say something funny.
God, when I put it like that I’m impressed I’ve made it this far…

Stuart Goldsmith plays the Wardrobe Theatre on Thursday, March 24. For more info, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/stuart-goldsmith-an-hour
Top pic: Nick Gast