Comedy veteran and Phoenix Nights actor Smug Roberts is appealing to mosques and churches to open their doors and host him as part of his Red Nose Day ’20-20’ tour next weekend.
Playing 20 gigs of 20 minutes each across a range of venues in the North West, Smug already has house parties, pubs and cafes confirmed as venues but is hoping mosques and churches will too.
Smug, real name Andrew Robert Wilkinson, acknowledged that some of his material would change if he played in a religious venue.
He told MM: “Obviously I’ve got to tailor my material –if I’m playing in a church or mosque I’ve got to do something different.”
The Mrs Brown’s Boys actor thinks comedians need to be careful about offending their audiences.
“I’m all for freedom of expression but you need to know where that line is and you need to keep people comfortable,” he said.
“If I did a joke that really upset or offended someone I’d just take it out. Comedy is to make people laugh, not to make them upset.
“I hate when comedians say their audience is ‘shit’ or ‘I don’t care if I offend them’ –because those people in the crowd, who often do jobs that save lives that I could never do, are paying for me to do what I love. I don’t want to offend them.
“I think these days some comedians take themselves a bit too seriously.”
People who wish to host a Smug Roberts gig during his 2020 tour on Sunday February 28 should contact [email protected]
More information on the tour can be hour on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Smugs2020Tour?ref=hl) or on the red nose day website (http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/SmugRoberts)
You can also follow the progress of Smug’s tour on twitter (@Smugs2020Tour)
MM’s full interview about Smug’s plans for the tour will follow in the coming days.
Image courtesy of Pocket Manchester via YouTube, with thanks.
