Why Romesh Ranganathan was afraid to return to Leicester…

20 November 2018, 04:30 | Updated: 20 November 2018, 04:31

The comedian has been telling Gordon Smart about the worst gig he ever played: “I absolutely tanked”.

Romesh Ranganathan - a pretty successful comedian, right? He’s appeared on QI, Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You, his own series Judge Romesh, and he’s currently starring in his own show for Sky One, The Reluctant Landlord.

But Romesh has been telling Radio X’s Gordon Smart about his worst ever stand up gig… in Leicester, of all places.

It seems that while Leicester loves a bit of football and rock music, the humorous observations of Romesh Ranganathan don’t go down as well. On this occasion, he was hosting a comedy night - but the other acts managed to go down a storm.

Romesh revealed: “When you have a bad gig what you tend to do as a comic is blame the room. It's like the circumstances of it, the lighting wasn't right. Maybe the sound quality wasn't good enough, blah blah blah. I was basically unable to do that on this particular night because there were other people on.

“I came on, opened the night and for 15 minutes I played to silence. I brought on the first act and I just as I walked off, I remember saying to her, good luck, cos it’s quite sticky. And she roofed it, absolutely roofed it, smashed it. Incredible.

“So then I came back on, did my bit, played to silence again! Everybody else was by basically having the gig of their lives.”

He went on: “I was about to bring on the last act and I just vocalised how I was feeling, saying, I'm just not enjoying this.

“Somebody in the audience just shouted, ‘Why don’t you just go?’

“The final act just ripped it, when I had just tanked. Then I had to be in the car with the other acts. Everybody in that car had had an amazing gig, except for one guy.

“It was a year before I would go back to Leicester.”

Romesh Ranganathan - The Reluctant Landlord airs on Sky One and Now TV on Tuesdays at 10pm.