Words by Helen Knott
Andy Zaltzman brings his 2018 tour of Satirist for Hire to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Friday 19th January. Tickets are £12 (adv) and doors open at 8pm, for a 8.30pm start. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.
Stand-up comedian, broadcaster, author and cricket fanatic, Andy Zaltzman has been lauded as ‘Probably one of the finest satirical comedians this country’s ever produced’ (Time Out).
Zaltzman is perhaps best known as the writer and presenter of satirical podcast The Bugle, one of the most popular comedy podcasts on iTunes, attracting over one million downloads a month. Zaltzman originally presented The Bugle with Brummie comedian John Oliver, who has since made quite a name for himself stateside, antagonising politicians and world leaders as host of HBO’s excellent Last Week Tonight.
Zaltzman and Oliver originally started The Bugle back in 2007, as an audio newspaper for The Times newspaper. When the phone-hacking scandal broke (incriminating staff at Rupert Murdoch’s other papers The Sun and News of the World) the duo were scathing on the subject, which led to them getting fired. Which goes to show nothing should get in the way of an important satirical joke – even if your job depends on it.
As well as regular appearances on the now independently run Bugle, Zaltzman pops up on panel shows on TV and radio and is particularly known for his love of sport.
He has previously hosted an Ashes show for BBC 5Live called Yes! It’s the Ashes! and over the past few months has presented an Ashes podcast with Felicity Ward for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. If you’re a cricket fan I very much recommend following him on Twitter.
Satirist for Hire debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2013, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it will be a stale repetition of an almost five-year-old set. Zaltzman has asked the audience to email in topics that we would like to be satirised beforehand (you can do so right now, on his website). Topics can be any issue/person/concept or thing that you would like Zaltzman to discuss – ‘All issues considered (within reason)’.
This format is a clever way of keeping a topical show fresh and relevant, which is difficult if you’re touring the same material for 18 months, especially considering the speed at which the news moves. It should make things fun and current, with Zaltzman utlising his unparalleled verbal dexterity to explore the news of the day.
Let’s just hope that he puts in a better performance than England’s cricketers managed Down Under.
Andy Zaltzman – Satirist for Hire
Andy Zaltzman brings his Satrist for Hire tour to The Glee Club (B’ham) on Friday 19th January. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/andy-zaltzman
For more on Andy Zaltzman, visit www.andyzaltzman.co.uk
For more from The Glee Club venues, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk
