The Welsh standup used to direct his fury at service stations, baked potatoes and the tog-rating of duvets. Now he’s tackling anxiety, infertility – and his own battle with the cancer that stopped his tour
With his 2012 live show, Gilbert had felt his standup running aground. “I was having to look for things to be angry about, to fit what I did,” he says. “And that’s diminishing returns, clearly. I felt that, and I think audiences felt that.” When that tour ended, he announced he was quitting live comedy. And for seven years, “I didn’t miss it at all. Didn’t write a word. Not motivated in any way to do it.
But the experience of making those documentaries, and all that other “life stuff” he was dealing with, opened Gilbert up to a new way of working. A man who had only ever lied on stage began telling the unvarnished truth. A man with extreme social anxiety started talking to strangers about his most intimate experiences. “As I got older, I started to feel – and maybe this is a bit wanky – that I’ve got a bit of a platform here.
So committed is Gilbert to his new, no-filter way of being, he’s already hatching plans for the standup show that addresses his cancer experiences. “If I get through this,” he says, and then breaks off. “I’ve got to stop saying that. People tell me off. When you’re going through cancer, any sign of doubt or negativity gets nipped in the bud very quickly.” And so he restarts: “I get through this, the next show will be in a similar vein.
This conviction represents another about-turn from Gilbert, who used to doubt he’d ever write another standup show. “Every Edinburgh I was like, ‘Howam I going to write another show next year? How am I going to write even another five minutes?’ Whereas now I’m mad keen. I’ve got a 250-page document of stuff that’s on the go.” Don’t rule out a comeback for the offstage star of The Book of John, either. “The response to John is just insane,” says Gilbert.
Today, he has been cheered by the fact that his standup pals – Rob Brydon, Greg Davies and others – are rallying to his aid, hyping The Book of John’s release on social media and beyond, because Gilbert isn’t well enough to do so himself. “I’m really aware of mental health now,” he says, “and I’m checking in with myself every day. I feel fine, weirdly. I’m happy, optimistic and hopeful that next year it’ll all come good.
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