Comedian Russell Howard is coming to Vancouver and Victoria in October

Over a century and a half ago, Mark Twain pointed out the importance of travel to nurture a caring and open-minded citizenry.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts,” said the American writer in his 1869 travel book Innocents Abroad.

British comedian Russell Howard is all in on that notion.

Currently on the Canadian leg of his international Live 2024 comedy tour, Howard will be making a stop in Vancouver on Oct. 4 for a show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and then onto the McPherson Playhouse in Victoria for two shows on Oct. 5. After Canada, Howard is headed to Norway then Australia then back to Europe.

“I get so much from travelling,” said Howard. “I always like getting what I call the street-level knowledge. Street-level knowledge just improves your sort of read on humanity and makes you a better comedian, I think, because you can say with a degree of certainty what Canada is like when you’ve been to different places.”

Howard, like other successful international comedians, understands that despite language, culture and current political divisions, we are all just humans trying to muddle through. And, at our core, we have a shared humanity.

“I think comedically there is so much to be said for trying to understand the middle and trying to understand the things that do connect us because often the only things that are spoken about are the things that divide,” said Howard. “It’s interesting, you can get people who despise each other who are maybe pro Trudeau or anti Trudeau, you got them talking about their favourite potato chips, then somehow there is a connection. Not to be too kind of grandstanding, but I think comedy really can do that.”

Speaking over Zoom from Spain where he was on vacation with his wife and infant son, Howard admitted a news-free holiday is not a likely outcome, especially when a large chunk of your comedy is cultivated from current events.

“Being a comedian, now especially, when looking at the news, it is trying to make a sculpture out of shit and the world won’t stop shitting. There’s so much happening in the world,” said Howard. “I’m on holidays and I’m kind absent-mindedly going through the news, and they found a beluga whale in Norway that the Norwegians believe it was spying for Russia. So my brain is kind of straight away, away with the faeries. And I can see my wife looking at me. I obviously have this kind of trancelike state I go into when I’m trying to figure out jokes. She’s like, what are you reading? Oh nothing, I’m good. Things stay in my head and then I am so lucky I have a place to talk them out.”

And people in the audience have a place to laugh them out.

“There’s so much jingoistic thinking in the U.K. right now and the same in America. We need to make it great again and take it back to what it once was. There’s always this idea that majesty lies in the past, which is just a complete load of horseshit,” said Howard. “What keeps you going as a comedian when you’re trying to go within those hot topic conversations is what are the jokes that kind of cut through and open up and really resonate?”

Case in point, Howard does a bit about knife violence in the U.K. where he points out a story about a nine-year-old kid who was caught carrying a knife. He questions the idea that a little boy is so concerned with his safety that he had to arm himself. Howard highlights the madness of the situation by telling the audience that, when he and his brother were little boys, they were taping up their bums to see if that would cause them to fart out of their mouths. By turning that nine-year-old wielding a knife story into a joke, Howard is helping the audience to clock the absurdity of a kid carrying a weapon.

“Imagine not being a kid,” said Howard when talking about the bit. “The job is to make people laugh with points, sometimes.”

Aside from standup, Howard has had a successful U.K. TV career hosting such hits as The Russell Howard Hour (Sky) and Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC). He has six standup specials to his credit and his clips have more than one billion views on social media. His latest media success is the top 10 comedy podcast Russell Howard’s Wonderbox.

“Basically, German families put trinkets and mementoes in a box and they pass them down. They kind of tell their family story,” said Howard when asked about the meaning of the show’s title. “So, it is the whole idea that we have a guest on, and they tell me the things they would put in their Wonderbox. It’s kind of five brilliant things.”

As for the contents of his own memory box, well, Howard’s first choice is not surprising for a British male.

“I really like football boots,” said Howard, referring to what we would call soccer cleats. “I find they transport me back to being eight years old again … there’s such potential in these lit bits of leather that you feel like these are the boots that could turn you into Lionel Messi.”

While he is on tour wandering the cities looking for potential comedy nuggets, he is also finding comfort in sports stores.

“I will always go into a sports shop and just gaze at them. I find them beautiful,” said Howard about his beloved football boots. “I love watching kids try out their new pair of boots for the first time. I find that so vicariously wonderful because I recognize that look. Even if they are shit, you are going these are the shoes, this is where it changes, this is year zero. So, football boots for me are for the potential of rebirth.”

For the record, his boots of choice would be a pair Adidas Predators from 1994. The kind Liverpool left winger Steve McMahon sported.

While the podcast is a lot of fun and very revealing, Howard suggests the format could be a great addition to a dinner party conversation.

“It’s a brilliant conversation,” said Howard who has had such bold-type comedy names such as Jimmy Carr, John Oliver, Greg Davies, Iliza Shlesinger, Jack Whitehall and Jameela Jamil on the show. “It is funny when you talk about things you love, you end up in interesting areas. Because you can’t help but wax lyrical about things you adore.”

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