Little Britain star David Walliams is bringing the laughs to Kiwi shores come September.
Little Britain star David Walliams is bringing the laughs to Kiwi shores come September.
Comedian and author David Walliams has promised to deliver spontaneity, adult themes and rude humour as he brings his “ambitious” new show to New Zealand later this month.
Walliams, best known for being one-half of the comic sketch duo Little Britain and a highly successful writer of children’s books, is hosting four live shows across the country in late September and early October.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan that aired on Sunday night, Walliams said he’s always had a great audience in New Zealand.
“This is a brand new show called An Audience with David Walliams. Apart from in Australia, I’ve not done it before. A couple of Little Britain characters appear in the show. It’s not crude, but obviously, there’s some… adult themes and slightly rude things.
”But we’ve worked really hard on the shows… We took a long time putting it together and have been doing it in Sydney and had an amazing response.”
Walliams says the thing he’s most looking forward to about his New Zealand shows is the part involving questions from the audience.
”It’s the most fun because you’re thinking on your feet and anything can happen,” he said.
”That part has actually brought the biggest laughs in the show because it’s the interaction with people that people love and the fact that it’s all completely in the moment and will be different every night wherever you go.
”[In Sydney] this girl about 20 got up and said, ‘Can you give my mum a hug? Because she hasn’t been touched by a man for many years.’ And yes, I gave her a hug, but it went no further than that.
Matt Lucas as Andy and David Walliams as Lou in Little Britain.
”And we had a boy who said, ‘David, I’ve read all 43 of your books, when are you gonna write a good one?’ Which was very funny – well, funnier for the audience than for me, but it was a great moment in the show. And actually, the ruder the question, the funnier it is.”
Walliams’ success in the past few decades is remarkable given he and fellow Little Britain co-founder Matt Lucas were performing to a handful of people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival when they first started out in comedy.
Now, Little Britain is an iconic sketch show – and Walliams alone is selling out venues across the world and has sold more than 56 million copies of his children’s books.
He told Real Life he’s “constantly reminding myself how lucky I am”.
”It’s good to remember that, because we went from playing to three people, to playing to 10,000 people. People don’t really see the journey. They’re obviously not really aware of you until you’re successful. But we remember, and it’s a pretty amazing journey,” Walliams said.
”When we [first started] playing arenas, we had to look around the arena and take it in before the audience came in and think ‘this is crazy’, because to be honest, when we started, we were in a room that seated 100 people, and if we filled it we were over the moon.
”I just feel very, very lucky that I’ve had success in these different areas. To have a successful comedy career and then have a successful career as an author – it’s not something I take for granted.”
An Audience with David Walliams will be performed twice in Auckland and once each in Wellington and Christchurch in late September and early October. He will also be hosting three book shows in Auckland and Wellington.
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
