‘BCN Comedy Vibes: Fringe Edition with Tom Evans’ by Yulia Peelovesky
I had the pleasure of chatting with Tom Evans, a comedian whose high energy and wit were the perfect fit as the opening act for Ignacio Lopez’s stand-up show, Señor Self-Destruct, at the 2024 Barcelona Fringe. Tom’s blend of humour, honesty, and relatable charm make him a natural on stage. During our conversation, Tom shares his thoughts on self-promotion, the challenges of being an entertainer, and his journey through comedy. From discussing his mantra of kindness to shedding light on the darker side of mental health, Tom’s insights offer a refreshing look at the highs and lows of life as a performer. Whether he talks about creating an engaging atmosphere with the crowd or running unique shows, Tom’s passion for comedy is palpable, and his stories will make you laugh out loud.
Yulia: So, Tom, what kind of fuel do you run on? Is it coffee, jokes, or perhaps cocaine?
Tom: Well, no. Especially not in the daytime. The jokes are probably the best source of energy. I love making people laugh. It’s my favourite thing in the world. And yes, I do enjoy coffee. I’ve never heard of the thing you mentioned… Coca-ine? Never heard of it.
Yulia: I’ll Google it for you.
Tom: Is it some sort of pastry?
Yulia: Well, it’s more like a toothpaste. Old tart Google knows it.
Tom: We are not slut shaming Google now are we!
Yulia: No, of course not. Chat GPT on the other hand is such a slut. Thank you for agreeing to do this with me by the way. As you can see I am a super professional journalist (not). I’m just trying to talk to as many people as possible because something I’ve noticed is that comedians don’t like promoting themselves, and so it happens, I kind of do.
Tom: It’s difficult because you don’t want to seem arrogant. But it’s a big aspect of being a professional comedian. I woke up this morning and thought, “I should probably do a post about last night.” Then you see yourself on the front camera and it’s like … no, no. It’s very hard to promote yourself. One of the main reasons most comedians do it is because, at some point, they were bullied. That can give you a lower sense of self-worth. So, when you have to promote yourself, all those voices from back in the day come back. “You’re not good enough, you’re not funny,” all that stuff. But you have to push through it. And do it. And do it as much as you can. You also think, “Well, I’m bothering people.” But you’re not. They’re either going to look at it or scroll past.
Yulia: And there are people who follow hashtags like comedy, stand-up, fringe, they deserve to be informed.
Tom: True. I think a lot of people assume, “If I post this, there’s no point, because last time only one dude showed up because of it.” But that’s one extra dude. And it’s all about bums on seats.
Yulia: You’re opening for some big names. How does it feel to be the hype factory before the main event? Do you have a secret recipe for getting the crowd hyped?
Tom: That’s a good question. I like being the opening act. It would be nice to be the closing act, but I do enjoy it. I feel a lot of honour and pride in opening for people like Ignacio Lopez and Tom Stade, two of my favourite comedians in the world. I grew up watching them. So, opening for them is almost an out-of-body experience at times. If I could tell my six-year-old self, “You’re going to make people laugh for a living” … I’m not a millionaire, but I pay my bills by making people laugh. I’m a high-energy person, really.
Yulia: Paying the bills with comedy, wow!
Tom: A secret recipe for getting the crowd hyped you’ve asked … If anyone’s going to look silly in my set, it’s going to be me. I don’t like to make people feel small or little. I hope that comes across. Also, energy. If somebody’s giving off negative vibes, don’t take it in. If I’m having a bad day, I don’t let that show. Leave your problems at the stage door. Be friendly, not confrontational with the audience. It’s about building trust with the audience.
Yulia: You definitely come across as an engaging, vibrant person. I want to open up to you immediately … but I won’t when I’m in the audience, because that’s heckling!
Tom: Exactly. If you put someone on the spot and they feel intimidated, I’m the first to save them. I despise bullies. I have a strong sense of justice. When I see someone getting bullied, I step in to defend them. Then I’ll bully myself in my head. But a friend once told me, “If you saw someone treating your friend the way you treat yourself, what would you say to them?” It’s a bit cheesy, but you have to be kind to yourself.
Yulia: Amazing. Your mantra is: Be kind, be funny.
Tom: Unless someone tries to steal my beer.
Yulia: If you could only choose one for the rest of your life—funny or kind—which would it be and why?
Tom: I can’t believe you asked me that. All I want is two things, and you’re like, “You only get one.” I love being funny, but it’d be hard to live in a world without kindness. I find being kind so much easier than being mean. Whenever I do something mean, I hate myself for it. Before I came to Barcelona, I picked up my grandma from the hospital. I had to find a spot close by. I parked in a pick-up and drop-off point. There was a lot of traffic and no one was in a good mood. I hate hospitals, so I was already in a bad mood. Then this taxi driver starts knocking on my window. My engine was on; I was waiting to reverse. But he kept knocking. “Yes, sir, I know I’m not supposed to be here.” But he repeated it. That’s a neurodivergent thing for me—repeating stuff winds me up. He did it a third time, and I just put my hand up. “Stop, stop. I’m leaving. Go away.” Not the rudest thing, but the whole day, I was like, “You could’ve handled that better.”
Yulia: Of course it’s annoying. Why do people do that?
Tom: People like telling others what to do. In his head, he was the hero. Everyone’s the hero in their own story.
Yulia: Hope he works on his personality next time. I know that you are doing three shows together with Ignacio. Can you tell me more about them and how they are different from one another? For those who have already seen one of your shows.
Tom: So in his show, Señor Self-Destruct, he’s talking about how stand-up has affected his life in a negative and a positive way. It’s just a general, bigger conversation about mental health. It’s tough because there are some dark themes in it. And some people might have been affected by some of the things that are in the show. I don’t want to spoil anything. Come and see the show. He’s talking about his own experiences and his own thoughts about it. He’s not talking about anything like, “Isn’t suicide funny?” I lost a close friend of mine to it two months ago. He just walked into a river and didn’t come back out. And I know too many friends like this. It’s a problem that seems to affect men more than it does women. But there’s also the other side of it, where there’s more women putting up with living miserably. But the biggest killer of men under 40 is suicide. That sucks. I myself have suffered with all sorts of dark thoughts. I love the show. I think it’s really good the way he talks about it. So that’s Señor Self-Destruct. It’s a deep yet very funny show.
Yulia: It is. I’ve seen it. It is an awesome show.
Tom: Then we do Juan Solo’s Excellent Adventures in Space. He plays a character that he created when he was younger—the Spanish version of Star Wars, Juan Solo. So he plays Juan Solo, who is the captain of a space cruise ship. I play his assistant, like his Chewbacca. I’m half badger, half man. He calls me Zebra Dog, or ZD for short. It’s a family show. There are loads of jokes in it for the mums and dads as well. I play a character based on Bill and Ted. Juan, come and meet everybody. Look at all these cool dudes and dudettes here. This is going to be great.
And he comes out and he’s like … Hey, everybody. Oh, my God. And I’m like … What’s up, Juan? He goes:
“There’s no children allowed on this thing! Right, how old are you?”
“I’m five.”
“Right, you’re 18 today. How old are you?”
“I’m six.”
“You’re 18 today. We’re going to have to give everyone fake moustaches.”
So we give all the kids fake moustaches. And it’s so adorable. They’re all there just wearing like these Hulk Hogan moustaches. What was great when we were doing it in Edinburgh is we would see the children keeping it on all day. We do the show at midday. We’d see them at 6 p.m. still with the moustaches on.
Yulia: Aww, that’s adorable.
Tom: It so is. So that’s that show. And now we’ve also started doing another show called Nada, which is half crowd work, half improvised film noir. Again, I don’t want to give too much away. People should just come to the shows that we’re running. We run good shows. We’re both obsessed with making people laugh. I hope they will run into this interview and read the information about the show.
Yulia: How’s Barcelona Fringe been treating you so far?
Tom: We’ve only been here a day, but it’s been fucking sick so far. We love it. This third show is me and him on stage. It’s a quasi-crowd work that goes into an improvised detective film noir. And it’s just great. Go and see it. We’re not doing it in Barcelona, but maybe we’ll bring it on tour.
Yulia: What’s the most ridiculous situation you found yourself in while performing? If you can remember.
Tom: There were a lot of really dodgy gigs in the first couple of years, where you would just be in the corner of a pub. Here in Barcelona, the downstairs basement areas are practically built for comedy. They’re rectangular-shaped, long, the ceilings are low, the acoustics are insane. There’s energy to that room. In the UK, we don’t have many of those. We don’t have buildings that were built by people who wanted them to last a million years. I mean, we do, but they’re not. The cellars that would be really good for comedy in Britain are filled with beer kegs. That’s what sucks.
Those rooms would be perfect for comedy, but they would never do it because of the beer. What’s the most ridiculous situation I’ve been in? If you’d have asked me to prepare for that one, I probably would have a better story. But here is the situation where I felt odd. I had very long hair until a couple of months ago. We did a gig for the Little Princess Trust, which is a charity that makes wigs for kids going through chemotherapy.
So I had my hair cut on stage. So that felt pretty ridiculous. We did raise a thousand pounds for the charity though. Ignacio headlined it. He was great.
Yulia: Wow. How do you connect with the audience? A clever joke, an epic dance move? Or just your irresistible charm?
Tom: I wouldn’t call it irresistible charm, because I’m single. So it’s clearly quite resistible. I like it. I like being silly, goofy, flirty. I do camp it up a little bit as well because I’m a big guy. I’ve got broad shoulders. I’m tall. I’ve got a beard. When I used to wait tables in restaurants, I used to camp it up, because it would make people feel at ease more quickly. Otherwise, I’m just this big, gloomy figure. And then they tip me more. So I would say a bit of a flourish of campness. I’ve had a few people come up to me after the show. I don’t know if you know Graham Norton?
Yulia: Of course, I do. He’s great.
Tom: He is British television in one fucking person. People have come up to me after the show and said, “Your style reminds me of him.” And what’s funny is they go, “I’m sorry if that offends you.” I’m like, you just compared me to one of the greatest broadcasters that’s ever existed. I’m so offended. (Kidding). I’m actually fine with that so far.
Yulia: With your experience hosting shows across the Northwest and Southwest, have you noticed any regional differences in humour? And if so, which region has the best punchlines?
Tom: Wow. I can’t say which is the best. Everyone’s great. The people in the North are easier to make laugh because they’re up for a laugh. But if you get the people in the South on your side, they’ll give you a really good gift. They’ll have more trust in you, and you can play a few more risks with your stuff. But everyone’s amazing. I love everyone. Yay, everyone!
Yulia: Fantastic. Thank you.
Catch Tom performing around the Northwest of the UK, including a unique show at Hooters Liverpool (possibly the first comedy gig in a Hooters venue!) and returning to his seasonal spot at The Riddling Rack in Newton Le Willows (yes it’s a real place). He’ll also be back in South Wales for some big home gigs and is preparing new material as he supports Ignacio Lopez on tour in early 2025. Tom’s already planning a return to Barcelona Fringe next year, aiming even bigger after his incredible experience there.
This interview was hosted by Yulia Peelovesky, your unofficial “BCN Comedy Vibes: Fringe” blabber, spreading laughter and insights one cool AF comedian at a time.
