Josh in Salford #5 (Bit Much, 9.10.19)
Well, it’s that time again. Time for another of my infamous ramblings or write-ups about seeing one of our favourite trio!
Last night (October 9th 2019), I went to see Josh at the The Lowry in Salford as part of his latest tour, Bit Much.
As expected, he was amazing as ever and it felt a bit weird seeing him in the big room (Lyric Theatre) again as he was in the smaller one only last year for a one-off show for Quickly Kevin, his 90s football podcast.
This show was also a wonderful comeback to standup for him. A lot has changed for our dear Josh since What Do I Do Now... from 2015/2016. Gone are the days (for now) of him talking about growing up in Devon and the shocker - not a single mention of his beloved Pret A Manger!
Josh tackled silly subjects such as his girlfriend signing up to a weekly vegetable delivery service, his love of pesto, advent calendars without chocolate (just the pictures) and baby monitors - he’s all grown up!
He also mentioned his dislike of early flights for holidays and stag dos, hiding in his hotel room until the evening party of a wedding by getting drunk watching Football Focus and his local park closing at “dusk”.
Before Josh came onstage, his support was the always wonderful Ivo Graham who was around for most of Josh’s last tour. Shame a stupid heckler who was sat a few rows down from us at the very top shelf of the venue (we got our tickets last minute) with an annoying laugh wouldn’t shut up, but thankfully, he did when Josh was onstage.
Salford, well, Manchester is always a special show for Josh as when he was wrapping the show up, he talked briefly about how he’s played every room in the venue, his uni days and getting to see Harry Hill and Derren Brown in the same venue. The show last night was sold out, despite a few no-showers.
Afterwards, I had another quick little catchup with him and yes, I had Mini Josh with me as ever! He’s always so pleased to see him (and me!!).
So, um... I also have a confession to make. I knew about some BIG news of Josh’s that’s happened recently (Adam told me in Warrington in August) , he recently got married in the last fortnight! I, of course, congratulated him and told him I already knew from Adam telling me and we had a good giggle about it.
We then said our goodbyes, along with one of the best cuddles ever(!!) and started wondering what shows we’d see each other at next year. Trust me, there’ll be a few! (Chester, probably. Liverpool, yes!!)
If Josh’s coming near you, this year or next, I encourage you to go. This show seemed like such a special one for him and while he’s all grown-up now, he’ll always be the same Josh who I saw on his very first Live at the Apollo 8 years ago talking about 2p pushing machines in arcades and myxomatosis!
While this year has been a tough one for me personally, and we might’ve broken tradition by not being in the first 10 rows, getting to see Josh really did put a smile back on my face. There’s just something so special about getting to see someone who’ve supported and looked up to for so long, that feeling is just... indescribable. I’ve only ever felt that with Josh, Adam, Alex and another wonderful “comedian”/dear friend, Steve McNeil (from Go 8 Bit, Josh was in the early live shows and series 3!).
Next year can’t come soon enough to see my favourite curly head yet again. ❤️