Russell Howard’s Five Brilliant Things

Avalon Television

Each week Russell sits down with fantastic guests to chat about their Brilliant Things; the items, places and people that make life worth living. Five Brilliant Things is a fun, funny and sometimes heartfelt look at life through an optimistic lens. read less
ComedyComedy
Comedy InterviewsComedy Interviews

Episodes

Giovanna Fletcher
Nov 13 2024
Giovanna Fletcher
Welcome to Five Brilliant Things, or as it used to be known, Wonderbox.  Like a latter-day Reginald Dwight we’ve had a wee name change - everything else is the same show that you know and love.  And this week, the irrepressible Giovanna Fletcher is in the studio to explain the beauty of silent discos (Russell disagrees), the majesty of a dibber and some top tips for dropping your guts on a mountain.  It’s a brilliant chat that bobs along at a lick, taking in Giovanna’s writing career, her performing and getting into the practical challenges of trekking across the Himalayas. Giovanna can be found weekly on her Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, and she’ll be appearing across the UK in the upcoming stage production of The Girl on the Train.  🥾 But probably most importantly, she’s in the Himalayas right now trekking to raise money for the awesome Breast Cancer Charity, CoppaFeel!  🥾 For more information about CoppaFeel! and how you can support this challenge and donate to the CoppaTrek! head to the following link - https://coppatrek-himalayas.coppafeel.org/ - to help CoppaFeel! ensure everyone has the best possible chance of surviving breast cancer.   And for those of you wondering why a podcast would change its name… you’d be surprised if you call your podcast something as suggestive as ‘Wonderbox’ just how much attention you get from spambots.  So unless ‘Brilliant Thing’ has become some kind of new euphemism we haven’t heard of then we should be safe for the time being. It’s Wonderbox. But now it’s called Five Brilliant Things. And we will return next week with another fabulous guest. Goodbye!  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Adam Rowe
Nov 6 2024
Adam Rowe
Russell sits down with Liverpool stand-up legend Adam Rowe, resident at the famous Hot Water Comedy Clubs and host of the ‘Have a Word’ Podcast with Dan Nightingale.  Adam and Russell talk over the finer points of Liverpool the city, the football club (if you’re a Man Utd fan you can forward over that bit). Adam talks costumes, and we find out whether he finds a blow-up dinosaur costume or a banana costume more sexually attractive.  There’s also a great bit of advice for a way of driving that makes you look sexy. So if you’re on the hunt for tips on how to get sexy (and we could all do with a bit more of that. Look at you now, sitting there, crisps in hand, reading show notes for a podcast. I mean who does that?) then this is the episode for you.  📺 Adam’s stand-up specials are all available for you to watch FOR FREE on that there YouTube, and his latest one is out THIS FRIDAY! Here’s a link to the Have a Word Youtube channel to make that all a bit easier for you. No thanks necessary. 📺 🎤Aaand of course, like all stand-ups Adam is best eaten in a live setting, so you can get all the details of where he is when by going to his website https://www.adamrowe.co.uk/  🎤 🚴‍♂️ Adam’s off on his charity bike ride in aid of the Baby Hospice Zoe’s Place. If you’d like to sponsor Adam and donate to that brilliant cause then please go to https://cycle4zoes.enthuse.com/pf/adam-rowe 🚴‍♂️ Russell is in various parts of the world doing his tour show, and occasionally popping back to the UK to try out some new bits in smaller clubs. Often found at Top Secret Comedy Club in London. Find out his dates and get some trinkets if that’s your thing at Russell-howard.co.uk We go. We come back again same time week on from now. Egg Man say bye bye.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
James Bay
Oct 23 2024
James Bay
How awkward is it to play a surprise set for the England Football Team when they’ve just finished training? James Bay did just this and told us all about it on this week’s podcast!  James and Russell talk about tight silver trousers, they get into how to write a song and Russell tells what he believes to be the greatest joke he’s ever written. It’s a thoroughly relaxed, intimate chat with plenty of tales from a life on the road as a musician. As James revealed on the podcast he has a new album out called ‘Changes All The Time’ and it’s absolutley chock full of beautiful songs. Get it by going to https://www.jamesbay.com - obviously you can get it on Spotify but if you buy one for real then you can support the artist, which I know you care about really. Imagine having the death of music on your hands. Who would want that? Not you. I know you don’t want that.  Also please keep an eye out on Russell’s website russell-howard.co.uk for all his latest dates. He’s in all kinds of different places, like if you’re reading this on they day this podcast comes out then he’s in Galway, but if you’ve waited until Thursday then he’s no longer in Galway. You can see how there’s a limit to how much hand-holding I can provide for you. It’s time to fly the nest and find your own gig details. Be brave, you can do this. Until next week, when there will be more inane spewing into the void, take it easy and don’t climb trees in the rain if you’ve got slippy shoes. Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Michelle Wolf
Oct 11 2024
Michelle Wolf
US Comedy superstar Michelle Wolf is with us!  And as well as effortlessly funny, Michelle is a wonderful big bag of fascinating contradictions. She's a glamorous comedy star who runs ultramarathons and attends Paris Fashion Week. She also can't think of anything better than getting a hot Wigan-style pie in her hands and face. Seriously mate. You haven't heard love until you've heard Michelle Wolf talk about pies.  It's an absolute romp of an episode; a globe-trotting special covering Michelle's adopted home of Barcelona, her worries for the future of America (seems legit) and a good twenty-minute ode to the British Pie.    Now listen and listen good. If you get the chance to see Michelle live, you've got to take it. One of the very best comedians on the planet, and some of the most insightful and funny material out there. She's written some of your favourite jokes of other big comics.  So have a wander through her website, and find out when she's in your country then go see her live. You'll hunt me down and thank me for the  tip off.  Russell is doin' the do in Canada. He's speakin' the speak in Scandanavia. By which I mean performing his tour show. That's all coming up in the next few months. So get yourself some plane tickets and make a holiday of it. Tickets and dates are all here. It's guaranteed to be both cheaper and funnier than Oasis.   If you're here next week then we'll be here next week.   Slay.   Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
David O'Doherty LIVE from the Edinburgh Festival
Sep 23 2024
David O'Doherty LIVE from the Edinburgh Festival
Never knew David O’Doherty used to be an underground DJ?  It’s all here. Russell and David sit down in front of a live studio audience at the Edinburgh Fringe (yes, it was a few weeks ago but we recorded a few, OK!?) to discuss David’s DJ hinterland. Also there is when a 13 year old David offered to cycle around Ireland as a newspaper think-piece, and he tells Russell about hanging out with Taika Waititi.  This episode bounces along with more energy than a demented space-hopper, with a huge amount of laughs and fascinating stories from David’s wonderful brain.  You wanna get more David? You can gets you more David for HE IS ON TOUR! His Edinburgh show was brilliant (as always). It’s called Ready Steady David O’Doherty. You could get tickets from Ticketmaster, but those guys are firmly on the naughty step at the moment.  Better off - use this link HERE to go to David’s personal website and get linked directly to the theatres. It’ll probably save you some dollar too, but don’t quote me on that because I haven’t checked and it goes way beyond the call of duty for me to check all those theatre prices, cross-check with the Goliaths and then work out the difference all to save you 50p. I mean I like you, but we’ve got to have some boundaries.  Russell is packing his moose-repellent spray for his is touring in Canada in mere moments. This September, if you’re Canadian, heck even if you’re not but you happen to be there, check out the dates HERE - in one of the last opportunities to see his latest smash hit tour show live.  We shall see you, hear you and smell you next week. So long cowboy/girl/child/baby. Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
46. Larry Dean LIVE from the Fringe
Aug 14 2024
46. Larry Dean LIVE from the Fringe
Live from the Edinburgh Festival! Recorded in front of a beautiful audience at the Fringe, Russell goes through the Wonderbox of the exquisite Scottish stand-up, Larry Dean! This podcast goes from the serenity of the hills of Bhutan, to tender intergenerational moments of true connection, to a terrifying home-made nightmare of a sex doll.  If you’re a regular listener, you’ll notice that the live audience really adds a bit of spice to the occasion, and despite our afternoon time-slot, the show really goes the extra mile. It’s a bit filthier, a bit funnier. Get in there. Larry continues to perform his show Dodger until the end of the Fringe. It’s on every day at Monkey Barrel at 8:30pm and one can acquire tickets here.   For those of you who refuse to be blackmailed by Edinburgh tenancy companies and wait for the best shows to come to you, well you’re in luck. Larry will be touring the show around the UK in the months after August. Visit larrydeancomedy.com for all the information and to get yo tickets.   In other news…   Canucks and Scandos, get ready for some Russell stand-up shows flying at you like a rocket (a rocket full of mad good comedy show). Find out what the hell I’m talking about HERE. But only click if you’re in Canada or Scandinavia. The link is rigged to blow your phone up in your hand if you’re not geolocated in one of those spots. I might be bluffing. But do you really want to take that risk?   Enough blither. Until next time, padawan.   Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
43. Rosie Jones
Jul 24 2024
43. Rosie Jones
Does Rosie Jones have a wardrobe full of Nazi clothes? She wasn’t aware of it until she sat down for this podcast and opened her Wonderbox.   This absolute rip-snorter of an episode has got absolutely everything you would want and expect from the ebullient Rosie - waxing lyrical about Scotch Eggs, a slightly controversial side-track into the Third Reich and the most eloquent, beautiful explanation of disability rights history that you’ll hear in a long time.   Rosie has been touring her show for time, innit, so any mad fans will have already been at least twice. But for those of you who were unlucky enough to miss out on tickets, you’ve got a couple more opportunities and then that really will be it. Rosie will be performing her show Triple Threat at the Pleasance Grand in Edinburgh during the Fringe. 14th and 15th August only, 9:20pm. Tickets and information can all be found at www.edfringe.com.   Rosie’s children’s book ‘Moving on Up’, about growing up with confidence is out now in paperback, so next time you’re in your local independent bookshop you should pick up a copy. Very good stuff.   We're doing Wonderbox LIVE at the Edinburgh Festival! Three special shows with three special guests, on 1,2 and 4 August. Come and see us record an episode in the flesh! Tickets and details HERE.   Russell is touring Canada and Scandinavia, and should you be there, and hankering to see this stunning show, then get the dates, times and tickets HERE.    What a lot of information. And you only came here to while away a few more moments before getting on with that thing you’ve got to do. Well bad news - time’s up. You need to do that thing now. Stop putting it off. Swallow that frog. Get it done. Then reward yourself with a historic Wonderbox episode you’ve not got around to yet.   Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
41. Jamali Maddix
Jul 10 2024
41. Jamali Maddix
He's a regular panellist on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, he gone done Taskmaster, he's a fabulous touring comedian and he's made some insane documentaries: Jamali Maddix is in the studio with Russell!  Let's get straight to the meat and potatoes about this episode - there's a fantastic story about the time Jamali had his Megadrive confiscated by his Mum. Also find out about his history as a paintball referee. Proper funny stuff all over the timeline. It's just a great hour spent with one of those guys who effortlessly spins great tales.  Jamali will be hosting a new documentary series later this year on Dave, called Follow The Leader. It's the kind of insane shit he usually does, this time meeting leaders of fringe movements and culty sorts. It will be amazing. There isn't a specific release date yet, but if you just watch Dave from now on, and never turn it off, you'll see it sooner or later.  He's also always touring, doing new stand-up and shows - find out about all that at https://www.jamalimaddix.com/   Hey - here's something exciting. We're doing three LIVE Wonderbox shows at the Edinburgh Fringe on 1, 2 and 4th August! Live audience, special guests, maybe a foam party? No OK so maybe no foam party but still pretty exciting. They'll be mad good and you should attend or at the very least listen when we put 'em out as poddies. Find tickets at www.edfringe.com And then Russell's doing tour shows in Canada, Scandinavia and other places - get the latest at www.russellhoward.co.uk   And now our time, my old friend, has once again come to an end. It's been a wonderful ninety seconds or so we've spent together but this too shall pass. I'm off to do a big old burp. Until next time, traveller.    Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices