After experimenting with a Zoom gig where he got muted by 639 people, Omid Djalili is now where he belongs, on a stage and bringing back The Good Times!
The award-winning British-Iranian actor/comedian will bring his rescheduled The Good Times Tour to The Radlett Centre on Thursday, October 21.
A firm favourite at the Edinburgh Festival, Omid's stand-up awards include the Time Out Award for Best Stand Up and the EMMA Award. He's also been a nominee for a Perrier Award and the South Bank Award.
Omid was also awarded a Best Actor award at the Turin Film Festival for his lead performance in The Infidel.
His credits range from Hollywood to television, the West End stage to his critically acclaimed performance as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
The host of ITV quiz show The Winning Combination, Omid has appeared in the smash hit movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and His Dark Materials for BBC One and HBO.
In The Good Times Tour, Omid waxes lyrical about life, the universe, and the unfathomable world in which we find ourselves.
Trying to sum up his new show, Omid said: "It’s difficult to answer that because I have a few surprises up my sleeve.
"But the main thrust of it is that it’s a celebration of stand-up comedy, and the joy of coming together as a way of catching up on fun we’ve missed out on.
"I remember having a conversation with one of the producers of the Royal Variety Performance who said more often than not he found someone on stage all by themselves doing stand-up comedy more powerful and magical than a highly entertaining musical number with 60 people dancing around on stage.
"A stand-up can conjure up 1,000 images because your mind is working while you’re listening. So basically my new show is a thousand images in an hour and a half."
Omid is delighted to be back on stage in front of live audiences again after lockdown, drive-in gigs and then socially-distanced shows.
"The new normal, as we call it, is extraordinary," said Omid.
"One of the first gigs I did back was a socially-distanced one in Newcastle, at The Stand Comedy Club, in a 300-seat venue where only 90 people were allowed in and they all had to wear visors and they weren’t allowed to speak to me.
"Halfway through the show I said, ‘Look, if you really want to heckle, why don’t you steam up the inside of your visors and write your heckles backwards?’
"I quickly lost control of the gig because they weren’t interested in what I was saying any more, they were only interested in writing words backwards.
"So it’s a real relief to be back on stage with an audience without restrictions."
He added: "Every comic I’ve spoken to has come to the realisation that this is a profession you can never take for granted because we have the best job in the world.
"I did Zoom gigs and enjoyed them but you can’t beat the live experience. It impacts you physiologically.
"When you have a shared experience it has an affect on the mind, body and spirit in a way that is very different to watching things digitally on your phone or on a television. It’s certainly impacted me when I’ve seen it done well."
Omid Djalili: The Good Times Tour can be seen at The Radlett Centre on Thursday, October 21. Visit www.radlettcentre.co.uk
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