Comedian: ‘A person whose job is to make people laugh by telling jokes and funny stories or by copying the behaviour or speech of famous people.’
Liam Withnail isn't your typical performer. He doesn't just tell jokes but turns his own life into laughter.
And while he's now a regular on the national stand-up circuit, he was pretty much always destined to go into comedy of some description.
The Dagenham-born comedian attended drama classes at Chigwell Construction Stadium - the current home of West Ham United’s Women’s team - having watched Liar Liar, starring Canadian and American actor and comedian Jim Carrey.
It is 18 years since Withnail, a teenager from east London, packed his bags and moved from Dagenham to Edinburgh, and didn't tell his parents.
And within seconds of taking to the stage at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh in 2013, for his first stand-up gig, his audience buckled with laughter. It was the teenager's first gig, but he showed he had the talent needed to make him a stand-up comedy star.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Now 36, he is one of the stars on the circuit, having won the Scottish Comedy Award in 2018 and the Amused Moose Award for Outstanding Show in 2019, and has taken his hit show Chronic Boom on a UK tour following a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023.
Withnail is currently the opening act for Nick Mohammed, who was appointed West Ham manager in hit Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, as he heads back out on tour across the UK.
Ahead of a busy 2025, the comedian took time out of his busy schedule to look back on his career with pride and his support for his beloved Hammers…
Liam, where did it all begin for you as a stand-up comedian, then?
I always wanted to be a performer.
When I was eight years old, I watched Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey, and I said to my Mum that I wanted to be like that when I grow up, and she took me to drama class the next day at Chigwell Construction Stadium.
I was an 18-year-old when I hit a bit of a crossroads. I just felt a bit lost, and I knew that I wanted to be able to perform but didn't really know how you'd go about that, so I decided to move to Scotland because I’d heard of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and thought that must be a good place for somebody who wants to work in the arts to be, and I’ve been here ever since.
I managed to get my first gig at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh around a year after arriving in Scotland, and I haven't looked back since then, really.
So, you’ve been on a meteoric rise over the last decade. Tell us about that?
Comedy is a bit like football, where you kind of have to do a lot of the work without really anyone knowing who you are or seeing what you do. You're just training for years and years, sort of quietly doing small gigs.
And then, one day, you get that big opportunity, whether that's, for example, getting drawn against a Premier League club in the FA Cup or getting the opportunity to show what you can do on TV, or, in my case, having the opportunity to be the opening act for a big comedian.
It's very incremental. You don't really have that ‘I've made it’ moment. But a couple of years ago, I did a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which did really, really well, called ‘Chronic Boom’, and if there was a moment of big change, then that was it.
Since then, I’ve got to travel the world and done shows in Australia, Japan and Canada.
I like to say it's not a job; it's something I get to do instead of a job.
And, as you mentioned, you took ‘Chronic Boom’ on a UK tour in 2023. Was that a moment that changed everything?
Prior to that, I was still doing pretty well, but that show kind of accelerated it.
I got to do my own tour, which went around the country. And suddenly people are coming specifically to see you. They're not just going to a comedy night or seeing another comedian and you're opening. It's your audience that is excited to see you.
That's the step that not a lot of people get to take, so that was the biggest change.
I have a health condition called ulcerative colitis. It's a type of inflammatory bowel disease.
And after being hospitalised for two weeks, I came out, and I decided to write a show just about this experience of being in hospital for two weeks.
It was going to be funny, but I wanted to talk seriously as well about what it's like having a health condition.
The whole hour show was a bit different from what most people have seen before and was one hour of storytelling about those days that I was in hospital, and a lot of people really connected with it.
When you’ve got a health condition, you’re used to everyone feeling sorry for you and giving you pity. I think there was a bit of power in going, 'No, you know what, there's actually a lot of stuff here that happens that's funny,' especially when it's bowel disease, to be honest, and I think it gave others a bit of power to realise that we can actually have a laugh about some of this as well.
That was the big turning point, really.
You won the Scottish Comedy Award in 2018 and the Amused Moose Award for Outstanding Show in 2019. How proud are you to have won these accolades?
Winning the Outstanding Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for my show called ‘Homecoming’ was a big deal because it meant that I got to do a sort of mini tour of that show and get a lot more attention.
That was an award that led to stuff, and I won the Best Host at the Scottish Comedy Awards in 2018, which, as an English person, was quite a big deal, to be honest, and I don't think anyone expected an English guy to win, so that was really nice.
I’m also the only person to be in the finals for both the English and Scottish Comedian of the Year Awards.
So, what’s next for you, Liam?
I'm currently the opening act for Nick Mohammed on his tour, who people will know from Ted Lasso as the evil West Ham manager. That's been really fun because he performs at these big, beautiful theatres in front of 1,000 to 2,000 people.
I’m currently working up towards a new show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, which is all about growing up in Dagenham and moving to Scotland, so that's really exciting.
My relationship with the Edinburgh Festival is special because the festival comes to me, which is like a very lucky thing to be able to have, and it’s like the whole world turns up at your doorstep wanting to see you perform.
I've got a lot of material about my parents and what it was like being in Dagenham. And just looking back, it's been kind of emotional, actually. There are loads of really funny stories from growing up in Dagenham that have been a lot of fun to think about.
You get to perform on stage for an hour in front of an audience every day for a month. And that's a real joy, especially when you are proud of the show and it's something that you put a lot of work into. It's a real privilege.
I just want to do comedy and have that be my job, and that has been my job for years. So I feel like if I get to do this for a job, I'm already kind of living the dream.
In ten years, I'd like to still be touring, still be writing and be performing in front of bigger and bigger crowds.
The shows I'm doing are in 100-seater venues at the moment, so I guess that would be the goal, to get to a point where you're touring, but it's 1,000 people.
You’re a big Hammer, too?
Dagenham is a big West Ham area. My Dad is from Ireland, and he decided to support West Ham after the 1966 FIFA World Cup final, and then he moved to London, and he met my Mum, who was from Dagenham and is also a West Ham fan.
It's just always in the family. My Dad told me I could support anyone I wanted, but if I didn't support West Ham, I would have to sleep in the shed!
I was eight, and I believed that. He used to take us to Kids for a Quid games at the Boleyn Ground. I got a Season Ticket when I was 14 and then got a job selling [fanzine] Over Land And Sea - that was my first job.
We used to stand outside the gates with a denim belt, selling fanzines. I used that money to get an away Season Ticket when I was 17, and that was the year (2006/07) that we were at the Great Escape at Old Trafford and we also went to Cardiff three years in a row for two Play-Off finals and an FA Cup final [between 2004-06].
I loved watching Paolo Di Canio when I was younger, and there are so many great players that I have fond memories of.
I always loved Tomáš Řepka growing up because he was such a mean, hard guy, and I idolised him. But for me, Jarrod Bowen scored a winner for us in a European final and has recently married into the Dyer family.
You can't get more West Ham than that!
*Follow Liam Withnail on Instagram @liamwithnail
