It could get me cancelled says Omid Djalili ahead of shows in Blackpool, Burnley & Lancaster

Comedian, actor and writer Omid Djalili is currently part way through touring his new critically aclaimed show ‘Namaste’ and next up is a long stop in Lancashire.

The Persian Comedy Powerhouse brings the show to Burnley Mechanics Theatre on Friday, April 11, followed by Lancaster Grand Theatre on Saturday, April 12, before finishing up at the Blackpool on Sunday, April 13.

Before his arrival, Omid sat down with a chat with out celebrity reporter to talk all things Namaste, Lancashire and why you won’t be catching him on the Big Dipper any time soon...

Take a look at the full exclusive interview below...

How are you feeling about coming up to Lancashire with your new show?

“Amazing. I've never been more excited in my life because the show has been around the world -it's been to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, America- and it's been all over, I would say, in its early stages. I like to develop the show in the Northwest, and then I go back down south and now that the show is ready, you bring it up to the Northwest, where they are the best audiences. I already did Leeds, and coming up north is the greatest experience for a comedian once you've been down south. It's terrible when you've been doing stuff up north then you go down south, you think ‘oh my god, I thought I was funny, they're not laughing at anything’. It's such a disturbing experience! But to do it the other way around now, when the show is ready, and then coming to the Northwest, and actually Burnley Mechanics, the audience in Lancaster, Blackpool, these are some of the best audiences in the whole of the UK so I cannot tell you how excited I am to be coming. And I'm not just saying that, I'm genuinely, I'm telling that truthfully.”

So, have you performed in either of these areas before?

“Yes, yes, yes. Burnley Mechanics is one of my favorite gigs on the whole tour and the theater in Lancaster is just a beautiful theater. I'm actually very annoyed with them because there's all the pictures backstage of all the posters of all the great people who've performed there, but I've always performed there and they've never put up a poster up of me. I'm hoping to do so well, they'll finally have to put a framed picture up backstage!”

And what about Blackpool?

“Blackpool is great. The audiences are just fabulous there. I've never sold out Blackpool, that's the thing. ... I've sold out Lytham St Annes which is nearby, I've never sold out Blackpool. So I'm begging the people from Lytham, please come, actually, everybody in the area, everyone in the northwest area, because I've already developed the show in Liverpool and Manchester so I'm really reaching out to Liverpool and Manchester, come and see me in Blackpool, because it's going to be something, it’s such a beautiful theater and the best audiences, so come along.”

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Have you been for leisure before?

“Once I came to Blackpool, honestly, it was a weirdest experience. I was in a hotel right next door to some kind of Big Dipper. There was some kind of like ride that was right outside my bedroom so we'd hear it every three minutes go by, people screaming, and they’d go right past the window. I can't remember the name of that hotel, but I remember thinking, ‘oh, this recommended hotel- I'm never going there again!’ It's the most frightening experience. You've got this big roller coaster, literally 10 feet away from the window so I've learned not to do that again but it was also hypnotic, becauseI found myself looking. I've never looked out the window for three hours in one go just before a gig. I was just like looking at this thing going around and people screaming so I'm not doing that again but it was quite an experience.”

Has that ever made it onto one of your stand up shows?

“No, never. I should. I'm writing a routine about it, so I'll probably do it in Blackpool.”

So will you go on the Big Dipper this time around?

“No, I hate all that stuff. When I was a kid, I went to Disneyland, I went to Magic Mountain, and all those things just scared the hell out of me. I even went to one small one in Denmark. I did a gig in Denmark and they said come along and do this thing and I said ‘surely I'm too short’.. And they said ‘no, you're big enough’. It was just a mild ride but I was screaming my head off and people were looking at me. I'm not the kind of screamer who makes it fun like, ‘whoa, yeah’, I was like ‘get me off! Da! Why?!’ And I remember thinking ‘why do people do this? This is ridiculous. Why would you want to be on these things and s*** yourself? Who wants that? That's not entertainment.’ Maybe I'm just getting too old for this kind of thing, because it used to be exciting, but now I genuinely worry that I'll die for no reason as well so I don't see the point of them. So no, I will not be going to the Big Dipper.”

If we talk about real entertainment, what is your show about?

“The show is called Namaste. It's about me controlling my anger about the last couple of years where all these things have happened. There's the Woman Life Freedom movement, the suppressed revolution in Iran; you had Gaza; you had Putin; you had all these things that dominate the airwaves, and you start thinking it’s there just to make you angry. So what I've tried to do as a comedian is put all my anger into a catalytic converter, which I've called Namaste. So what comes out of it is comedy insight, and maybe some beautiful things as well, and some resolutions. And I've been very, very open. The show could nearly get me canceled, but I've got to the point where I don't really care.

“Whatever I think and say- and I've cushioned it in a way- these are my opinions and actually, by and large, people have said ‘I don't agree with you and that was a wild thing you said, but actually there may be some truth in it’. A lot of people said ‘I didn't see it that way’. That's the one thing, I'm not there to validate your opinions, I'm there to challenge you because the way we have been taught and the way the stuff that we've been fed is very much just a couple of news outlets and newspapers that have agendas. I think we all know that so what I'm doing is giving you a more global perspective on it, and everyone has said, ‘I've never heard that perspective before, that's very new, and if that's the truth, then it could be a game changer’. So people are being shaken up. People are kind of saying ‘wow’.So no one has disagreed, and a lot of people have come away and sent DMs that say ‘actually, you're absolutely right. Never saw it that way’... and if it's a question in comedy, people are laughing and they're thinking, and it's the first time I've done a show which has been controversial, only in the sense that they're hearing things they've never heard before- but also there's been a general consensus that there's been a lot of agreement. So fingers crossed, people will appreciate it when we come to the North West.”

It sounds like politics over the last few years has really influenced the show but would someone who isn't at all politically engaged still very much enjoy it?

“Yeah, I think so. It's one of those things where you don't have to be politically engaged but you have to care and we're getting to the point where we realise that the world really is one place, like when you stub your toe on the table leg and it hurts badly, the little toe is furthest away from your brain but it still hurts. So what I'm trying to say is that stuff that goes on far away from Great Britain, even though it's far away from us, we're still affected by it, and we could actually be galvanized by it. So whether you're politically engaged or not, we need to care enough about world events because it actually affects us in Lytham St Anne's, it affects us in Lancaster, it affects us everywhere. So actually, if you're not politically engaged, it doesn't matter. You just have to care for people, and you have to have this two fold moral purpose, which is to try and change yourself, but at the same time, try and help society. ”

And no matter where anyone is in the country, why should they get tickets to come see Namaste?

I have to say, when I took it to America, where some people didn't know me, I'll never forget, in Seattle, when I got to the theater, they were very, very standoffish and not very helpful. I said ‘an I do a sound check’, they go ‘eugh, okay’. Then at the end of the show, they all wanted selfies with me and I said ‘why do you want selfies?’ They said, ‘hey, man, we laughed and we learned. You can't ask for more than that’. I was like ‘okay, thank you. I’ll remember that/ So ‘we laughed and we learned’ - that's the reason to come.”

Have you got any plans for after the tour?

Yes, there are lots of great projects we've got, we've got the first ever Ipswich based sitcom, which I'm working with. There's a great documentary we're doing about the history of political comedy, and I've got a few things coming out which are very exciting -watch out for it. But yeah, I'm a busy boy. I'm enjoying a fabulous second act of my life and if people tell you that things don't start when you're 59, I tell you right now, looking the way I do, bald, old, overweight, that is when life starts. And that's my message to anyone in their late 50s.

Are there any final words you want to share with our readers?

“Just to say, please download the new Ed Sheeran song, which is called Azizam. I'm going to make a prediction: The Shape of You, I think, is in the top five most downloaded songs on YouTube and Spotify - 4.4 billion or something. I'm going to make a prediction now. I think it's going to beat that. It is so catchy, and it has a Persian word, which is ‘azizam’, which means my dear or my darling or my beloved. It's an ODE, he says, to his wife because he loves his wife, but it's also something to support the people of Iran. He just loves Persian culture and it's the most non-political, beautiful way to give a nod to the people of Iran and what they're going through because it's such a beautiful culture and the fact that someone like Ed Sheeran will get that message to young people that actually, in the Middle East, they're not all crazy suicide bombers and fundamentalists, there's a beautiful culture there and him doffing his cap to the Persian culture is going to be hugely impactful. “

You do feature in the music video so can we expect you to sing on tour?

“Yes! I do quite a bit of singing on the show, a bit of singing and a bit of dancing for sure, that's a staple with me. When you see me, there's always a bit of singing, bit of dancing, bit of wiggling, bit of hip thrusting and some very, very inappropriate dance moves.I also need to keep my over 60s crowd excited, women need that kind of excitement from me, so come and I will provide.”