Graham Norton at The Forum – Review
Posted on: 2016-10-07
Our rating:
Everyone who bought a ticket to see Graham Norton in Bath last Friday night knew that it wasn’t going to be a typical comedy show. He was set to talk about his new novel Holding and be interviewed on stage, but I don’t think any of us were prepared to be taken on such an interesting journey through Graham’s life and career.
The venue, as it usually is, was pretty packed and eager to see one of Britain’s best loved comedians. With his popular and hilarious Friday night show The Graham Norton Show and his column in The Telegraph, as well as many other TV appearances, he has become a friend to the nation. His sarcastic tone and down to earth attitude has won him his legion of fans. That’s exactly what shone through in this show.
Viv Groskop, a writer, broadcaster and stand-up comedian, interviewed Graham and was great in her role of getting him to open up about a range of subjects. Much to our delight Graham started the show by saying he was so surprised at how much traffic there is in Bath. He had just come from London and expected the city of Bath to be peaceful – queue laughter from the audience.
As expected he discussed his new novel at first, but it wasn’t boring at all. In typical Graham style he constantly made sarcastic jokes and most of the time about himself. What was quite surprising though is that he admitted he rarely reads the books written by the celebrities he has on his Friday night show. So next time you hear him say “oh yes I loved the book” when he’s got a movie star on the BBC sofa, you know he’s giggling inside. He loves his job, which is nice to hear, and told a story about how star struck he gets when he meets Tom Cruise. He made a point of saying he never really gets star struck but “there’s just something about Tom Cruise” because “he’s not a person, he’s a movie star”.
Graham spoke freely and really allowed us to get to know him a little better. There was laughter from the audience at least every few minutes and because you wanted to know what funny thing he would say next we were all paying attention to every word he said. He has that power of drawing you in and making you feel like a friend having a chat and a laugh over a cuppa. Audience members were even encouraged to ask questions at one point and Graham was surprised that most people wanted to know about his new book. As he jokingly said when he’s in his home town in Ireland “I always get asked ‘what’s it like to be famous?’ ”
The best thing about Graham is that the term celebrity eludes him and he doesn’t come across as you expect a famous person to come across. He’s exactly how he is on TV; he doesn’t have a big ego, he’s loveable and most importantly he’s generous – I mean we all got a free signed copy of his new book! Thanks Graham.
To find out more about Graham's book Holding and to purchase it click here.
Article by:
Born in Bath, Safia has lived on the outskirts of the city her whole life. After studying journalism in Bristol she now spends a lot of her time searching for new things to see in Bath and soaking up the beautiful culture. You're most likely to find her sipping a soya latte in a lovely little independent cafe! Call Safia on 07468 516375 or email editor@365Bath.com.
