Comedian Tom Houghton has just starred in the latest series of the American version of Netflix’s reality show, The Circle, now in its fifth season.
He has also just begun his biggest live tour to date, with more than 60 shows lined up over the next couple of months– including two in Reading alone.
“Last year’s tour was 22 dates,” he says, “this one is 44 dates, and we’ve just added about 20 more.
“It’s very nice that I can now say it’s due to phenomenal demand– the words every performer wants to say at one point.
“I’ve been absolutely blown away by the response, and we’re very proud.”
The tour kicks off in Reading with a now-sold-out show at South Street Arts Centre, but is set to return in June.
“Reading last year was one of my favourite gigs, and the audience were really positive,” Tom says.
“I remember it was one of the early gigs last year, as well– I think it was probably the show where I first thought ‘Oh, that really feels like it’s clicked.’
“And when you get a good experience out of a place, you want to go back, so Reading was top of the list for venues I wanted to return to.”
Just as his tour is kicking off, The Circle is set to conclude.
The show saw Tom, along with fellow contestants, thrown into an apartment building in Salford and isolated for the duration of the show.
In the show, contestants only interact with one another through the social media of The Circle itself, with each player uploading a profile and posting messages in group chats and private messages.
It gives many players the opportunity to hide who they are and catfish other contestants, or choose to be their authentic selves in a competition which sees the player voted most popular winning $100,000.
Speaking on the timing of the show airing, Tom says: “I’d love to say it was planned, but we filmed the show about a year ago.
“They filmed two series back to back, but the other one pushed forward to have the Spice Girls on it.
“And I hope you won’t mind me saying– I can sell out Reading, but I’m still not quite a Spice Girl.
“So I have to thank Mel B and Emma Bunton, really, for helping me out.”
The Circle was originally broadcast by Channel 4 before spawning a number of international and celebrity versions.
While the UK version no longer airs, Tom took part in the US version of the show.
“I thought because Netflix had bought it off Channel 4 I was being flown to LA and that I’d be having an amazing holiday.
“Turns out it’s cheaper for them to fly the Americans over here rather than recreate an entire hotel over there.
“So I was pretty gutted when I found it was in Salford– but it doesn’t really matter, since all you do is stay in a hotel room, you can’t go out.”
As a touring comedian, he says: “Thankfully, I’ve spent a lot of long dark nights of the soul in hotel rooms, normally crying with a takeaway, but this was a different vibe.
“The hardest thing about it as a comedian is that because you haven’t got an audience to interact with, you’re saying these lines and not getting any feedback, so you’ve got no idea if you’re what you’re saying is funny.”
Much like stand-up over Zoom during the lockdowns in the last few years, The Circle doesn’t entirely lend itself to nuanced performance.
“That’s the thing about comedy, even as opposed to being an actor in a play where the audience stares at you, whereas in comedy you get reviewed every few seconds.
“Every time you tell a joke on stage there’s immediate validation, which is why I enjoy doing comedy, so it just means you second guess yourself in your head all the time.”
Speaking on whether his experience as a comedian gave him something of an edge in the show, he said: “It still throws curveballs at you.
“There were people like Brett who was in Big Brother, and Shooby was a previous contestant and he’s now come back on, so he obviously knows exactly what he was doing.
“But I’ve also appeared on TV with Comedy Central, and even some reality too– I’ve done First Dates, which is all about you being yourself in a live environment.
“But the situation is definitely unique.”
He says that he also brings a lot of himself to his stand-up: “My comedy is quite honest, it’s very much me.
“When you’re performing you can’t help but be a slightly performative version of yourself, and when you’re meeting new people in real life, I’d say most people slightly put on something or other.
“I would say that my style of comedy definitely lends itself to being on reality TV, because I think it is essentially just me being honest and truthful.”
His upcoming tour, titled Absolute Shambles, is no different: “It starts just before lockdown is arriving, where I had a breakup with a girlfriend, my agent dropped me and my career got taken away.
“Obviously, tiny violins, I know that people had it way worse than me, but of course it’s all relative.
“But then after lockdown, after crying a lot and getting therapy, and things started to blow up, so it covers my recovery, and I think it can be quite therapeutic.”
He says that we can expect “quite a varied bunch of stuff” from the show.
“I think I’ll touch on The Circle, and there’s definitely a lot about taxidermy, if you’re into that– I don’t think anyone else is doing much taxidermy material.
“The nice thing about doing shows about living in the Tower of London is that if other comedians start doing bits about living in the Queen’s garden and next door to a beefeater, I can tell it’s been taken.”
Tom Houghton: Absolute Shambles is showing at South Street Arts Centre on Thursday, June 22.
For tickets and further information about the tour, visit: whatsonreading.com.
