LIAM TULLEY SAYS NEW STAND-UP SHOW IS MOST HONEST AND PERSONAL SHOW HE'S DONE
Confirming that he's returning to the stage after a short break, he also admitted that he almost quit stand-up after becoming tired and disillusioned with the job.
Liam Tulley has revealed he almost quit stand-up after becoming disillusioned with the job. The 32-year old admitted he was ready to move on to something else despite only just returning after treatment for a bladder tumour. "I probably could have given it up and moved to something else” he says. "The first couple of gigs back into it were fine but then I just felt a bit unhappy with it all. I'd stopped enjoying it, to be honest. I think I rushed back into returning after my operation because I just wanted to be normal again but it made me realise I had nothing else going on in my life. I was just doing the gigs and going back to an empty hotel room, which can get quite depressing."
In early February he called a halt to his show in London, as he was being heckled by drunk members of the audience. "Sometimes you do have to perform at venues that you don't really want to play. Venues that cater for hen, stag and birthday parties. It's part of the job at my level but I remember standing on stage thinking: 'Why am I bothering, these people haven't come to see comedy, they've come to get drunk. I wouldn't want to go for a drink with these pricks, so why am I wasting my time trying to talk to them?'"
At a crossroads in his life after successful treatment to remove a bladder tumour, he decided to turn to a fellow comedian who advised him to spend a month away from all things stand-up. "Finding out you're ill makes you think about your life. What you've done and what you want to do. A lot of my own life has been put on hold because I’ve put so much into stand-up and I started thinking about things that I was missing out on; Relationships and spending time with people I care about. I realised how much I'd missed that and started to question how much I was enjoying stand-up. I’m not motivated by money so enjoyment is the only reason I do it, and I thought: 'what's the point?'"
He's got his stand up mojo back after a spell away spending time between Yorkshire and London - where he concentrated on other projects and sorting his head out. "I was in London where I don't really know anyone. I would walk on Hampstead Heath, get the tube and find myself watching people, [not in a weird way] just seeing things and coming up with ideas for jokes. I started to get a buzz about it again. I decided to go back to where I started, cut out doing the chain clubs where it's all about commercial bullshit and not comedy. I booked into a couple of basement clubs, where the audiences are there for the comedy so you can try out new stuff and get that buzz again. It's good to get away from it all at times, I suppose it's like that with most jobs and it's just finding the right balance."
In his new show 'ADULT-ISH' Liam talks about being dragged into adulthood and being trapped living by our culture's image of what an adult should be. In a Social media age that has created our 'perfect' lives where we all seems to be attractive, slim, happy and popular. Society has us believe that to be this person all you need to do is 'be yourself'. Society has us believe that to be successful we should go to university, have a good career, have a nice car, get on the property ladder and be married with kids by a certain age. We feel like a failure if we don't succeed under this social pressure and get trapped in a cycle of failure . Failure that is created entirely by our own mindset, which leads to an increase in anxiety and depression. We then learn to hide our feelings and struggles to protect ourselves from shame and embarrassment by seeking safety in this pretend world of social media, materialism and perfection.
Through dark humour Liam has learned to live with and laugh at his own anxiety issues, allowing happiness in times of struggle and moments in life that keep him going in a world of scrolling, swiping, posing, pretending, dieting and the never ending search for the 'perfect life'. Speaking about the show he said: "I think this is the most honest I've ever been in a stand-up show. I talk about looking for a relationship, wanting a family, being happy, being sad. It's definitely the most personal stand-up I've ever written. Since being ill I'm a lot more open about life, if I like someone, I'll tell them now because life's too short to be wondering 'what if' or worrying what people might say or think. I might as well just get it all out before I die."
In early February he called a halt to his show in London, as he was being heckled by drunk members of the audience. "Sometimes you do have to perform at venues that you don't really want to play. Venues that cater for hen, stag and birthday parties. It's part of the job at my level but I remember standing on stage thinking: 'Why am I bothering, these people haven't come to see comedy, they've come to get drunk. I wouldn't want to go for a drink with these pricks, so why am I wasting my time trying to talk to them?'"
At a crossroads in his life after successful treatment to remove a bladder tumour, he decided to turn to a fellow comedian who advised him to spend a month away from all things stand-up. "Finding out you're ill makes you think about your life. What you've done and what you want to do. A lot of my own life has been put on hold because I’ve put so much into stand-up and I started thinking about things that I was missing out on; Relationships and spending time with people I care about. I realised how much I'd missed that and started to question how much I was enjoying stand-up. I’m not motivated by money so enjoyment is the only reason I do it, and I thought: 'what's the point?'"
He's got his stand up mojo back after a spell away spending time between Yorkshire and London - where he concentrated on other projects and sorting his head out. "I was in London where I don't really know anyone. I would walk on Hampstead Heath, get the tube and find myself watching people, [not in a weird way] just seeing things and coming up with ideas for jokes. I started to get a buzz about it again. I decided to go back to where I started, cut out doing the chain clubs where it's all about commercial bullshit and not comedy. I booked into a couple of basement clubs, where the audiences are there for the comedy so you can try out new stuff and get that buzz again. It's good to get away from it all at times, I suppose it's like that with most jobs and it's just finding the right balance."
In his new show 'ADULT-ISH' Liam talks about being dragged into adulthood and being trapped living by our culture's image of what an adult should be. In a Social media age that has created our 'perfect' lives where we all seems to be attractive, slim, happy and popular. Society has us believe that to be this person all you need to do is 'be yourself'. Society has us believe that to be successful we should go to university, have a good career, have a nice car, get on the property ladder and be married with kids by a certain age. We feel like a failure if we don't succeed under this social pressure and get trapped in a cycle of failure . Failure that is created entirely by our own mindset, which leads to an increase in anxiety and depression. We then learn to hide our feelings and struggles to protect ourselves from shame and embarrassment by seeking safety in this pretend world of social media, materialism and perfection.
Through dark humour Liam has learned to live with and laugh at his own anxiety issues, allowing happiness in times of struggle and moments in life that keep him going in a world of scrolling, swiping, posing, pretending, dieting and the never ending search for the 'perfect life'. Speaking about the show he said: "I think this is the most honest I've ever been in a stand-up show. I talk about looking for a relationship, wanting a family, being happy, being sad. It's definitely the most personal stand-up I've ever written. Since being ill I'm a lot more open about life, if I like someone, I'll tell them now because life's too short to be wondering 'what if' or worrying what people might say or think. I might as well just get it all out before I die."
