Romesh Ranganathan on avoiding the public when on tour

Romesh Ranganathan has been talking about how he tries to stop going stir-crazy when on tour.

The comic admitted ‘you have to be a bit careful’ to keep sane while on the road – especially as he is wary of encountering members of the public in the street.

His comments came after Heart radio host Dev Griffin asked Ranganathan: ‘How do you stop yourself from not going fully bonkers when you're on the road?’

The stand-up replied: ‘You have to be a bit careful to be honest with you. I've got a team. I've got a tour manager, a sound guy and then I've got a DJ that does the support warm up and so we kind of like a little four-person entourage that travel around.

‘ I sometimes get very jealous I went to see [rapper] Kano a while ago. And he had so many people around him and then I looked around at my pathetic tour party [and] thought what's going on here, man? We just looked like a group of divorcees travelling the country!

‘Part of the thing is I don't want to be wandering around too much because I don't want to get clocked. My big fear is that somebody will go, "I saw you at the show last night" and then start giving me a review in the street when I'm just about to go and buy sandwich. That's my big fear! 

‘But the problem is if you stay in the hotel, you do, if you're just, like, holed up in the hotel room, you do start to go a bit crazy.’

Ranganathan has just started his latest stand-up tour, Hustle.

» Romesh Ranganathan tour dates

• The Heart Evening Show with Dev Griffin us on Monday to Thursday from 7pm and on Global Player

Published: 9 Feb 2024