Comic talks about his life before teaching – and comedy

Romesh Ranganthan has told how he secretly cried in the toilets during his first job as a beancounter when he became overwhelmed at how sad he thought his life had become.

Speaking to fellow comic Katherine Ryan on her new podcast  What’s My Age Again?, he explained: ‘I wanted to make as much money as possible for the least effort expended possible. Which is why I did an economics degree, because I read that that adds the most to your potential life earnings of any qualification.

‘So then I was working as a cost analyst for an airline caterer. Basically, it's a really boring job to describe, and I was paid a decent wage to do that job. But one day I was sat doing it and I was like, "I'm just going to go pop to the toilet." 

‘And then when I went to the toilet, I sat in the cubicle, and I started crying just spontaneously because I became quite sad that this was going to be my life. I just thought, "this is the most of my life now, is doing stuff like this". And I found that quite depressing. 

‘But then when I got back to my desk, I felt better. I actually felt like, refreshed. And I'd press the reset button.  So, then I would do that every few weeks. So, every now and again I'd be like, sat at work and I think, "Oh, I'm feeling a bit… I'm gonna go and have a toilet cry now".’

He then decided that a career in teaching would be more rewarding, if not ‘easier or particularly enjoyable’ – and then started doing comedy on the side. 

‘But I never wanted to do it [comedy] as a job,’ he said. ‘But then one particular gig, the promoter came up to me and said, "you definitely should do this for a job"…  It was only then that I thought about doing it as a job. 

‘So really there is another version of me that would still be a maths teacher. I don't know if I'd have been equally as happy – I wouldn't have had the same finances – but I still would have been happy. I really did like teaching.’

He also told how he took part in a few freestyle competitions, reaching the finals of one where he got knocked out ‘quite humiliatingly… so badly that my friends asked if they could leave separately’.

Ranganathan also spoke about how he moved to America in 2017 to launch is career – but returned to the UK when his big break  never materialised. The comic’s attempts to crack the US and fill the 5,000  Greek date venue in LA were charted in the series Just Another Immigrant, who is still available in the US.

He told Ryan: ’You remember when I said goodbye to everyone in the UK? Cause I thought I was going to live in LA for the rest of my life. And then I came back six months later because the show flopped. Do you remember?’

And he recalled having to undergo a health test for that show, which involved being dunked into a water tank wearing only Speedos to analyse his body fat. 

‘I was about three, four stone heavier than I am now,’ he told Ryan, whose podcast is about finding people's 'biological age' as opposed to simply how long they've been alive.

‘First of all, I didn't look great in the swim shorts. That's immediately funny…. And it's going to be really funny how that guy told me how unhealthy I was. That was the premise.’

But then the man conducting the tests took him to one side off-camera and said:  ‘I'm really worried that you're gonna die… All of your readings are really bad. Your body fat is out of control. All these levels are really bad. You are going to have a premature death.’

‘It was a really horrible conversation, obviously,’ Ranganathan recalled. ‘It was really stern and solemn. But then I do think it put something in my head… I’ve still not completely let go of this belief that I'm just gonna die at 50.’

The comic is now 47....

He also spoke about how he would never have his lazy eye corrected…

Published: 29 Apr 2025