'I offload my problems onto the audience'- exclusive chat with Seann Walsh ahead of Lancashire show
Take a look at our exclusive chat with top comedian Seann Walsh ahead of his gig in Lancashire next week.
Award-winning comedian Seann Walsh kicked off his brand-new show ‘THIS IS TORTURE’ this month and it will tour across the UK through to October 2026, including a stop here in Lancashire.
The 40-year-old star of stage and screen arrives at Chorley Theatre on Sunday, March 8 - with the show already being sold out.
Before his arrival in Chorley, and even before his first tour date, Seann sat down for chat with our showbiz reporter where he spoke all about the show, his love for Chorley and what’s next for him...
How are you feeling about embarking on your new tour?
“I'm very much looking forward to it. It's been a while since I've been out on the road. And yeah, this one, I've been kind of working on it, I suppose, for a couple of years so, yeah, just bursting to get out there on the road now.”
Can you describe the show?
“Well, the show is called ‘This is Torture’, which obviously isn't the most positive of titles, but people that you know, people that know what I do, they'll they won't be expecting anything positive anyway. So I think basically, you know how, you know people have therapy, and at the end of them complaining about their lives, they pay the therapist. Well, what I've done is I've flipped that, and I get strangers to come to a show and listen to me complain they pay me for that. I thoroughly recommend it that way round.”
So it’s more of a therapy session for yourself you mean?
“That's what I mean. I get to kind of offload all of my problems onto the audience and luckily, fortunately for me, over the last 20 years, they find my problems or the way I view the world funny. So I'm very lucky.”
You mentioned it's been a while since your last tour so why did 2026 feel like the right time for your next one?
“Just had two kids and have a dog, so it's time to get out of there! I've timed this perfectly. The missus is not very happy with me but I think she'll be relieved that I'm out the house, to be honest.”
It might be related, but I was going to ask, why is the show called ‘This is Torture’?
“The show's called ‘This is Torture’ because that's the thing that I mumble the most underneath my breath. It's sort of become a catchphrase in my life, and I think that basically, the show is sort of all of those moments that you have in your in your life, your day to day life, where at the time you're not enjoying it, and at the time you're very angry, or at the time you're very agitated, but you get to look back at and laugh at in the way that British people do. The way that we say to one another… ‘We'll laugh at this one day’- that's kind of what my show is.
“My show is getting on stage and me and the audience laughing at what once was a very frustrating situation to be in, for example... I've got, like, 10 minutes where I rant about the way that McDonald's operates now, and see like Costa and Starbucks, they all seem to operate where you go in and there's a touchscreen machine, and the touch really never works, and they're trying to come up with a way of getting around the queue but the fact is, you still have to queue for the touchscreen machine anyway,... It’s my frustrations with modern life, where technology is meant to be benefiting us, but seemingly just ends up making life a lot worse.”
If the show is your excuse to get away from that busy household of yours, can we expect parenthood as well to come up as a topic often?
“Yes, parenthood will be absolutely. You know, it's strange, isn't it, when you've been nearly going for twenty years, your audience kind of grow up with you. So it's that strange thing, of like the people that used to come to my show, they are now now having kids at the same time as me and so me and my audience are dying together. It's very nice.”
And then, if this is your sixth major tour, besides being a dad, what has changed about your comedy, perhaps, from the first show many years ago to now?
“Oh, I can tell you, I know exactly what it is… I'm a lot more knackered at the end of the shows now, and I need to drink a lot more water, and I need to lie down immediately, and I need to have a massive lie in the next day, whereas before I would finish the show, and I would go out, and I would probably get much more hammered than was suitable, but then I would be able to do a show the next day. It's unthinkable now. I mean, I can barely do a show the next day if I've had too many carbohydrates the evening before. So, you know, yeah, I can't believe how I used to do it when I was in my 20s.”
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So does that mean when you come up to Chorley for your show, we can't expect you to paint the town red straight after?
“Yes, exactly, no. There'll be none of that. I'll be in my hotel bed. Don't you worry about that.”
Well, how are you feeling about that Chorley visit?
“Is it the Chorley Little Theater?”
It is, yes. [Well not since 2019 but I knew what Seann meant!]
“I love that. Amongst comedians, that's all, one of our favorites. And I think I've been very fortunate to sell that out pretty much since the very beginning. I think I've been there more than six times, and I love that little theater and the audience. I think they're well versed in comedy shows there, they get lots of comedy and the staff are fantastic. The staff always go out of their way to make sandwiches and whatnot. I remember that about the staff, they're so friendly and helpful. The venue's beautiful, a nice, little, kind of cute, intimate venue, and a great crowd so - and also a good Indian by the venue, I remember, which I will be frequenting!”
I was going to say back in the days when you did go out afterwards, did you ever frequent places in Chorley?
“No, just- I only remember the Indian. I probably would have gone out in Manchester, wouldn't I? I imagine.”
Well what's your Indian order?
“Chicken, Madras, plain rice, vegetable samosa, garlic naan with a Saag Aloo side, bang.
Plain rice is interesting…
“Well, do you know what, I'll tell you why. This isn't interesting but I will just tell you why. Pilua rice is cooked in a lot of butter, so there's loads and loads and loads and loads and loads more calories than if you get it in plain rice. And actually, I think it's not that worth it. It's not like Pilau rice is so much better that I need to have pilau rice instead of plain rice for the calories. So I go screw it. I'm going to make a healthy choice here and just get plain rice with my chicken madras, vegetable samosas, garlic naan and Saag Aloo. It's not that healthy is it, when you read it back out?”
If we move away from your dietary habits... why should people buy tickets to come see your tour?
“God, it's such a difficult question. I mean, how do you answer that? I don't know. I've been going long enough, I finally learned how to do it! [Laughs] No, I can't. I'm too embarrassed to almost answer that. I think all I can go off is, you know, my audiences, they tend to have a great time, and the feedback is always wonderful. And when I release my stand up specials on the internet, the numbers are fantastic, and everyone seems to have a good time. That's, yeah, I don't, I have no idea other than that.”
And besides the tour, is there anything else in the following year that you'd like to mention that we should watch out for?
Seann: “The thing I'm working on at the moment is a new YouTube show called Factamundo. It's a kind of children's show gone wrong, but it's for the whole family, so it's kind of so parents can have something on in the background, with the kids, that they can kind of watch and get, whilst the child can enjoy the bright colors.”
Have you got a date for that?
“April, that's what we're aiming for. April it will be out on YouTube at Seann Walsh”
Why is that a project you wanted to do?
“I do a podcast called Class Clown, and that's the kind of, although it's funny- because I normally have funny guests on it, I normally have comedians -, there's a serious side to it, which is digging into people's childhoods to find the connections between their youth and the person they are today. Then I do ‘Oh My Dog’ with Jack Dee, which is, I mean, that's one of the greatest joys of my career, getting to work with Jack, but we talk dogs. So I just wanted to make a comedy. I hadn't made an out and out comedy in a while, and at the moment there's a lot of edgy comedy, and people like to push boundaries. Weirdly, I've never been that guy. I'm not interested in the boundaries,I'm just interested in making people happy. And I thought a nice way to start that would be with kids and so that's where the kind of idea started.
Final question, is there something that I've not asked you, that you think is worth mentioning to any of our audiences?
“Well, I have a podcast called ‘Oh My Dog, which I've just mentioned. You can listen to that. And if you go to seannwalsh.com, I have three YouTube stand up specials that you can enjoy. Actually there's a stand up show called ‘Back from the bed’ on my on my website, have a little look at that for five minutes. If you like that, come to the show. If you don't, then, yeah, don't go to the show!.”