Cultural Dose Meets Garrett Millerick

Garrett Millerick is a stand-up comedian—he’s here to make you laugh, think, and maybe even squirm a little. With his signature blend of sharp wit and grumpy charm, the acclaimed comedian announces his new comedy special is available to stream. Just Trying to Help, the final instalment in his so-called "Fatherhood Trilogy” explores everything from existential crises to tech obsession; Millerick’s comedy is a cathartic ride through modern life’s absurdities. In this interview, he talks about navigating fatherhood, his most unforgettable gig, and why he’d love to trap Thatcherites and Greta Thunberg fans in the same room.

Hello Garrett, thanks for chatting to Cultural Dose.

What can you tell us about your latest stand up special ‘Just Trying to Help?’

It was described in a review as a comedy white water rafting ride, and I liked that summary. It’s basically a very silly hour of half-baked philosophy about the state of the world in the early 21st century disguised in a sort of fire and brimstone preacher pastiche. Lots of strong opinions but lightly held. 

You’re often described as a “grumpy” comedian. Would you say that’s fair, or do people just not appreciate constructive criticism of the world?

That’s very fair. I’m a pretty grumpy person, and this is a very socially acceptable output for it. I pay my mortgage by being in a prickly mood. Which is great. In most other walks of life, you’re expected to pretend to be in a good mood most of the time. And that’s not realistic, or fair. The relentless cheeriness people are expected to exhibit in a lot of jobs just doesn’t sit well with humans. I think it makes us uneasy. You’re trying to work out what the catch is. 

I’m basically a professional nit-picker, I go about my daily life looking for logical fallacies and hypocrisies to drive a tank through for fun. I try and be as fundamentally unreasonable as I possibly can, because you can’t do that in real life. So, an audience member buys a ticket and I can rip something to shreds on their behalf and we can all share in the catharsis. 

This special marks the end of your "Fatherhood Trilogy" after your hit shows Sunflower in 2018 and Smile in 2019 —what have you learned about yourself over the course of these three shows? And what is the plan now the trilogy is finished?

It’s a very loose thematic through-line, I’m not sure it’s got the narrative ark of The Godfather. The shows ended spanning quite a large part of my life. The first one was about trying to have a baby, and all the complications surrounding that. The second one was a fretful look at the state of the world we were living in, a kind of crisis of my own maturity, and this one came about when I was actually a father and was having to navigate that. 

When it was first put on stage my daughter was only four months old. By the time the tour was finished, she was three. So, I changed a huge amount through the life of this show, and an enormous amount since Sunflower aired seven years earlier. The three shows reflect a lot on how I was raised and the world that existed when I was growing up and how that’s all not really relevant anymore, so not really knowing what I have to offer by way of guidance.

The thing I’ve probably learned most over the span of the three is that most of the anxieties that were fuelling me were nonsense. I’d expend a lot of energy worrying about the wrong things. You’re basically not in control of anything, and that’s fine, trying to control things or make an ideal situation will drive you mad. 

I’m not sure what the next show is about. I’ve done two since this one, the first was a site-specific show about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that focused on dealing with sobriety and the second was a history themed show about space. I think by the time I’d done the sobriety show I’d had enough of myself, so I wanted to focus on a different subject for a bit.

Speaking of the Edinburgh Fringe, you’ve performed there a lot as well as London’s Soho Theatre, you’ve made and starred in a Radio 4 sitcom and even appeared on Conan. What’s been your favourite gig of your career so far?

I did a gig on a boat in Cambodia. It was the last night of a tour of South East Asia and we went up the Mekong River in Phnom Penh and anchored up to do the gig. The boat was pretty noisy, a big old diesel generator driving the PA and lights, and a few hundred people in the audience. About ten minutes into my set the generator died and we were plunged into darkness with only the distant lights of the city behind us and the sound of all the wildlife in the reeds.

An audience member pulled out her phone and lit me using the torch, then one by one everyone else did the same. So I continued on without a microphone, lit by torchlight. In an instant the gig had shifted personality completely, from this brash noisy environment to a peaceful and calm campfire scene. And I could finally tune into the fact that I was telling jokes on a river on the other side of the world, backed by crickets with the lights of Phnom Penh over my shoulder. 

That one will probably stick in my memory for some time.

If you could force one group of people to sit down and watch this special, who would it be and why?

Fans of Margaret Thatcher and fans of Greta Thunberg. They’re disparate groups of people who rarely talk. But my sincerest wish is that they watch this special and see that there is more that unites them than divides them. 

You can watch ‘Just Trying To Help’; Garrett’s new stand-up special on 800lb Gorilla’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBL2WPmoklY