John Tothill
The Comedian's Comedian Podcast
Stuart Goldsmith
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2026
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Tothill is one of the most exciting stand-ups to come out of the UK in recent years. Debuting in 2023, he’s now on his third show with This Must Be Heaven - the story of his near death experience and an underwhelming cruise. In this episode we discuss:
- the brutal truth about moving from open mics to pro gigs
- why early WIPs are often funnier than complete shows
- the loneliness of being trapped on a cruise ship after bombing every night
- why crowd work makes him uncomfortable
- scaling material up for bigger rooms while supporting Alan Davies
- and we find out if John Tothill is happy…
Join the Insiders Club at Patreon.com/ComComPod where you can instantly WATCH the full episode and get access to 15 minutes of exclusive extras including:
- the realisation that not everyone will get your material, but the right people really will
- what trait is most likely to obstruct success
- why “doing the work” often looks like not doing the work at all
- and the fear about where the world goes next…
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Catch Up with John: You can see John Tothill: This Must Be Heaven tomorrow at Mach (if you’re reading this as it’s released), London on 22nd May and in Edinburgh this summer. Find all the dates at campsite.bio/johntothill. Also, you can keep-up-date with John on Instagram, @johntothill.
Support our independently produced Podcast from only £3/month at Patreon.com/ComComPod:
✅ Instant access to full video and ad-free audio episodes
✅ 15 minutes of exclusive extra content with John
✅ Early access to new episodes where possible
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PLUS you’ll get access to the full back catalogue of extras you can find nowhere else!
Everything I'm up to: Come and see me LIVE including dates in Mach this weekend, LA next week and lots of other places after then! Find out all the info and more at stuartgoldsmith.com/comedy. Discover my comedy about the climate crisis, for everyone from activists to CEOs, at stuartgoldsmith.com/climate.
Get in touch: If you’re listening and thinking ‘I’d love to work with ComComPod on getting something out there’ or ‘there’s someone you should absolutely have on’ - drop us an email at callum@comedianscomedian.com!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome back to the show. I'm Stuart Goldsmith. This is the Comedians Comedian |
| 0:20.5 | podcast. And today I'm talking to lovely, brilliant John Tot show. I'm Stuart Goldsmith. This is the Comedians Comedian podcast, |
| 0:21.2 | and today I'm talking to lovely, brilliant John Tot Hill. I'm very, very excited to have him on the show. |
| 0:26.4 | He's a pal and a wonderful, like a properly wonderful word smith of a comic. He's got that |
| 0:32.9 | brilliant connection between what he says and how he says it and his jokes are fantastic and this is an |
| 0:39.8 | absolute treat. He debuted in 2023 and he's now on his third show which is called This Must Be |
| 0:45.8 | Heaven and it's the story of his near-death experience and an underwhelming cruise. He's also |
| 0:50.7 | supported people like Emma Ciddy and Alan Davis on tour and he was on 8 out of of 10 Cats does countdown, and it says here, this American life, and I've got to tell you, I didn't know that. So we won't talk about that at all unless we did talk about it, and I've also forgotten that we've talked about it, but I don't think so. In the first half, John and myself are going to talk about the brutal truth about moving from open mics to pro gigs. |
| 1:12.3 | We'll talk about surviving brushes with death and then brushes with crews. |
| 1:16.4 | We'll talk about building a persona that gives audiences a caffeine hit. |
| 1:20.3 | And we will discuss, I think, our mutual belief that early whips are often funnier than finished shows. |
| 1:25.0 | We'll talk about the tension in stand-up between art and |
| 1:27.6 | value for money, face value entertainment and all the rest of it. And on the subject of value for |
| 1:32.0 | money, this independently produced free podcast that is made by only three people, then |
| 1:37.3 | brought to your ears by those people, can be supported by you for £3 a month, as little as |
| 1:43.2 | £3 a month, or more. |
| 1:44.9 | Instant ad-free access to the full video and audio back catalogue. |
| 1:48.7 | Exclusive extra content with John, more on that in a bit. |
| 1:51.2 | There's a new format, Stu-N-A every week-ish, although I will say the last one was so good. |
| 1:55.9 | It was Dave McKearrel. |
| 1:57.2 | He got in touch and said, hey, can I share this with a Discord? Weirdo. |
| 2:00.4 | But that's how good it is. One person wanted to share it once. But it is good. It's in like a nice |
... |
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