Genre-defying Rob Auton takes on crowds, and explains why he stands up in front of them

In his part spoken word/comedy/theatre shows that always resist firm categorisation, award-winning writer, ‘stand-up poet’ and podcaster Rob Auton is fond of deep explorations of single, often abstract themes.

On stage, he has tackled notions of sky, time, talk, water, sleep, hair, the face, and even ‘yellow’ in the past decade. And now it’s the turn of crowds.

Following a successful 2022 Edinburgh Fringe run, Auton is now touring The Crowd Show around the UK for the next few months.

Ahead of his two night run at The Wardrobe Theatre on November 9-10, he spoke to Bristol24/7 in his own, inimitable way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch64XUTo69q/?hl=en

How does The Crowd Show compare to your investigations of time, talk, sleep, sky, yellow and all the rest? Has your approach to exploring the theme been different?

“I think this show is far more about being in the room. It’s much more talking about what I’m doing instead of about a subject that isn’t quite as present in the room. Time was in the room though, as was hair and talking and water and faces and even sleep, sometimes.

“People said I seemed to be having much more fun on stage this time. I think it’s maybe more playful than the other shows. Perhaps that’s in response to the non-playful times we’ve had over the last couple of years.”

Can you describe how poetry, spoken word and stand-up link together in your shows?

“They all link up because I don’t really know which one is which in the show. It’s all words to me. I put my shows in the comedy section of the Edinburgh Fringe brochure because I’d rather write a show that people think is going to be funny with some serious bits in it than a serious show with funny bits in it.

“I really want to try to let people make their own minds up as to what it is. Spoken word can be comedy can’t it, but can comedy be spoken word? If you see a spoken word show and it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen, is it definitely not comedy? Or a comedy show that is the most poetic thing you’ve ever seen, is that definitely not poetry? I guess the answer to your initial question above is… no.”

Portait of Rob Auton during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Innocent Railway – photo: A D Zyne

In terms of strategies to mitigate on-stage nerves, you say in The Crowd Show that it helps to compare your audience to a single box of flesh. What happens when they become a room of individuals?

“Haha, that sounds more gruesome than it was meant to; the line is: “Sometimes it can be beneficial for a performer to blur their eyes and look upon the audience as a block of flesh”. If you keep looking at people and they don’t seem to be enjoying it, sometimes I just talk to everyone a tiny bit and I don’t really look at individuals or give them a chance to let me know if they are enjoying it or not.

“If I feel really comfortable and I can feel a connection I definitely speak to one person at a time almost as if I can feel whether an audience is on board or not. I guess scientifically they are all individuals but the goal for me is to get them working together as a unit, where we are all on the same page and we are experiencing something together.”

How would you characterise yourself, both on and off stage? Is there a discernible difference between them?

“How do people characterise themselves? Is it more about what type of character you are in different situations? Basically on stage I’m saying all the best things I’ve thought of. I don’t really do that off stage, as it would get tiresome for people. So, offstage I normally take a bit of a backseat I think. MAYBE. Perhaps that’s not true.

“I like talking and trying to have a good time with people. I definitely feel comfortable on stage because I know what my role is. Normally people who have paid for a ticket to see me actually want to hear what I have to say when I’m on stage. The word normally is very important there. Sometimes I’m more relaxed onstage than I am off stage, maybe because I’m not thinking about being on stage.”

Rob Auton – photo: David Monteith-Hodge

What do you think your daily podcast do for you, and your audiences back in 2020?

“The podcast gave my ideas a home that wasn’t in books or in my notes folder on my phone. It forced me to type out and develop scraps of ideas I’d had. There were times when I really didn’t want to sit down and write but I had to and three hours later I was really pleased to have done it.

“In 2020 with all that was going on, making 366 episodes of a podcast certainly kept me quite busy. People who connected with it who speak to me after shows often say it helped them a bit somehow. If that’s the case I’m pleased that they could listen to a few minutes of something that had nothing to do with current events of the time.”

What represents a meaningful connection with your audience of listeners, readers and comedy fans. How important is it to move them, or to make them think, alongside the laughter?

“A meaningful connection is represented by them hearing or reading my idea and them making their own minds up about it, I think. It’s impossible to connect with everyone because there are so many different things for people to connect with. I connect with some things and not others. I’m OK with that.

“We don’t have to like everything. It depends what type of mood people are in. Someone might have seen one of my shows when they were at the start of a relationship and they came on a third date and they were in a good place and they had a good experience but then they might come again and be in a different space. People have got a lot going on.

“But I want to make people laugh as laughter is often synonymous with having a good time. I think that if I go out for a night out with my mates, I want to laugh, but also to say some things I mean as well. That’s what I try to do with my shows.

Rob Auton: The Crowd Show is at The Wardrobe Theatre on November 9 at 7.30pm and November 10 at 9pm. Tickets are available from www.chucklebusters.com.

Main photo: David Monteith-Hodge

Read more: Interview: Rob Auton on ‘The Time Show’

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: