David Baddiel is worried that if he continues to do stand up comedy forever it could ‘kill him’.
The comedian, 60, has opened up on Good Morning Britain about stand up being an ‘all consuming’ job, to the point where he worries one day it will be the end of him.
‘Stand up and making people laugh live is psychologically very all-consuming, and you sometimes think, I don’t think I can keep doing this until I die because it’s going to kill me,’ he said on Friday morning.
However, the author – who co-wrote football anthem Three Lions with fellow comic and friend Frank Skinner – also admitted it’s an addictive line of work too.
‘But actually, it’s very hard to give up at the same time,’ he said. ‘It’s very addictive and when you do it you feel like you are bringing a lot of joy.
‘It’s an amazing buzz and also it feels like a great thing.’
David also weighed in on the topic of comedy and cancel culture, saying his stance on it is that you can joke about any topic in the world. The problem isn’t with a topic, he said, but lies in the angle of the specific joke.
This comes as David’s three stand-up specials will be aired on Saturday nights on Sky Arts this month.
In 1992, David took to the stage at the Wembley arena alongside Rob Newman for the UK’s first ever arena comedy show and continued his stand up career until 2003, when he gave it up.
On the eve of his stand up comeback in 2013, David told The Independent that he remembers the exact moment he quit comedy in his mind.
He was paid £14,000 to entertain bankers, and a heckler shouted: ‘Why don’t you just p**s off?’ So he did.
‘Performing is very stressful,’ he told the publication. ‘When I was doing Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned [they would take questions from the audience], the stress was just ridiculous.’
As the pressure made his underlying depression worse, David turned instead to writing novels, screenplays, and fatherhood.
A few weeks ago David and his old pal Frank reunited on screen for the first time in 19 years for Gogglebox’s Stand Up To Cancer special.
In an interview with the Metro last year, Frank opened up about their long-lasting bond.
‘That’s a friendship that has never diminished. I think I give in a lot. All my successful relationships have been based on me giving in,’ he said at the time.
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Meanwhile, David included an entire section on their friendship in his religious book, The God Desire, which came out in 2023.