Lloyd Langford

Lloyd Langford: Rascal, Edinburgh Preview (2016)

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© Andy Hollingworth

Known by many as Rhod Gilbert’s trusty sidekick, both on the 2010 television panel show Ask Rhod Gilbert (as well as other projects including Gilbert’s pilot sitcom Back To Llanbobl, which is expected to air this Autumn), and in recent years as tour support, Lloyd Langford is a comic of extensive television and stand up experience, and this shines through consistently in a preview of his latest show Rascal, performed at MAC in Birmingham.

Langford takes to the stage with his trademark droll delivery and slouched posture. His new show primarily considers the perils of relationships in the 21st century society, with the comic self-proclaiming it to potentially be his rudest hour of stand up thus far. Lloyd takes delight in saying what everyone else is thinking; not afraid to push an idea slightly too far or make his listeners feel slightly uncomfortable, particularly regarding latecomers. Here we have a comedian who clearly appreciates what an audience want from a live comedy experience. Lloyd’s off-the-cuff remarks are pleasingly quick and he segways between audience interaction and material smoothly, despite the fact he is performing an unpolished show.

Developing ideas based on life experiences over the past year, with topical references scattered throughout, it is somewhat difficult to tell whether this comic is being truly open with his audience or not. Langford’s material makes him appear quite solitary at times; yes, there are mentions of past girlfriends here and there, and talk of a cruise with his parents and brother, but the majority of the show centres around Lloyd’s own private musings, triggered by his experiences while travelling with work (perhaps fitting with the view that stand up comedy is one of the loneliest careers).

Lloyd Langford epitomises a no-messing-about, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin kind of comedy. He conveys an attitude that is both underwhelmed and apathetic, yet also irritated by the many obstacles that modern life presents, from hotels, to the weather, to terrorism (those “proper ne’er-do-wells, scamps, bad eggs”). But beneath the silliness, an anger certainly bubbles under the surface of Langford’s comedy, reminiscent of fellow Welshman Rhod Gilbert. This new show, however, does not see any of that frustration overflow; Langford remains in control. Instead, he is gleefully childish, sometimes bordering on pedantic, happy to play devil’s advocate through his cynicism and judgements, bringing out the naughty child that hides within each of us.

Lloyd Langford will be performing his show Rascal at the Edinburgh Festival.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH… LLOYD LANGFORD

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Seven Questions With… Lloyd Langford

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lloyd langford

© Andy Hollingworth

Lloyd Langford is a Welsh stand up comedian and writer who has worked with some of the of the biggest names in the business, as well as being a fantastic talent in his own right. Langford is a regular presenter on The Rhod Gilbert Show on BBC Radio Wales and frequently appears as a panellist on shows including QI and the late Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Lloyd will be performing his latest show  at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival in February.
To find out more about Lloyd, I asked him these seven questions…

1) Are you a fickle person? 

I don’t know. I do get passionate about things for an intense period, and then move on to a new obsession, but I still enjoy the original thing. I guess it’s a combination of curiosity and also something which seems like a very male trait, and that is collecting. So I’ll buy a bunch of golden age hip-hop albums, rinse them, and then a month later I’m scouring eBay for Hwang Jang Lee Kung Fu DVDs. I need more shelves. (If you don’t know Hwang Jang Lee, he’s known as the “king of the leg fighters”. He’s basically the best at kicking the shit out of people.)

2) What was the last exciting thing you did?

I went cycling in Bruges. I’d never been to Bruges before, I hadn’t been on a bike in years, and those Belgian beers are pretty strong. Triple excitement. I was giddy from the new environment, the ever-present possibility of death and a particularly fruity Lambic.

3) Where do you most enjoy performing?

I enjoy performing to intelligent audiences. I feel like I can take more risks and that ultimately ends up being more fun. I did some gigs in The Classic, in Auckland this year, they were a lot of fun. It was a new club for me, I was a new comic for them, and so I think we were both testing each other’s boundaries a bit. That sounds really wanky. Sorry.

4) How did you choose your degree?

I had very little idea about what I wanted to do. I choose Film with Television Studies at Warwick because film interested me, I wanted to live somewhere new, and I didn’t want to lock myself into something vocational like veterinary school and then realise two years into the course that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life shoving my finger into dogs. Not my professional life, anyway.

5) Who is your favourite comedian to support at gigs?

I’ve been lucky to support some good un’s. Tommy Tiernan, Greg Davies, Alan Carr. I just did a couple of dates in Amsterdam and Brussels with Jon Richardson and that was fun. I think Rhod Gilbert is the big one though. I’ve spent more time with him on the road than anyone else.

6) Are you scared of any animals?

I once went to Marlborough Sounds with a girlfriend in New Zealand, which is incredibly beautiful. We essentially had a bay to ourselves. But one time, just before I dived off the jetty, I noticed a massive stingray, directly beneath where I would have landed. It kind of ruined the rest of my swimming. The placed was riddled with stingrays. I’m not a fan of the stingray. It’s essentially a camouflaged underwater doormat with a poison dart for an arse.

7) Are you afraid of growing old?

No. Young people are dickheads. I know, I was one. Depending on your age, I still am one.

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR LLOYD LANGFORD AT DAVE’S LEICESTER COMEDY FESTIVAL HERE

Ask The Expert: Carl Chapple (Artist)

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Carl Chapple is an artist based in South Wales, particularly renowned for his portraiture work with subjects including actors, dancers, poets and musicians as well as comedians. He can often be found at events such as the Edinburgh Fringe and Machynlleth Comedy Festival, painting subjects in their own environments.
To learn more about the job of an artist working with comedians, I asked Carl a few questions…

1) When did comedy and art meet?

I started painting my comedians series in early 2013, though it was only after a few months, when I painted Lloyd Langford, that a joke made it into a picture.

Lloyd sat (horizontally) wearing the banana suit from his recent Edinburgh show, and somehow went straight into a Classical pose associated with the goddess Venus. I’d been about to start a small monochrome painting on panel, but happily had a large canvas to hand, so changed my plans. The combination of the Classical reference, the daft costume and Lloyd’s deadpan expression made me laugh out loud several times as I worked.

david trentSimilarly, David Trent had some suggestions (demands) for his sitting – namely that I provide him with a lawnmower and he pose wearing only Speedos. As it turned out, David wasn’t happy with the mower I’d got for him (a Flymo), but he gallantly went ahead with the session with hardly any complaints. I painted this picture in quite a dark and dramatic style, as befitting a portrait of such a serious fellow.

2) Have you found painting comedians to be any different to painting people who are not comedians?

Performers in general – or at least those I’ve worked with – may be a bit more physically self-aware and comfortable being looked at than some other portrait sitters (I’ve never had a performer overcome by a fit of the giggles at the start of a sitting, for example), but that’s about it. It’s been a lovely mix – some people arriving with clear ideas about how they’d like to present themselves, and others who work it out on the day, sometimes going for quite traditional, formal poses.

In a lot of cases sitters came to my studio as they were passing through Cardiff on tours. This was great, in that I was able to work with people I might not otherwise have been able to, though a few times it was quite challenging in that they could only spare a couple of hours. This brought an urgency to the work, which was always fun, though the results may have been a little hit and miss.

3) Where is the strangest place you have had to work?

I recently painted a portrait on bus for the Wales Millennium Centre’s Ar Waith Ar Daith project (commemorating ten years of the WMC), though so far all but five of my comedians paintings were made in my studio in Barry.

Of the others, four were made in a theatre space in Edinburgh (thanks to Sweet Venues) and one in Rhod Gilbert’s front room in London, so nothing particularly strange there – just unfamiliar light and the need to take everything I might need with me, which was harder than I expected (in the case of going to paint Rhod, I forgot to take a palette, which was a bit ridiculous).

Top tip for portrait painting during the Edinburgh Festival: don’t make it the final week. People are tired. Heroic Nat Luurtsema battled exhaustion throughout her sitting, nodding off a couple of times.

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4) Which comic would you most like to work with?

Too many to list, though Bec Hill and Marcel Lucont both modelled for a portraiture workshop I ran at this year’s Machynlleth Comedy Festival, and were brilliant. I envied everyone else, with their easels and charcoal, and wanted to join in. Also the excellent Jordan Brookes – “He has a beautiful face”, as my mum rightly observed recently.

5) What would you like these paintings to convey?

If I can convey just a little of the warmth, kindness and exquisite good looks of comedians everywhere, then it’s all been worth it.

CARL CHAPPLE’S PAINTINGS ARE AVAILABLE TO VIEW AND PURCHASE FROM HIS WEBSITE