Birthing a Baby Reindeer
I simply adored Richard Gadd’s stand-up.
I was performing my own first few gigs and meshed in with the other novice crop of standups, and the Gadd stood out a mile.
The debut show which featured in the show ‘Baby Reindeer’
It was an era where Frankie Boyle was at his peak, so many of the new blood were equating stand-up comedy with getting up on stage and saying the most depraved things imaginable.
Gadd strode above them, kazoo in pocket with his shambolic stylings and inverted take on stand-up. Constantly flipping expectations and killing punchlines stone dead.
A brave approach. As much as I saw him take the roof off of rooms, I also watched him in front of hauntingly silent crowds, completely baffled that he was allowed on stage. The only laughter in the room came from the other Comics aching at the sound of his lowly kazoo trumpeting into the void.
You want a Comic like that to do well. You want such originality championed. You want such bravery rewarded. It often doesn’t. The industry smiles kindly on mediocrity; safe gags get more gigs. Many an ‘alternative’ act has fallen to die by the wayside.
I was lucky to work with him on some of the poster designs for his shows.
“The only laughter in the room came from the other Comics aching at the sound of his lowly kazoo trumpeting into the void.”
Richard Gadd’s ‘BEST OF’ Poster 2018
In 2013, I designed the poster for his debut Edinburgh show ‘Cheese & Crack Whores’. A deliciously bat-shit brief of putting his face on slices of cheese & crackers.
I had the good fortune to work with him again in 2018 for his ‘Best of’ show, returning after the triumph of his Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do’ show.
Again, this is another excellent brief, as I had seen and loved all of his shows, so the concepts came together joyously quickly.
We settled on this explosion of symbols relating to his previous show coming out of his head. Refining it so it was controlled chaos.
“Given a few more drafts, I’d have brought that duality, reflecting himself in the stalker’s eye, to the fore.”
I got a text from him on a Sunday in November 2018. He needed a poster put together super quickly, like for Monday. He promised to pay my ‘weekend’ rate. The only suggestion of a brief I got about the play’s content was that it featured a stalker along with an image of Richard looking spooked.
I had been on a synth-wave tip, making this artwork for my radio show, Night Call. So I just went with that, gathering stock images of shadowy figures moving in and a clichèd ‘stalker’ image of peaking through blinds.
I mean... It has the ‘done on the weekend’ level of design about it, but it is not a prime example of my craft at all.
But something interesting is happening with his eye overlapping the place of the stalker’s right eye. Given a few more drafts, I’d have brought that duality, reflecting himself in the stalker’s eye, to the fore. After seeing the show last year (along with the rest of the entire globe), that would’ve been pretty aligned with the main arc.
It has been utterly surreal to watch Richard’s success with the show since then. Had I known it would get this big, I’d have definitely swapped out that Myriad font for a much sexier sans serif.
The Original Poster for Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer Show
We all have our crosses to bear.
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