Russell Howard explains how his podcast causes celeb guests to ‘reveal so much about themselves’

Virgin Radio

8 Aug 2024, 08:14

When comedian Russell Howard told Chris Evans all about his hit podcast Wonderbox, he revealed which of his guests spoke about ham for 15 minutes, and explained what happened to Greg Davies’ paella pan!

In the podcast, Russell chats to celebrity guests about personal mementos they’d keep in their Wonderbox to remind them about important moments in their lives. 

Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, the stand-up explained: “I thought the idea would be great, then, if you had guests, and in a world full of kind of misery, if you just had this like little space where they spoke about things they adored, it's a brilliant, brilliant way of having an interview, because people reveal so much about themselves through the things that they love.”

------------------------------------

DON'T MISS:

Who are the celebrities taking part in Strictly Come Dancing 2024?

Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern to host beloved game show reboot

Celebrity Race Across The World 2024 line-up revealed and start date confirmed

------------------------------------

Guests so far have included the likes of Ed Gamble, Jack Whitehall, Jameela Jamil, Jimmy Carr, Rachel Parris, Roisin Conaty, Sam Ryder and Greg Davies.

Regarding the latter, Russell told Chris: “Greg Davies had a fantastic story about a paella pan that he bought in Spain, that he bought on a sort of a whim, because he thought he was going to cook all his friends paella. He had this sort of fanciful idea that he'd have these sort of Spanish-themed dinner parties, that never came to fruition. And his cleaner basically stole it, because he wasn't using it often enough.

“He just told this really funny story about their relationship, that basically, whenever he doesn't use something often enough, his cleaner just takes it away!” 

Elsewhere, Russell told Chris that Joel Dommett “put ham in, and you wouldn't have thought you could really speak about it, but he spoke for 15 minutes!”

The comedian explained: “He used to work in Borough Market as a kid. And he would sort of scoff ham before he started working.

“He must have been like Henry VIII by the end, he was eating lots of ham everyday!”

Another big guest on the pod was John Oliver, who Russell described as “quite a closed, satirical comedian.”

He explained: “One of the things he put in was a cake that he'd had in Paris, and it revealed that it was made by his sister, and his sister went to train with a pastry chef in Paris, and he'd never eaten something so delicious, and it sparked this memory of him having his sister in his hands when he was eight years old as a baby, and he couldn't quite believe that this little baby was now this genius pastry chef. 

“So he kind of revealed loads about his love for his family through this object. And if you'd have said, ‘Hey, John, how'd you get with your family?’ He'd have gone, ‘Yeah, fine.’ Do you know what I mean? So it allows you to kind of luxuriate in things you adore. And then it sparks off in different ways. I really love doing it.”

During his conversation with Chris, Russell also spoke about Billy Connelly, fellow stand-up Masie Adam’s “really beautiful story,” and about breaking wind on stage. Read more here. 

Wonderbox is available where you get your podcasts.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.