I won’t be able to hold my tears in when I get to do live shows again
REAL-LIFE COUPLE CHRIS AND ROSIE RAMSEY TELL MARION MCMULLEN THE SECRET OF THEIR PODCAST SUCCESS IS MAKING EACH OTHER LAUGH
You’ve recorded more than 100 episodes of your hit podcast S***ged. Married. Annoyed. Were you surprised how popular it became so quickly?
Chris: I still can’t believe it. Every week, every time we see the number of downloads, it blows our minds. You keep thinking maybe this will be the week that people won’t bother and we won’t be in the charts because they’ll say we’re not listening to that rubbish anymore, but it’s not happened yet. It’s humbling.
Rosie and I only really try to make each other laugh. We go on to have a laugh. We started the podcast so we could catch up on each other’s day and talk about what’s happening in the world.
We’ve kept the podcast going, but now we see each other all the time, we’ve not gone anywhere and, if you look at the news. it’s all about the pandemic.
You’re finally taking the podcast live on tour later this year with major new arena dates added. What can audiences expect?
Chris: We can’t wait. It’s so exciting. It almost felt like it was never going to happen, but now it feels more of a reality.
Rosie: It’s starting to get really exciting. We’re not 100% sure yet what we want to do. We’ve lots of ideas, too many, if we did them all we’d be on stage for five hours.
We just want everyone to come along and go home having had a real fun night.
Chris: When we announced the tour we were so excited to get out of our house and out on the road to perform for all the fans. The pandemic has increased this excitement to levels that are actually a bit frightening.
There is a chance we will both just spontaneously combust the moment we finally get on stage. Rosie: You don’t realise how just being out can excite me.
Have you missed performing live? Chris: I lost my job, my work life, and kind of my therapy when the lockdowns started. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold my tears in when I can do live shows again. I think I’m going to cry.
You normally do warm-up gigs to try our new material, but my gigs were already written and ready as the pandemic hit.
I need to do warm-up gigs to stop crying in front of a crowd of people.
I had three tours – the podcast shows and two of my stand- up shows – cancelled as well as live work, but we kept the podcast going throughout all of this and now I think the shows will be bigger and better. Rosie: (Laughs) Oh, he’s going to cry.
You’ve had a new baby boy and moved house since the first lockdown. How has it been going? Rosie: Our eldest son, Robin, absolutely loves the baby Rafe. (Laughs) Maybe too much. He comes into the room and ignores me and goes straight to the baby.
I think having both of us around all the time has helped Rafe get into a routine. It’s really nice. It’s not as bad as you might think. Chris: (Laughs) Robin’s constantly grabbing him and kissing him and trying to make him laugh.
When Robin was 10 days old I was I was on tour and I’d come back every five days or so and I would be upset how much he had changed.
It felt like a different kid. At that age, they just change so quickly.
Now I’ve been around 24/7. The pandemic has been 99.999 % bad, but the one positive is I’ve been able to be with my family. I’m hoping this is just going to be a blip in the rear view mirror and the boys won’t really remember it.
Robin’s been happy at home playing Nintendo Switch.
How will you manage the childcare and tour dates?
Rosie: We’re so lucky. Chris’ parents are around and it’s going to be fine. The grandparents are at the ready and Robin and Rafe absolutely love them so we are OK for childcare.
I’m a bit hands on and don’t like to be away from the kids too long so we’ll never be more than a night or two nights away.
It’s worked out quite well. It’s going to be shock to the system having a life again, but I’m hoping it will all go back to normal quite quickly.
I know people are going to feel anxious, but we’ve lived longer out of the pandemic than in it. (Laughs) I even had my hair done this morning.
Mind you, I didn’t think I’d have to wait three months for an appointment.
There is a chance we will both just spontaneously combust the moment we finally get on stage
Chris Ramsey on the thrill of performing live again
■ Chris & Rosie Ramsey’s live podcast shows run from September 5 to December 21. Go to the show’s website for tour and ticket details.