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Joe Lycett on Late Night Lycett season 1: release date, guests, stunts, locations and behind-the-scenes secrets

Joe Lycett is turning Friday nights funny with Late Night Lycett, his live new show that has inclusivity and mischief at its heart.

Following the success of his Big Pride Party last summer, comedian Joe Lycett is back on Channel 4 with a new Friday-night entertainment series. Late Night Lycett will broadcast from his home city of Birmingham over the next five weeks, with a variety of celebrity guests interacting with live audiences. 

Here Joe guides us through what to expect in Late Night Lycett and opens up about his recent Liz Truss and David Beckham stunts…

Joe Lycett — release date of Late Night Lycett 

Joe Lycett’s Late Night Lycett season 1 starts on Friday, March 31 2023 at 10 pm on Channel 4. There are five hour-long shows, showing on consecutive Fridays, which will also be available on All4 after transmission.

The trailer for Late Night Lycett

Coming soon! Please check back for the Late Night Lycett trailer.

Late Night Lycett — what to expect 

When What To Watch joined Joe Lycett on a video interview to talk about his new series, he was busy finalising guests and preparations for the Friday night variety showcase…

Joe Lycett: “We’ve just had a meeting about set designs and it’s starting to feel very real. I love the idea of doing a risky live show from Birmingham. When I started doing stand up my aspirations were just to get enough gigs to survive. I still pinch myself thinking ‘Oh my god, this is my job!’ I’m really chuffed.

“Birmingham will feature heavily. We’re doing it by the banks of the canal and there will be a hodgepodge of guests mixing with Birmingham locals. The guests are along for the ride. It's not going to be a big promo opportunity for them, they’ll get stuck in with the anarchy and chaos. We’ll also have outside broadcasts hosted by people with no experience of live TV… All sorts of strange, silly things will be happening!”

Late Night Lycett — guests

At the time talking to Joe, guest stars were strictly under wraps and in the process of being finalized, but the star revealed he has an interesting wish list…

Joe: “At this stage we’re working out who will work well with one another. The guests I get most pumped about are people I love watching. I’ve got a huge wishlist of dream guests - Carol Vorderman, Ruth Langsford, any of the Loose Women, [the Prince and Princess of Wales] Kate and Will, Sam Smith, Joe Biden, and Liz Truss. If we got her I’d probably retire at the peak of my powers.

“There’s been talk about my family coming on, but there’s no way you’re going to get Helen Lycett on my program. She’s unbookable, you’re more likely to get Liz Truss!”

Joe talks stunts on Live with Lycett

Each hour-long outing features local Brummie legends and Lycett’s trademark stunts, which have a tendency to go viral, including his cheeky appearance on politics show Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last year when he pretended to be right-wing.

“The stunts that do well surprise me. I didn't expect my appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s show to become a big deal. I was going on to sell a few tour tickets. For people to claim that I brought down the government… None of that was planned. 

“Things have been pitched to me [for this series] that I’d never do unless I was pushed by Channel 4. You might end up watching me genuinely annoyed about the positions I’ve been put into on my own TV show. I don’t currently have a lawyer but will be looking for one!”

Joe on having local legends on the show…

“We’ve got people out scouring Birmingham landmarks finding interesting people. Some we knew about before the Pride show and some I’ve interacted with over my 30-plus years living in Birmingham. Programmes like Gogglebox and The Traitors have shown that audiences love seeing real people from all backgrounds, ages, sizes, genders and sexualities; people enjoy seeing diversity on their screens. I don’t know how we’ll manage it but having real people commenting on the celebrity in front of them, live, is an exciting prospect. It will be fun!”

Joe on that David Beckham stunt…

Joe made headlines when he pretended to shred £10,000 after issuing a challenge to David Beckham about his involvement in the Qatar World Cup. During our interview, Joe was asked if he feels pressure to top his previous stunts…

“No, I don't. Obviously, things like the Beckham stunt are more considered [than Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg] and we were deliberately garnering negative press to get people talking. I was surprised by how effective that was. I live a much happier life if I'm not trending, but then I get wound up about something and can’t help myself.

Is he worried about anything going wrong on Late Night Lycett?

“I love it when things go wrong! Weirdly, that’s when my anxiety calms itself down. When a show is prerecorded you know you can do another take if you fluff a line. When I do live TV the stand-up version of me comes to life. I’m excited! Though I might change my mind if things go so wrong I’m unemployable…”

Finally, does Joe keep in touch with his Sewing Bee pals?

Joe presented BBC One’s The Great British Sewing Be e from 2019 until 2021 before handing the mantle over to Sara Pascoe.

“Sara is absolutely smashing it — my mum loves her as the host! I’m still in touch with [judges] Patrick [Grant] and Esme [Young]. My sister got two kittens and we’ve named them Patrick and Esme, so there are actually two Patricks and Esmes in my life now!”

Late Night Lycett season 1 — episode guide

Late Night Lycett season 1 — episode 1

The first episode of Late Night Lycett sees Joe joined by Alan Carr, Joanna Lumley, Alison Hammond and Katherine Ryan. 

Thank you to everyone for watching last night’s debut #LateNightLycett - never had a reaction like it. Plus very strong ratings, averaging over a million. So proud of the team, the guests, and the people of Birmingham. Can’t wait for next week. 🌈🐂 pic.twitter.com/T1eN99noqk April 1, 2023

Late Night Lycett season 1 — episode 2

In the second episode of Late Night Lycett Joe is joined by Daisy May Cooper, Rylan Clark, David Harewood, Greg James and Katherine Ryan. 

Late Night Lycett season 1 — episode 3

Guest stars for the third outing of Late Night Lycett are Dame Joan Collins, Gemma Collins, Joel Dommett, Munroe Bergdorf, and (third time lucky?) Katherine Ryan. From C4: "Actress Dame Joan Collins, reality TV star Gemma Collins (no relation), model and activist Munroe Bergdorf will all join Joe in Birmingham for episode three of his hilarious and entertaining Friday night 10pm show. 

"Katherine Ryan also returns once again, having twice failed to make it from the show’s barge Green Room into the studio to chat to Joe due to unforeseen circumstances. The first week the barge became untethered, and Katherine was left drifting along Digbeth Canal, and last week her hair became inadvertently hitched to the barge doors, and unfortunately, she wasn’t freed on time before the show came off air."

Late Night Lycett season 1 — episode 4

Joe's star guests this week include Jonathan Ross, Rob Delaney, Judi Love and Katherine Ryan.

From C4: "Joining Joe in Digbeth this week is presenter Jonathan Ross, actor and comedian Rob Delaney and comedian Judi Love, who will all get to hang out with Joe’s regular assortment of local Brummie and LGBTQ+ heroes, plus his two real-life aunties Pauline and Margaret.  

"And, after her latest unfortunate attempt to make it on to the show last week which saw her arrested for piracy as she made her way from the show’s barge green room into the studio, Katherine Ryan has agreed to return for another attempt to make it on the show.

"As well as celebrity guests, Joe will be looking back at events from the week, we’ll hear from right-wing news reader Richard Yewtree and Joe’s assorted guests will be playing ‘Finish Me Off’. Plus, after three shows of him giving away his possessions as prizes, will one lucky winner finally drive away from the studio in Joe’s very own Lexus Hybrid or will Joe hold onto his car for another week?"

Late Night Lycett season 1 - episode 5

For the series finale of Late Night Lycett , Joe is joined in Brummie by Richard E. Grant, Rosie Jones and Katherine Ryan.

From C4: "Comedian Katherine Ryan is planning to make it to the studio, having failed over the last four weeks to make it from the show’s barge Green Room into the studio to chat to Joe due to unforeseen circumstances — the barge becoming untethered, her hair getting caught in the barge doors, being arrested for piracy and, last week, pushed in the canal by an over-eager fan.  "There’ll also be another mystery guest doing a shift in Joe’s local corner shop, following in the mighty footsteps of Claire Sweeney, Natalie Cassidy, Anthea Turner and H from Steps. 

"As well as celebrity guests, Joe will be reflecting on the week, transforming into right-wing news reader Richard Yewtree and hanging out with his regular assortment of local Brummie and LGBTQ+ heroes, plus his two real-life aunties Pauline and Margaret."

Catch Joe Lycett’s Late Night Lycett on Channel 4 on Fridays at 10pm, from 31 March 2023. 

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With twenty years of experience as an entertainment journalist, Elaine writes for What’s on TV, TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and www.whattowatch.com covering a variety of programs from gardening and wildlife to documentaries and drama.

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Joe Lycett announces 2022 tour

More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

Joe Lycett has announced a major 60-date tour for next year.

In the show – entitled More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett? – the comic will explore his love of art, his passion for gardening, toying with companies on Instagram, and the perils of online trolls.

The tour will kick off in on March 11 and run until September, starting in theatres before moving into a handful of arenas.

Lycett has recently hosted the third series of   The Great British Sewing Bee, which was watched by more than 6 million people each week, and is working on series three of his Bafta-nominated consumer series Joe Lycett ’s Got Your Back for Channel 4.

He will also soon take over as host of travel documentary series Travel Man from Richard Ayoade .

More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett? is Joe’s fifth live show after: Some Lycett Hot, If Joe Lycett Then You Should’ve Put a Ring On It, That’s The Way, A-Ha, A-Ha, Joe Lycett and I’m About to Lose Control and I Think Joe Lycett .

Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday.

» Joe Lycett tour dates and ticket links

Published: 15 Jun 2021

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Joe Lycett: ‘The older I get, the closer I get to earnestness’

The pansexual polymath comic reflects on clashes with Truss and Beckham and his deep love of his hometown

Joe Lycett is a man of many talents, and one of those talents is knowing where the best bins in London are.

‘Borough Market!’ he enthuses. ‘They’re very jolly, they look like they’re smiling because they’ve got two holes for coffee cups. There are also some lovely bins around the Clerkenwell area. Lewisham’s I think are the ugliest: they’re just blocks of blue, like cylinders of PVA glue.’

We’re not specifically here to talk about the fact that the superstar comedian and sometime artist has just released a limited-edition, £95 coffee-table book of photographs he’s taken of bins (it’s called ‘Bins’ and I believe its print run of 1,000 copies has already sold out, so maybe let’s not dwell on it). In fact, this interview was loosely conceived as a catch-up on his remarkable 2022. But he will insist on constantly announcing more stuff. In the two weeks before we meet, a pair of new projects comes to light: the book, and ‘Late Night Lycett’, a live Channel 4 Friday-night comedy show broadcast from his hometown of Birmingham from March 31, spotlighting England’s second city and its inhabitants.

‘A new show coming from London is like: So what?’ he says. ‘But hopefully the people of Birmingham will be excited about it happening here and I’ll be excited at doing it in Birmingham and that excitement will translate on to screen and it will bring something that you’ve not seen before.’ The show will also eschew traditional celebrity guests in favour of ‘real Birmingham working people’.

He admits to some nerves, but says he’s less afraid of failure these days. And quite right too. Although still just 34, Lycett has been famous for a long time now and for a lot of things: as a stand-up, as the erstwhile presenter of BBC One’s ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’, as the host of brilliantly arch Channel 4 consumer rights programme ‘Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back’, as the man who legally changed his name to ‘Hugo Boss’ in order to protest at the German clothing company’s aggressively litigious pursuit of small businesses with ‘boss’ in their names. 

When he turns up for the Time Out photoshoot in an east London warehouse, he’s exactly like the guy off telly: big, booming and jocular, cracking wise in that arch but ultimately very nice way of his, delighting the grooming guy by being already aware of him by reputation, cheerily flinging himself into the numerous retina-searing shoutfits the stylist has turned up with. 

‘I wasn’t ever that interested in fashion,’ he says of his penchant for flamboyant costumes. ‘But then I got more and more bored with the clothes I got put in. I was essentially just being put in exactly what people think a telly presenter who’s a bit camp should wear, and I feel a lot happier in things that aren’t a suit.’

Is this the real Joe Lycett, though? Behind the good-natured japery and teatime-telly-friendly presenting skills he is, effectively, an increasingly powerful and visible social activist. And that includes his advocacy for Birmingham, the nation’s much-maligned second city. It’s part of the reason I wanted to do this interview: I’m from Birmingham too, and it fascinates me that possibly the nation’s most famous comedian hasn’t simply ruthlessly ditched Brum, but embraced it without sentimentalising or patronising it. 

He does have a base in London: he stays in Peckham with a family friend. But he essentially remains a commuter, living in the modest Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath, just around the corner from his parents, and not far from mine (I’m from Kings Norton – for some reason our forebears couldn’t abide possessive apostrophes). 

Birmingham felt like a forgotten place and we were the forgotten people in it

Full disclosure: we even went to the same school, though he’s years younger than me. Famous people aren’t supposed to go to your school in Birmingham. Or if they do, they ditch Brum and reinvent themselves in a fancier city. Lycett lost most traces of an accent a long time ago, which in part he puts down to a queer culture thing brought on by mainlining a lot of Quentin Crisp recordings back in the day (it’s difficult to imagine his schtick working in the same way if he did have the ponderous hometown drawl). But he’s a Brummie to the core. In fact, it’s kind of where his unique brand of activism began. 

Nobody in their right mind loves Birmingham when they’re a teenager and Lycett was no exception. ‘I was not a fan when I was younger,’ he says a week later on a Zoom call from his house, much more serious and contemplative than the guy I met at the photoshoot. ‘I thought it was a bleak place. I’ve never suffered from depression but I thought it was depressing: I didn’t think it was aspirational, I didn’t think anyone of interest would ever want to come here, it just felt like a forgotten place and we were the forgotten people in it.’

Four years at university in Manchester gave him some perspective, though. He realised that Birmingham had more potential than he’d given it credit for. It just needed people to stay there and fight for it. And since then he’s been giving it his damnedest: ‘Late Night Lycett’ is a big deal, of course. But so too is the saga detailed in last year’s special ‘ More, More, More. How do You Joe Lycett?’, wherein the bisexual comic managed to place erroneous news stories about Kings Heath being one of the world’s most famous gay suburbs, an enthusiastic lie that gained enough traction to lead to Kings Heath gaining its own small annual Pride Parade, dubbed Queens Heath (still no apostrophe).

Still, it feels a world away from more glittering events like the recent National Comedy Awards at London’s Roundhouse, where Lycett was presented with the Comedy Game Changer award and proceeded to cheerily slag off a multitude of public figures – including, topically, beleaguered BBC chairman Richard Sharp (Lycett called for him to step down and declared that it was the official opinion of Channel 4). He looks like he’s effortlessly at home amid London’s celebrity society. Not really, he says.

‘I don’t like going to things,’ he declares. ‘I hate it when I’m nominated for an award, I’d love it if people stopped nominating for them because I feel like going to them is a waste of time. There’s lots of people there I’d like to see, but I don’t get a proper engaging conversation with them and then I sort of overdrink to compensate. I’d much rather go to the pub with a few friends or be in the studio making art or writing a joke.’

He assures me that he does like London, he just enjoys the distance from it that Birmingham affords: ‘I get less bothered here,’ he says. ‘They can’t ring me up and say: “Somebody’s dropped out of ‘8 out of 10 Cats’ tonight, can you come?” Because I can’t! I’m not as readily available. But I also feel very protected by the people around me. All my neighbours are protective over me and I feel protective over them.’

Troubling Truss

Last year was an eventful one for Lycett, one in which his singular blend of activism and arch whimsy propelled him from ‘well-liked telly guy’ to ‘full-blown folk hero’, thanks to his merciless public eviscerations of Liz Truss and David Beckham.

In case you don’t remember her, Liz Truss was the prime minister of this country for a few weeks last autumn. Her time at the top will be remembered for three things: she crashed the pound, she was outlasted by a lettuce, and Lycett called her ‘the backwash of the dregs’ of the Tory party on the inaugural episode of Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning politics show. Sarcastically claiming to be a ‘very right- wing’ superfan, he was the nation’s annoyance with the interminable Conservative Party leadership contest made manifest, mocking her with a total lack of deference that sparked outrage in the right-wing press and even an angry mention in the House of Commons.

I don’t want to be respectful to these people because they’ve not been respectful to me or the public

‘I was really angry with her and with Rishi and the whole situation really,’ says Lycett of the unedifying spectacle of the contest, wherein Truss and Rishi Sunak tore strips off each other for weeks on end while nobody actually seemed to be running the country. ‘I am generally left-leaning but I’ve never told anyone how to vote; I don’t think it’s my role. But I really did feel like this particular group of politicians were so villainous and out for themselves and so incompetent and so cynical and spiteful that I just thought: No, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ll happily defend this to the end of my days. I don’t want to be respectful to these people because they’ve not been respectful to me or the public. They don’t deserve my respect.’

His performance was not elaborately scripted. ‘I went in with a rough idea that I was going to be sarcastic,’ he says, ‘and I’d only made that decision on the way in. I was nervous about being a pundit, because that’s not who I am. But what I have done is be sarcastic to politicians on Twitter: it was just an extension of that. It’s quite easy to do, you say whatever they would say and just repeat it as if it was the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard.’

He didn’t end Truss’s premiership – in fact, she didn’t formally become PM until the next day – but his flagrant contempt set the tone for her brief car-crash tenure.

Bothering Beckham

Within a few weeks of Truss’s departure, Lycett had a new target. He was politer about David Beckham. But it was his sense of extreme disappointment in the former England football captain that gave his campaign its moral force.

Ur-metrosexual Beckham has reaped a lot of cultural cachet over the years for his supposed allyship with the LGBTQ+ community. But last year saw him take up a paid ambassadorial role with Qatar, a country that nominally punishes homosexuality with death or imprisonment. Lycett said how hypocritical he believed this to be, and threatened to shred £10,000 of his own money – otherwise earmarked for gay charities – if Beckham didn’t step down from the role.

Intent on raising awareness of Qatari human rights abuses, Lycett and team figured that Beckham would be a more viable target than the state itself. ‘The reason for going for Beckham was that it was the most likely out of all the scenarios that it might do something,’ he says, ‘that by putting it all on his shoulders he might say something, might slightly change his ways in a way that would affect the global mood.’

That’s not to say Lycett expected Beckham to do anything. ‘The whole thing was set up under the basis that you would hear nothing from him,’ he explains. ‘People get to a level of fame where they become lizard people: they don’t even have their own phones, they disappear into myth, you can’t contact them.’

In the end, Beckham was forced to put out a half-baked statement to try and justify himself. He has not noticeably done much ambassadorial work for Qatar since. Lycett was never going to shred the money – instead he destroyed a bundle of copies of the 2002 edition of Attitude with Beckham on the cover. Although he was hardly the first to raise the alarm over the Qatar World Cup, in the immediate run-up it was Lycett who felt like our nation’s conscience.

And perhaps this is the crux of what Joe Lycett does. Yes, much of his activity is simply funny or purely entertaining. But his most genuinely impactful work sees him take on the peculiar dual role of activist and ironist, attempting to genuinely change society for the better while avoiding seriousness at all costs.

It’s a weird balance, but one that Lycett has pulled off with remarkable skill to this point. But is it sustainable? Can he continue to have our backs without turning into Bono?

He laughs. ‘The older I get, the closer I get to earnestness. On the new show, I’ve asked them to raise an earnest alarm if I start saying something that’s trying too hard to be meaningful.’

An activist who hates earnestness, a big national celebrity who lives in a quiet Birmingham suburb, a superstar comic who is putting out a book about bins: I wouldn’t say Lycett is a bundle of contradictions, more that he’s interested in a surprising melange of things, and has carved out a strange niche that seems to be able to accommodate them all. I think he both loves and slightly mistrusts his fame: he’ll talk about his previous stunts with enthusiasm, but he’s keen to point out that many of the ‘…Got Your Back’ interventions are done anonymously. He says less telly, more stand-up, is how he can see the future going, though I think that might just be good old Brummie pragmatism about how long he can stay on top. 

Whatever the case, he is adamant that what he does must be funny, or there’s no point. 

‘I saw somebody who I won’t name doing a speech,’ he recalls. ‘They’d won a Bafta and they were thanking everybody. They were thanking the sound crew and they were going like: “Yeah, if you don’t have sound you don’t hear the movie.” And I thought: Urgh. That’s the enemy, I don’t want that. I don’t mind myself believing in something and talking about it, but it has to be delivered at least with a twinkle in the eye. My role as a comedian is to make people laugh. The moment it slips entirely into earnestness it becomes something else.’

‘Late Night Lycett’ will air on Channel 4 for five weeks from Mar 31.

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More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

• Date 21 Sep , 2022
• Event Starts 8:00 PM
• Doors Open 06.30 PM
• Ticket Prices £41.10 £46.70 £97.40
• On Sale On Sale Now

Event Details

Event Times:

Box Office 06.00pm I Doors 06.30pm I Show start 08.00pm I Interval 08.45pm I Show End 10.10pm

Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

Join Joe Lycett (the artist formerly known as Hugo Boss) doing what he does best: talking at a room of people in a queer and comedic fashion at the Utilita Arena Newcastle on Wednesday 21st September 2022.  His first tour in years promises to be packed with MORE jokes, MORE comedy anecdotes and MORE inappropriate and arguably disturbing paintings, all in the hope of answering the age-old question: How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett? 

Please note all timinings are approximate and subject to change.

Additional Ticket Information

Please note  booking fees apply

Champagne Experience

• Entry into the venue via our Hospitality entrance
• Prime View seat
• Access to the members only lounge pre show and at the Interval
• Glass of champagne on arrival
• A deli style sharing platter

BOOK PACKAGE

If you already have purchased tickets, then you can still upgrade to our Hospitality Packages. Simply call us on  0191 260 6023 .

The small print:

• You can access the Lounge from full doors until after the interval (if applicable)
• Access to the Lounge is via 4 steps
• Alcohol only available to over 18s – ID may be required
• Your preshow refreshments can be redeemed from the bar upon arrival to the lounge
• Card bar facilities will be available within the lounge
• Event details and timings may be subject to change

Suite Experience

• Exclusive hire of 10 seater Executive Suite
• Entry into the venue via the hospitality entrance
• Glass of prosecco on arrival
• £300 to spend behind the bar
• Chefs selection buffet (dietary requirements can be catered for)
• Car Parking for 3 cars

Enquire now

The small print:-

• You can access the Executive Suite from full doors until the end of the event
• Executive suites are located above the balcony seating area
• Alcohol only available to over 18s - ID may be required
• Card beverage facilities will be available within the suite

Age Restriction

Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult 18+

Suite Seat (Shared Suite Experience)

· Entry into the venue via our Hospitality entrance

· An event ticket located within our shared Executive Suite

· 1 Pre-show drink of either a bottle of beer, glass of wine or a soft drink

· Host service within the suite for additional beverage requirements

The Small Print:-

• You can access the Executive suite from full doors until the end of the show.

• Executive suites are located above the balcony seating area.

• The Executive Suite is a shared suite with other patrons.

• Access is via 3 steps.

• Alcohol only available to over 18’s – ID may be required.

• Card beverage facilities will be available within the suite via host service.

• Event details and timings may be subject to change.

• Your drink will be served before the start of the event approximately 10 minutes after arrival to the suite

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Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

Join Joe Lycett (the artist formerly known as Hugo Boss) doing what he does best: talking at a room of people in a queer and comedic fashion. His first tour in years promises to be packed with MORE jokes, MORE comedy anecdotes and MORE inappropriate and arguably disturbing paintings, all in the hope of answering the age-old question: How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett? 

joelycett.com

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Join Joe Lycett (the artist formerly known as Hugo Boss) doing what he does best: talking at a room of people in a queer and comedic fashion. His first tour in years promises to be packed with MORE jokes, MORE comedy anecdotes and MORE inappropriate and arguably disturbing paintings, all in the hope of answering the age-old question: How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett? 

2 hours 5 minutes including interval

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Amplify are Utilita Arena Birmingham’s official hospitality business and have the following VIP experience available for Joe Lycett, making your night extra special! Your VIP Hospitality includes:

Premium located ticket (in front of stage & side tier adjacent to stage!)

• Private entrance & exclusive check in

Pre-show and interval access to our hospitality area

A pre-show complimentary bar of wine, beer & soft drinks

Street food style light bites

Your own allocated table to suit party size

Order your interval drinks in advance

Inclusive onsite parking (one parking pass per two persons)

Price: £135.00 per person

Please BOOK HERE or contact the team on 0844 338 0333 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri)

Exclusive contemporary lounge bar with a private seating balcony (*located above Upper Blocks 3 & 4) offering panoramic views across Utilita Arena Birmingham. Your experience includes:

• Private balcony seated ticket (*located above Upper Blocks 3 & 4)
• Private Entrance & exclusive check in
• Access to Premier Lounge until 30 minutes post event
• Welcome drinks reception
• Private bar (cash basis)
• Complimentary parking at Utilita Arena Birmingham

Priced at £105 per person

Amplify are the official hospitality provider to Utilita Arena Birmingham. Our ‘Show Deck’ is a 52 seated private balcony viewing area offering more spacious padded seating and a panoramic Arena View, your experience includes:

• Private balcony seated ‘Show Deck’ ticket (*located above Upper Block 7)
• Private bar to purchase drinks

*Lounge is accessible by lift

*Please notify us if you are a wheelchair user

Priced at £75 per person

Amplify are the official hospitality provider to Utilita Arena Birmingham. Our ‘Show Lounge’ is a 54 seated private balcony viewing area offering more spacious padded seating and a panoramic Arena View, your experience includes:

• Private balcony seated ticket (*located above Upper Block 10)
• Access to Show Lounge private bar area

Priced at £85 per person

We are delighted to announce that Joe Lycett is providing a registered British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter for his show at Utilita Arena Birmingham on Friday 16th September. Tickets (subject to availability) can be booked via the Accessible Bookings Line on 0800 640 5001.

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Joe Lycett: More, More, More...

This is a past event and is currently no longer running.

How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

Fri 3 & Sat 4 June 2022

Tickets £32.75

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Performances

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Join Joe Lycett (the artist formerly known as Hugo Boss) doing what he does best: talking at a room of people in a queer and comedic fashion.

His first tour in years promises to be packed with MORE jokes, MORE comedy anecdotes and MORE inappropriate and arguably disturbing paintings, all in the hope of answering the age-old question: How do you Lycett? How do you Lycett?

Website: joelycett.com Socials: @joelycett

Running Time

Approx. 2 hours including support act and interval

Age guidance

15+ Likely to include swearing and adult content

Directions >

Concessions for patrons with disabilities.

£5 off standard price tickets in all seating areas. 2 for 1 on standard ticket prices for disabled patrons who require the service/support of a companion. Limited availability CLICK HERE  for more information on our Access Performances

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Discounts and Concessions are offered subject to availability at the discretion of the Information and Sales Manager. Top three price bands only, unless otherwise stated. Restrictions may apply. Only one discount per ticket may apply, unless otherwise stated. Offers are non retrospective and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Valid ID must be presented where applicable. Additional discounts may be offered from time to time.

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Birmingham Hippodrome announces new season

New musical theatre writers begin key development programme at birmingham hippodrome, your introduction to: come from away.

Joe Lycett (formerly Hugo Boss) is a hugely talented comedian with an unaffected, relaxed and effortless stage presence. An appealing, engaging and more...

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Past Events

Here are the most recent UK tour dates we had listed for Joe Lycett. Were you there?

• Mar 19 Tue London, Royal Albert Hall A Night of Comedy Kevin Bridges, Rob Beckett, Paul Chowdhry, Joe Lycett, Joanne McNally…
• Feb 23 Fri London, The Clapham Grand Live At The Clapham Grand With Rose Matafeo Joe Lycett, Suzi Ruffell, Eshaan Akbar, Catherine Bohart…
• Apr 26 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Apr 19 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Apr 12 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Apr 05 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Mar 29 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Mar 22 2023 The Glee Club Birmingham Joe Lycett At The Glee - Work In Progress Show
• Mar 03 2023 London, The O2 The Graham Norton Variety Show Sam Ryder, Bianca Del Rio, Jayde Adams, Danny Beard…
• Oct 21 2022 Birmingham, The Alexandra Theatre Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?

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‘I spend less time self-sabotaging’: Robbie Williams and Joe Lycett on making art

The pop star and comedian discuss their artwork, social media and how Williams came of age in a classic Birmingham club

J oe Lycett and Robbie Williams were brought together by Instagram. Last August, Williams posted a painting of a small, saintly looking child (not him), and captioned it with an account of how he had once made the mistake of reading the comments below a Mail Online piece. “It was hellish,” he wrote. “The person (me) they were describing was the most horrendous person that ever walked the planet. I was crestfallen.” At this point, Williams thought the best plan would be to read some comments about people who “are good, salt-of-the-earth folk”. So he looked up a piece about Ant and Dec. “Surely to God no one can hate Ant and Dec,” he thought to himself. But no. “The second comment said: ‘I hate these two almost as much as I hate that fat c*** Robbie Williams.’”

Joe Lycett guest edits the Observer New Review – editor's letter

When I was asked to be the guest editor for this edition of the New Review magazine I was astonished and sickened. “What is that?” I said to my PR manager while pouring Black Tower Pinot Noir into empty Châteauneuf-du-Pape bottles.

“It’s a prestigious publication inserted into the Observer with features and pictures,” he replied.

I couldn’t believe the cheek of the man. He well knows that I don’t believe in editing. Like all rightwing commentators, I believe that any form of editing is an assault on freedom of speech. I prefer things to be “unfiltered”, “unleashed”, and “uncensored” (and, if you’re interested, “uncut”). Deleting an erroneous semicolon is just how Stalin began his decades of terror.;

After much back and forth, the leftists at the New Review said that my insistence on not editing this issue made the task of me editing this issue “impossible” and “frankly, ridiculous”. Exactly what you’d expect from those lazy liberal comrade snowbastards.

“How about, Joe, you write a thoughtless stream of consciousness piece and send it to go behind a paywall at Mail+,” they said, “and in addition we will dedicate this issue of the New Review to your home city of Birmingham?” My high-intensity prescription antihistamines had kicked in by that point, and I agreed.

So, against my better judgment, this issue is all about Birmingham. Inside you’ll find a piece about allotments by Rebecca Nicholson, writing about the state of the city from Brummies Nathalie Olah and Kirsty Bosley, a conversation I had with Robbie Williams about art, and other contributions from Kofi Stone, Claire Douglass, Munya Chawawa, Katherine Ryan, Janice Connolly, Matt Arnold, Matt Nation, and an exclusive cover painted by me. If that’s not your thing then I’ve written the Mail+ piece and they assure me they’ll run it on one of the weeks Boris forgets to submit his copy (ie next week).

Among those who replied to his post were Alan Carr, Piers Morgan, and Lycett, who said it made him laugh out loud – and so began their (possibly somewhat unlikely) friendship. The comedian also paints and makes ceramics (you can see his “after Hockney” portrait of Harry Styles, a rude vase he may – or may not – have designed for H&M, and several other works on his website ); in 2018, his sculpture Chris was accepted by the Royal Academy for inclusion in its Summer Exhibition. By September, Lycett had visited Williams at home in west London, at which point they discovered how well they got on, and how similar their art is. Williams’s Inklings illustrations, like Lycett’s huge acrylics, have a pop art sensibility that pokes fun at celebrity culture and the so-called wellness industry.

For this interview, Lycett and Williams talked over Zoom. Lycett, who is 35, was at home in Birmingham, in a pink room with a big cupboard in which he houses some of his beloved outlandish stage outfits; Williams, 50, was in London, where he lives with his wife, Ayda Field, and four children (one of whom appeared fleetingly on screen). Their conversation touched on dating, artificial intelligence and the nature of fame, as well as some scabrous celebrity gossip that it would probably be extremely unwise to repeat here.

Joe Lycett:

You started posting art on Instagram last May. Is that right?

Robbie Williams:

Yes. I’ve been doing stuff [making art] since 2006, but I hadn’t put anything out there.

But then I had this joke about the Olympics/the Ozempics [the weight-loss drug], and for some reason I was worried. I thought: “I must put this out there now, or someone else will either steal it or think I’ve stolen it.” I wasn’t planning on following it up but I got such nice comments – and that fed my ego. I thought: “I’m going to do some more of these. People are pleased with me.” As of today, that joke has had 15,746 likes. I don’t do photographs of me on tour any more, really. It’s all the art. Before this, I didn’t really do social media. I’ve always been puzzled by it. I exist in a very 90s personality, one who doesn’t get it at all.

JL: Hang on. Aren’t you on Twitter?

RW: No, I’m not on Twitter [now known as X]. It would ruin my career. The last time I was on it, I did a tweet that said: “I quite fancy getting into shoplifting. Has anyone got any good suggestions for shoplifting?” The person who runs Gail’s, the bakery, said: this is awful. This is a pop star who lives in a bubble. How dare he? I saw the backlash, and I was, like: “I don’t think Twitter is for me.” I got my fingers burned.

JL: But that’s increasingly what it’s like out there. It’s weird for me because when I was starting out as a comedian, before I had any recognition, I had maybe a few hundred followers, and I would use it to try out jokes. It was a kind of writers’ room, all these half-baked ideas. But looked at retrospectively, with a few more followers, it’s a writers’ room full of danger. But the shoplifting stuff, that’s interesting. Are you familiar with the artist Foka Wolf [the Birmingham billboard prankster ]? He has a whole strand of work about shoplifting; he says it should become more normalised. You’re in a similar space.

RW: I’ve just had a look at his Insta page, and I already like it. But I’m Robbie Williams , so I’m in a certain box. I’m in a pop star box, and if the pop star starts acting differently from the way a pop star should, then it causes confusion, which I like, but it might also get me cancelled.

JL: One thing I’ve noticed about your art is that nearly all of it is funny. Is that something you feel you can’t do through your music? I mean, there are elements of humour in your lyrics, but they’re more amusing observations than punchlines.

RW: OK, so when I was 10, and at primary school, we camped in north Wales for seven days. At the end of the holiday, we were allowed to go into town and some people had some pocket money and some people didn’t; I didn’t. Anyway, we were in the shop, and I saw this poster on the wall. It was of a train that had crashed because a bridge had collapsed. It was the 1890s or something, and there was this man with a big top hat on, and he was looking at the scene, and it just said [what he was thinking, which was]: oh shit, oh shit. I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen, and I stared at it for ages and ages. There was also this book, again when I was about 10, of funny things people had written on walls. I guess both those inspired me to do what I’m doing now. I don’t know if there’s something about not being able to be funny in my music; it’s not like I’m burning to do more funny lyrics. But in this medium, I’m still that 10-year-old.

JL: Even in my world, if you’re a musical comedian, people roll their eyes a bit. Music isn’t the place for funny.

RW: It’s kind of like a prop gag, isn’t it? Where I peaked with this (funny lyrics) was my song Rudebox [from 2006]. It was meant to be whimsical and silly, but it was just deemed silly and was vilified.

JL: It’s sort of what you were talking about before: about being in your box. Doing something different isn’t allowed.

RW: I’m a big fan of surreal, of whimsy, and I don’t think the music world takes to silly very well. It’s either Barbie Girl, which we all get is silly, or it’s not understood or appreciated.

JL: Comedies never win Oscars.

RW: Neither do action films. But I enjoyed the last Mission Impossible way more than I enjoyed Oppenheimer . It was incredible escapism. But it won’t get anywhere near the Oscars, because action is deemed a lesser art form – which is why I went on my Instagram with one of my signs on a stick outside the Beverly Hills Hotel that said “Give Tom Cruise an Oscar already.” Just give him the frigging Oscar, you pretentious clowns.

JL: Do you think he was appreciative of that?

RW: Well, I haven’t heard from him. But I really meant it, and I will forgive Tom Cruise anything because he’s amazing. So it’s all good.

JL: At what stage did you decide to get in touch with me? What was the trigger?

RW: The trigger was seeing you on television and liking what you do, and then it was to do with my art, and me thinking: “Oh, Joe’s doing this too.” So I reached out. People do reach out on social media, don’t they? It’s the artistic equivalent of sliding into someone’s – what’s it called? – DMs. I missed the whole sliding-into-DMs-phase, because I’ve been in a relationship with my wife for 18 years. Thankfully, I’ve never had to deal with that.

JL: It is dangerous. I’m also, as you know, in a long-term relationship now, so I don’t need to worry about it. But when I was [single], I didn’t slide into people’s DMs. It was using Hinge and Grindr and those apps, and people would screenshot and then post the chat you were having with them. I’m not a good flirt, so people seeing my blurts was…

RW: Yeah, that’s abusive and unkind.

JL: So, the art…

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RW: Yes. I’ve got these Inklings that I do. I’ve got 2,500 of them, but not all of them are Instagram grid-worthy. I post every day, and now I’ve got slight anxiety that I’m going to run out of good ones to put up, but I am enjoying the process. I’ve got to draw some more, or come up with other things to put on the grid, and since I am an addict [Williams has struggled with drugs, alcohol, food and prescription drugs], I guess I’m addicted to social media right now. There’s your headline.

JL: [Laughing] Well, I concur. Because I think Instagram has made me more prolific as an artist. You get that dopamine hit from the response, and you want more of that, so you make more art. There was a piece – the one I spent the longest time on. It was a painting of Jenny Beavan [the Oscar-winning costume designer], who I live with when I’m in London. I spent ages on the folds in her jeans and it got much less engagement than stuff that had taken me 10 minutes. I found it frustrating. It was annoying. But still, without Instagram I would probably make a lot less art than I do.

RW: I also spend a lot of time on my captions, which have become diary-like, and what I noticed was that nobody was talking about my Inklings . They were responding to what I’d written. I was feeling like my Inklings were being ignored! I put a PS on one of my captions: can someone say something about my Inklings please?

JL: Yes, I’ve been writing silly blocks of text – flights of fancy essentially – about where the paintings come from, and you’re right, they become bigger than the post itself. But when you’re making art, is there a mental health benefit too?

RW: I was with Vic Reeves in, probably, 1995, and he told me that he creates something every day, and I remember thinking: “If only I was talented, I’d do that.” And now I find myself creating something every day, and escaping into creation in my mind, and the more time I spent doing that, the less time I spend self-sabotaging, or thinking about all the anxieties of life, the foibles of being me and inside my brain.

JL: I read somewhere that one art experience per month can add up to 10 years to your life – and it doesn’t have to be good work; there is no correlation between the quality of the work and the benefits.

RW: Wow. In that case, I’m going to live until I’m about 130. But it’s so gratifying and I’m so lucky to have the time to do it. It gives me dramatic purpose and I feel very, very fulfilled. I don’t know how I existed without doing this. When I was trying to put an album together, you have a couple of days writing songs, and then you might do nothing for a couple of months, and I don’t know what I did with myself in between. I got on the plane back from Hong Kong recently, and it was a 14-hour flight, and I spent 12 hours of it creating this jacket [a patchwork garment he’s designing]. I didn’t switch on the TV.

JL: The art changed for me when I had a chat with Mr Bingo [the illustrator and artist]. He gave me the idea of selling prints of my work in lockdown, and now it has become another revenue stream for me. It’s a bit of a machine, rather than the mental health thing it was.

RW: I’m addicted to the win – and how is the win measured? Eventually I will make my Inklings available to buy. It’s not just the money going into my bank account; it’s more to do with people liking them. I don’t suppose you’re allowed to say that as an artist. But if I’m not going to be lauded as a credible artist, I’ll choose to be a commercial one instead.

JL: I haven’t asked you about your exhibition in Amsterdam . How’s it going?

RW: Really well. It felt really good. Instead of having an existential crisis, which is what usually happens, I just thought: I don’t know what this means, but it’s nice.

JL: I did an exhibition last year with my mum [Helen, a retired graphic designer], and what was strange about it was you have all the build-up, like you have for a gig, the same kind of nervousness, the build-up of adrenaline. But there’s no performance. The showing-off has been done already.

RW: I didn’t have any nervousness. The exhibition isn’t going to facilitate the future of my children and our lifestyle. I did read some comments from the museum, and they were all very nice, apart from one that said, ‘People spend years studying fine art and they can’t get anywhere and Robbie Williams does some doodles and he’s in a museum.’

JL: We’ve got to finish this in a minute, and we should talk about Birmingham before we do. You grew up in Stoke, I know, but I am wondering if you have any links to Birmingham, especially to do with art in the city.

RW: Well, the only thing that comes to mind is Miss Moneypenny’s, the club. It was pivotal for me. I went from being this good boy in a Catholic school in Stoke to being this person who had just bombed a gram of speed and had three E’s in my pockets, dancing in my Vivienne Westwood bondage trousers and shirt with a high collar and tie that had the same gingham pattern. I went with a bunch of people from Warrington who would rent a van, and they would pick me up at a service station, and off we would go.

JL: Wow! I’ve literally never heard of it. I can’t believe I don’t know it… it’s got its own Wikipedia page .

RW: I remember spending a lot of time in gay clubs. For the first 18 months of Take That’s existence, we did gay clubs. I had the best time, because you weren’t in fear of your life. The love and acceptance that I found there, I will always be grateful for it.

JL: I feel the same. Any city I go to, they’re a safe space for me: a haven.

RW: Anyway, I’m away for two weeks, and then I’m back in London. I’d love to see you then, Joe. I do really enjoy your company – and hopefully neither of us will be cancelled after this appears.

JL: Yes. Fingers crossed!

Robbie Williams’s first solo show, Pride and Self-Prejudice , is on at the Moco Museum in Amsterdam until 8 July

Late Night Lycett airs Fridays at 10pm on Channel 4. The book Joe Lycett’s Art Hole is published later this year and is available to preorder now

• Joe Lycett edits Observer New Review
• Robbie Williams
• Exhibitions

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On my radar: Katherine Ryan’s cultural highlights

The big picture: all of Birmingham’s human life is here

‘The courgettes were so good last year, I got a tattoo of one’: life on a Birmingham allotment

Fake ads, real politics: the art of Foka Wolf, the ‘Birmingham Banksy’ – in pictures

Has it come to this? We must act now to save Birmingham’s culture from cuts

I value Brummie art, but who else does?

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