Hal Cruttenden is a comedian that you would instantly recognise. He seems to be on your telly every time you turn it on.
Panel shows, Live at the Apollo plus John Bishop’s show have all featured a bit of Hal’s wittiness.
His new stand-up tour is called ‘Straight Outta Cruttenden’ and will be coming to Swindon Arts Centre on Thursday November 19.
“My stand-up’s got nothing to do with NWA, you know. I don’t do a routine about Californian rap pioneers. The name just sounded good.” He said. “I must admit when I came up with the name of the tour I didn’t even know that Straight Outta Compton was coming out as a film. It’s just lucky timing I guess. I went and saw it last night. It’s pretty good. I just hope that my comedy tour being called what it is, will give them the publicity that they need to make the film a success.”
In the new tour Hal rants about the real evils of the modern world - over sharing on social media and the 5:2 diet.  The hungrier he gets the funnier he becomes.  Hal also gives us his unique insights on being an orphan on Facebook, taking his wife to Saudi Arabia and how he knew George Osbourne at school (or Gideon as he was then) and personally blames him every time he puts up the price of petrol.
He said: “The show is basically about me and my life. I think you’ll leave the theatre knowing a lot more about me than you did before you came in. Hopefully you’ll be smiling.
“I must admit, I love doing stand-up and I think I’m funnier than ever at the moment. So you should definitely come along to catch me at my peak.
“I think a lot of people just don’t realise that stand-up is a proper craft that you learn. The more experience you have the better you become. You don’t just go out on stage and are instantly funny. You need to rehearse and learn each joke and work out what material is good and which should be ditched.
“You have mechanisms in place now on how you can deal with most crowds. Ways you can deal with heckles. You don’t have that when you’re starting out but as you learn the craft you get better and better.”
Hal currently has two shows in development and has also just recorded a pilot with Sue Perkins called ‘Insert Name Here’. He has had two Radio 4 series in the past year and a third is in the pipeline.
He said: “Good stand-up is all about trust. The audience have to trust you. And you have to be able to control a room and I mean have absolute control of a room. Comedians are basically the fascist dictators of the light entertainment world in that way. We’re all control freaks.
“I’m constantly working on new material. It’s easy for comedians to become complacent and to rely on the old material but I believe you’ve got to constantly be upping your game.”
For tickets to see ‘Straight Outta Cruttenden visit