Comedian Russell Howard is the latest guest on Series Two of Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett’s weekly podcast Dish. He discusses everything from losing his dog (just to find him in the upstairs bathroom), his upcoming tour and Denmark’s love of porridge to eating dog food. 

Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett  invite listeners to pull up a seat at the table for delicious food, drink, and unfiltered, hilarious chats. While Michelin star chef Angela will be making and serving incredible dishes, sharing tips, and recommending delicious Waitrose recipes, Radio 1 alumni, Grimmy (who put his novice cooking skills to the test on The Great British Bake Off last year) will be sticking to serving the drinks and interviewing their special guests.

A taste of Russell Howard's chat with his hosts is below

Dish, hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett is available on all podcast providers now.

Russell Howard on the day he met his wife

The day I met my wife, I realised I was going to marry her. Also my brother ate dog food that day for a bet but he didn't finish at the tin so I didn’t give him the money.

Russell Howard on ‘losing’ his dog (to find him in the bathroom all along!)

I love my dog, like I have a deep bond with him and I adore him. I was looking around the house and I couldn't find him so I was like, right, he's gone. I legged it outside, running around and still couldn't find him. So then thought, who are all the famous people I know? So, I rang up Jack Whitehall, I think I rang up Jimmy Carr and somebody else, and just said, ‘Can you put on Twitter that I've lost my dog? So, they do. So, it turns out my wife was following one of them on Twitter, she's on her way home on the Tube, she sees that and it goes, ‘I've lost my…’ and it's her dog that is lost. She doesn't know this at the time, and I'd got so bad that I was genuinely running around Primrose Hill, and I'm not making this up, I genuinely got on the floor and was like, ‘Think like a dog. Where would you go?’  I went up to a bloke and started humping his leg like, ‘I'm in character’, before going okay this isn't gonna work. Then my wife literally came home, went upstairs and he was in the toilet upstairs.

Russell Howard on his nan and his scabs

I don't eat gluten or dairy because I've got psoriasis and I read that that's good for you. But the freaky thing about psoriasis is the only person in my family that used to have it is my Nan. So, there's this weird relationship, every time I get like a disgusting scab, I'll kind of go, ‘God, I miss that lady.’ And it's, it's kind of this weird thing that every time I flare up I go, ‘She's with me again.’ 

Russell Howard on Stand Up in other countries

When you get to travel you notice something interesting. For example, in Denmark they've got all these kind of like, they're beautiful people and they’ve got these porridge bars. They all eat porridge. Young hip couples will go for a date and they’ll eat porridge, and porridge is one of the most disgusting foods to watch somebody eat. Do you know what I mean? So that to me, just watching them go, slop this filth in? So funny. I was able to go and do the gig that night and chat about it, and it's kind of funny here, but in Denmark it was like, ‘Oh my God, he's noticed the thing.’ And it's that sense of immediacy. I think with other stuff if you are writing a film or you're writing a script or whatever, it has to go through a committee. Whereas there's something really exciting about the tangibility of stand up - if you think of something and it gets a laugh, it is correct. If they don't laugh, it isn't. You know, and there's something quite fun about it. And then even if it's not funny, you can be funny by realising that you are not funny, you know?

Rusell Howard on his ‘unfunny’ seagull joke

I remember I was in Finland once and I saw this big guy, a seagull flew down to try and eat one of his chips, and he caught the seagull in his hand. and went, ‘Nay!’, and kind of threw it away. And the seagull looked like, petrified, like, ‘Alright, alright, alright. I'm going back to Brighton!’ So, I kind of went on stage and told this story and there was like two thousand Finnish people there went, ‘Well if you see the seagull, you grab a seagull.’ Didn't find it funny at all. And then that became funny, and so I was like, ‘You’re mental, no other nation would grab and tell off an animal,’ you know.

Russell Howard on comedy

There's something magic that happens when you’re in a room and people are laughing. I did a Netflix special and I said that ‘laughter is the lubricant that makes life liveable.’ And I think for a lot of people it is, and we live in this strange world at the minute where some people are a little bit upset by jokes, which is fine and that will always be, but for the vast majority of us, it's kind of what you need to get through the misery. I wanna make this tour less sort of political and just funny. Just like a bit of respite as It just feels like everything has been turned into a battleground. So, the last gigs I did Latitude and I did Reading and Leeds, and it was sort of a real reminder, you go, God, there's real power in this. And you know, there's ten thousand people in the tent and you're just kind of just going for it. I love it. And you can create this real energy where people come away and go, that was an hour and a half of fun and I was lifted. 

Russell Howard on battling with his dog

During Covid, he was with me all the time so we have kind of a nice little bond – a shared madness of Covid.  I had a real moment where you kind of really realised you've lost it. I give my dog a biscuit and my dog would always take that biscuit and hide it in the sofa. Just kind of tuck it away. ‘Cause I was, you know, wasn't particularly busy, the world had stopped, I thought, let's get to the bottom of this. So, I was like, ‘Who do you think is going to eat your biscuits? You're the only dog that lives here.’ And he kind of looked at me as if to go, ‘Well, you are talking to a dog mate, so…’  So what I did, I ate his biscuit. And that was the moment I was like I really need people again.