The Welsh standup used to direct his fury at service stations, baked potatoes and the tog-rating of duvets. Now he’s tackling anxiety, infertility – and his own battle with the cancer that stopped his tour
A lot has changed since Rhod Gilbert began touring The Book of John in 2019 – a tour that still hasn’t come to an end. First it was interrupted by a pandemic. You may have heard about that. Then, in 2022, Gilbert had to pause the tour again with a persistent unexplained throat problem. Trekking Cuba to raise money for the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, of which he is a longstanding patron, Gilbert discovered the problem was in fact cancer – for which he has been in treatment, at Velindre, since. “I’m sitting there having chemo,” he tells me, “with a picture of me on the wall as a fundraising patron. You couldn’t make it up, honestly.”
The tone of voice, via Zoom from Wales, is recognisable to anyone familiar with the 54-year-old’s standup. Escalating dismay is the keynote. On stage, it ascends to a full-blown rant and stays there. Or it used to. “It’s softened a bit now,” says Gilbert. That’s just as well: Gilbert needs to look after himself. This is his first national newspaper interview since his stage-four cancer diagnosis in July, as he recovers from surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. “It does feel weird,” he admits. “I don’t know how much to talk about the cancer. I haven’t really worked out what to say. I’m more than happy to talk about it but I haven’t had time to process it at all.”
