Hi Kai, tell us about your new show, Gallivanting ’?
It started off as a collection of anecdotes from my travels but then I realised as the show
started taking form, how much travel and immersing myself in other cultures has
shaped my world view. It’s a fun mix of story telling and opinions, dipping in and o
ut of the battle between my thirst for adventure and societies pressure to burden your life
with responsibility.
What do you hope audiences take away from the show?
I hope they leave feeling uplifted, I hope the road my audience members are on when
they get to my show is enriched by our encounter and they feel inspired for the road
ahead. The world has so many exciting things to experience and sometimes all you need
to do is break your routines and get out in it to discover that, if you re treating yo
urself to comedy shows you probably already know this.
If you could gallivant somewhere right now, where would it be?
A Newcastle United Champions League away game. Unfortunately it s off the cards as
we didn’t qualify. My team were in the tournament for the first time in over 20 years last
season and my wife and I travelled to Milan and Paris to watch them play and we had
the best time mixing our two favourite hobbies, travel and football. Hopefully it won
’t be another 20 years before we can do it a gain.
You have been travelling the world with your stand up, and we hear you have performed in fifty five countries to date. That is quite impressive. How much do audiences differ globally, and how much do you need to adjust your material depending on the location?
Because I have a Geordie accent I have to be careful about being understood, this means performing drunk is out of the question as I slip into my native tongue after a couple of beers and a foreign audience wouldn’t stand a chance if I went full Geordie. Believe it or not I have to slow down a lot more for American audiences than I would for people listening in their second language somewhere like India. You have to use their words for things too, most countries would understand if you said “put the nappy in the bin on the pavement whereas you d need to say put the diaper in the trash can on the side walk to an American or they wont have the slightest clue. It s important to switch Kai Humphries back to British words when you get home though otherwise people will understand what you re saying, but hate you. Don’t believe me, try calling it soccer to someone and find out.
You have supported Daniel Sloss on his world tours at what point did you decide
to create your Sloss and Humphries on the Road ’podcast, and what prompted its
creation?
It was 2016 and everything was becoming a bit more global on Daniels tours with the
introduction of the European tour and festivals in Australia so we thought it would be
cool to take everyone with us, the podcast was made as a tour journal so our audiences
could continue to follow us on our adventures after the show, or if they’d already
discovered the podcast before we got there, they keep up with us in anticipation to our
arrival in the city. We ve taken them all over the world with us for almost 10 years.
You two appear to have a very close friendship. How is life on the road with one of
your besties?
We ve had some of the best times two friends could have, I’ve always said it s like
winning a gameshow prize to travel the world with one of your best mates, but there’s
the side of it that doesn’t reach instagram, where we re sat on our own at opposite ends
of the airport reading books, or one of us doing some tourism while the ot
her has a nap. We know exactly when to give each other space on the road so we don
’t get under each other’s skin, because that’s an intense amount of time to spend with any person. Even
married couples don’t have that level of exposure to each other. We’ve ry rarely fall out and when we do it’s hilarious because we re both impossible to offend, sometimes we’ll both be having a laugh digging into each other and the people around us get uncomfortable because the things we say would ruin most other friendships.
We understand that your hobbies range from boxing to knitting – how did you get into knitting, and what has been your proudest creation?
What’s the opposite to Toxic? It was wholesome masculinity that made us start knitting. We’re competitive and we wanted to see who would be the best at something if neither of us had a head start by already having more experience in the pursuit. The only thing we could think of that neither of us had an advantage in was knitting. We gave ourselves a year to make each other a Christmas jumper, we both got ridiculously good Kai Humphries at it. We never put it to judgement who’s Christmas jumper was the best, but we both know it was the one I made. It remains to be my proudest creation.