Smug Roberts

Comedy & Alternative Performance

The comedian tackling mental health stigma with his Newton Heath Men's Comedy Group

Well, if you were to ask me what I do, I’d say I tell stories, though they don’t always behave themselves and stay on the page.

Some come out as stand-up, some as plays, some as podcasts, and some as odd little pop-up happenings in the back rooms of pubs.

What makes you proud of your local area or community?

The desire within it to make our part of the world a better place.

What piece of creative work or project are you most proud of?

Well, if you were to ask me what I do, I’d say I tell stories, though they don’t always behave themselves and stay on the page. Some come out as stand-up, some as plays, some as podcasts, and some as odd little pop-up happenings in the back rooms of pubs.

It’s all part of the same instinct really, taking the small, ordinary details of life, the sort of things you’d walk past without a second thought, and giving them a moment in the light.

I’ve spent thirty years standing on stages, sometimes large, more often small, trying to make people laugh at the things that frightened me, puzzled me, or just wouldn’t leave me alone.

These days I find myself more drawn to the stories that connect us, to memory, to family, to the communities we live in. Dementia Street, my play, came out of that: one son trying to piece together his mother’s life as it fell away from her. It’s sad, yes, but there are laughs too, because families are funny even when they’re falling apart.

I suppose my calling, if that’s not too arty farty, is to take what’s personal and make it communal. A story told in a club, or a photograph shared in a workshop, becomes something other people recognise as their own.

And that, in the end, is what I’m about, finding the comedy and the dignity in the everyday, and giving people permission to laugh, cry, and maybe see themselves a little differently.

"Do I feel artists from North Manchester are visible and valued across the city? Not as much as they should be."

Smug Roberts

Smug Roberts

What makes you proud of your local area or community?

What piece of creative work or project are you most proud of?

Want to know more about Smug Roberts?

A celebration of Miles Platting & Newton Heath's vibrant creative scene