The second episode of REYT. Independent Sheffield Podcast is live, and the guest is Rob Rouse — stand-up comedian, founder of Comedy Village, and the man who once broadcast live chicken racing on TalkSport during lockdown.
What REYT. is
Episode two: Rob Rouse
If you’re new here: REYT. is Sheffield Forum’s independent podcast. Every week, a guest sits down for a proper, unscripted conversation about Sheffield. No PR lines, no script, no agenda. Just an honest hour with the people building, shaping and occasionally arguing about this city. Sheffield Guide is in the process of joining forces with Sheffield Forum, and REYT. is something we’re building together.
Thirty years ago Rob came to Sheffield to train as a teacher. His placement took him to Dinnington — still reeling from the pit closures, around 90% unemployment — and to High Storrs, where his son would later do his A levels. He lasted two days in the classroom before a boy covered himself head to toe in permanent blue Quink ink and Rob couldn’t keep a straight face. He realised he had to go and do stand-up instead.
What followed was a career that took in winning So You Think You’re Funny at the Edinburgh Fringe, presenting the first series of Channel 4’s Friday Night Project alongside Jimmy Carr and Sharon Horgan, and playing Bottom in Ben Elton’s BBC Two comedy Upstart Crow alongside David Mitchell and Harry Enfield. He was recently voted Comics’ Comic of the Year by his peers in the UK comedy industry.
In between all of that, he founded Comedy Village — grassroots comedy nights running at Crookes Social Club, Hathersage Memorial Hall, Baslow, Bradwell, Eyam, Dronfield and Buxton Working Men’s Club, bringing top-flight acts to local venues at reasonable prices, with what Rob describes as a zero dickhead policy across every room.
In the episode he talks through all of it: the Sheffield family roots going back two generations, the teaching placements, seeing Eddie Izzard at Sheffield City Hall and being completely mesmerised, the Comedy Village philosophy, a decade of silence after Grown Ups before Upstart Crow arrived, and the Unlikely Weightlifters podcast with Tom Wrigglesworth — including Pant Cage UK, the Pontifract 2048 Olympics, and the homemade weightlifting rigs cast from postcrete in Quality Street tins.
And then there’s the chicken racing. During lockdown, with no sport on radio or television, Rob started racing his six chickens in the back garden at 5pm every day. TalkSport got in touch and asked for the broadcasting rights. Before long, legendary horse racing commentator Rupert Bell was calling the runners and riders every Saturday morning on national radio for Goldie, Twinkle Twinkle, Bob the non-binary chicken, and Janet McFeathers — who never won a race but did eat a mouse live on air.
Sum Up Sheffield, Straight Outta Sheffield, and REYT. Good Recommendations
Every REYT. episode includes three regular features.
Asked to Sum Up Sheffield, Rob lands on a giant village. He remembers getting on a bus on his first day and the driver calling him duck. Warm, friendly, slightly ludicrous, off-beam — inherently Sheffield.
For his Straight Outta Sheffield moment, he recalls overhearing Sheffield voices at a hotel breakfast on tour — talking about walking, climbing and Sheffield Wednesday, with no Henderson’s Relish available anywhere.
And his REYT. Good Recommendations: Crookes Social Club for a drink, No Name in Crookes for food (BYO, bespoke menu, book well in advance), Atkinson’s department store on The Moor as his independent shop pick (survived the Blitz, survived Meadowhall, you could shoot a remake of Michael Mann’s Heat in the car park), talking to people as his favourite thing to do in Sheffield, and the Hidden Gem Cafe off Ringinglow Road as his Sheffield hidden gem — charity-run, locally sourced, incredible shakshuka, don’t skip the specials.
Listen and follow
You can watch and listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, or find the full episode page, show notes and discussion thread at sheffieldforum.co.uk/episodes/rob-rouse-comedy-chicken-racing-sheffields-giant-village/
New episodes every Tuesday.
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