Rudi Lickwood

(Interview Series Part 1 of 4)

Comedian, Producer, Presenter, Podcaster, DJ & Social Commentator Rudi Lickwood Describes Himself As A Lovin’ Sensitive, & Dedicated Family Man. Tidy, Steady, And Very Committed. Apparently This Makes Him A Typical Virgo. He’s Very Well Travelled, Cultured & Very Clear About Who Is & Where He Comes From.

Durin’ The Lockdown of 2020 He Found Himself On A Personal Journey Of Rediscovery Which Saw Him “Pivot” Professionally & Fall In Love All Over Again Personally. With His Wife!

In This Powerful, Poignant & Perpetually Relevant Interview, He Shares With The Orator.Press Magazine Why As A Father of Three Girls, As Well As Bein’ A Grandfather, He’s All Loved Up, Pumped Up & Pullin In New Audiences On An All Pervasive Social Media. Plus Whilst Rudi’s Got Jokes, He’s Also Got Depth. He Reveals His Opinion On Pressures Put On NHS Staff. So Much So This Is A Two Issue Interview.

So How Are You Today?

I’m Relaxed. Probably Because I’ve Just Had A Two Hour Chat With My Daughter.

Are You Enjoyin’ The Lockdown Lift? – Notably Since April 12 When Hairdressers/Barbers & Gyms Were Allowed To Open Again?

I Did Not Rush Out To Barbers To Get My Hair Cut. If There’s One Thing I Don’t Do It’s I Don’t Rush Out To The Sales & I Don’t Rush Out Simply Because I’ve Been Told I Can Rush Out & Do Things. I Like To Do Things At My Own Pace. I Guess When I Think To Myself An Occasion’s Goin’ To Come Up When I Can’t Wear My Hat Is When I’ll Get My Hair Cut.

Well That May Be Soon As The Sun Is Comin’ Out Much More Regularly Now.

You Can’t Trust UK Weather. Our Weather Is So Up & Down. The Whole of The UK Should Be Like A Big Centre Parks As Far As I’m Concerned. It’s Needs A Roof With Remote Control To The Thermostat. The Thing About UK Is I Do Like A Bit f Drizzle.

I’ve Never Heard Anyone Say That Before, Let Alone A Black Person.

I Know It Sounds Weird But I Do. Because I Don’t Like Bakin’ In The Sun. I Can’t Stand It. I Just Can’t Stand It. Too Much Heat & I Become Lethargic. I’m Not One To Go On Holiday And Sit Down On The Beach. It Ain’t Me. The Wife Likes That Kind of Thing & The Kids Like That Kind of Thing. But I Don’t. And I’ve Learnt Anytime I Go To The Caribbean, The Locals You’ll Find Them In The Shade. It’s Only The Tourists & People of Hue Not Born In The Caribbean That Walk Around In The Sun. I Like Nice Weather, I Like Hot Weather, I Like When The Breeze Is Blowin’. But In Terms of The Sun, Nah Man’ Me & The Sun Na’ Friends A’ Tall. I Was In No Rush To Eat Outside.

He Explains It Would Be Different If He Was In Barcelona or If The UK Was Like “The Med” But Pushchairs & Nappies Floatin’ Down The Thames & High Street Fumes Don’t Inspire An Al Fresco Desire In Him. He Says Copenhagen Even Have An Al Fresco Style He Could Embrace Because They Seem More Naturally Inclined That Way, When One Compares Different Continental Climates & Lifestyles.

So, How Was Your Lockdown Before The Lockdown Lift (March 2021) Began?

“It Was Extremely Interestin’ For Me Personally Because As A Stand Up Comic Who Has Been Doin It Since The 1990s, When My Career Took Off Which Was About 1992, It Really Meant That Most Weekends I Was Never Home. And It Wasn’t Until Lockdown Did I Realise That, Because There Is No Work To Go To. At First I Was Lost. On A Friday Night I Was Lost. I Was Like “Rah’ What Do You Do On A Friday/Saturday Night?”

“I Had To Get To Know My Wife. I Had To Get To Know My Kids. I Did Not Realize How Much of A Loner I Was Because I’d Spent So Much Time By Myself. And I Enjoy My Own Company, That’s The Other Thing, I Actually Do Enjoy My Own Company. I Would Have These Wonderful Preconceptions About Me Getting Home To The Family. And Then I’d Get Home To The Family & It Would Be How I Romanticized It To Be And I’d Live That Way. And Then When Lockdown Came It Was Like Okay Now You’re Home With The Family And You’re Not Goin Anywhere. I Had Nowhere To Go To Come Back From To Tell Them All My Wonderful Stories.”

The Kids,TV Choices And K Pop

K POP Band Wei Are Typical of The Current Phenomenon of Manufactured Boy or Girl Bands From South Korea. They Are Seen As Somewhat Controversial By Some People As They Often Mimick
R n B Dance Moves, Performance Styles & Behaviour. This Is Known As Cultural Appropriation And Is Particularly Offensive When The Originators of Such Material Are Not Given Their Due Recognition, Professional Credit, Nor Financial Share .
Although K Pop Was Favoured By His Daughters Durin’ Lockdown, Rudi Is More of A Lovers Rock Man

He Explains Previously He’d Be In A Hotel Writin’ or On The Phone or Havin Lunch, And Then Instead Come Lockdown & It Was A Case of Gettin’ Used To His Daughters’ Korean Music [K POP]. As Man who Loves Lovers Rock And R & B It Was Not Easy. He Says He Also Had To Get Used To The Sound of Female Chatterin’ Particularly When All Three Girls And His Wife Got Together With The Baby Grandchild.

“Initially You See Things That You Don’t Like, That Need To Be Rectified or Fixed. And That’s Why I Had To Go Through That Process of Rediscovery And By Goin’ Through That Process Initially It Was Like, “Woah, I Didn’t Know This Was Like That. Why Is This That Way? Why Are You Guys Doin This At This Time of Night? And Why Are You Watchin’ These Programmes. These Programmes That Fill Your Head With Nothin’?”

“But What I Had To Accept Was, This Is What Has Been Entertainin’ Them. These Are The Programmes That They Like. Because I Am So Used To Lookin’ At What I Like (On The Road).”

“I Looked At It As Really Gettin’ To Know My Family. Really Gettin’ To Know Them. And Gettin To Understand Who They Really Are And The Different Quirks & Personality Traits That I Don’t Get To See For A Consistent Maybe Eight or Nine Months.”

I Mean I Would Go Into The Front Room, Pick Up The Remote, Turn To Turn A Channel And I’d Hear:

“We Don’t Watch That. We Watch This.”

And I’m Like, “But It’s My TV Innit?”

“Yeah, I Know It’s Your TV, But Cos’ Your Not Normally Here You Might As Well Sit Down & Take In What We’re Takin’ In, Innit?

But I Don’t Normally Watch This.

“Well But We Watch This, So You Might As Well Watch TV In Your Room Innit”

“So I Get Kicked Out of My Front Room To Go Watch What I Want To Watch, In My Bedroom, Not On The TV In The Front Room, That I Put There! That’s Why I Say It Was Just Different Dynamics. Different Dynamics. Different Dynamics!”

Chit Chat & In Love Again

Rudi Says He Fell In Love With His Wife All Over Again After Stayin Home In Lockdown & Just Chit Chattin’ With His Wife

“Because My Wife Works For The NHS (As A Dental Nurse) Initially She Was off Work, So Even Getting’ To Know Another Side of My Wife Was Quite Extraordinary For Me Because We Were Used To Spendin’ X Amount of Time Preparin & Plannin’ Stuff, And Then For Me To Go. And Then I’d Come Back. Either Things Were In Place or I’d Make What Ever Calls I Needed To Make, And This Was Sorted Out or That Was Sorted Out.”

“But It (Lockdown) Gave Us An Opportunity To Just Eyeball One Another Now And Fall In Love Again, Which Was Great – I Thought That Was Great. It Was A Journey of Rediscovery.”

“Before You Have Kids It’s Just About The Two of You. Then You Have Kids & Become Less Selfish. The Conversation Turns To School, School Clothes, Education, Pack Lunches, Dinner Money, The House, The Children…And We (Me & Jenny) Are No Longer In The Conversation Anymore. “Since 1992, Not Realizin’ It We Kind of Like Drifted.” “Our Love Is Ever Encompassin” But We Drifted.”

“I Found Talkin’ About Mundane Things With Jenny Was Rediscoverin’ ‘Chit Chat.’ [Previously] We’d Have A Conversation On The Phone But It Was Not About Us As Such. We’d Talk About The Fundamental Things Goin’ On Around Us. We Weren’t ‘Chit Chattin’. My Wife Has Several Sisters & They’ve All Got Lots of Children So Once Again The Conversations Are Always Around The Family & Who’s Birthday Is Comin’ Up And What We’re Gonna’ Do For Them. It Wasn’t Selfish. You Lose That. You Become Selfless, Because It’s About Everybody Else So To Speak. And Because of Lockdown It’s Almost Like We Went Beyond All of That And Back To Us.”

A Professional Pivot

“It Was Productive Because It Forced Me Into A Position Where I Had To Look At Who I Was And What I Was About And Pivot. The Reason I Had To Pivot Is Because It Was Like “Well, What Are You Goin’ To Do Now?” Theatres Are Closed. Clubs Are Closed. Art Centres Are Closed. What Transferrable Skills Can You Bring To The Table That You Are Able To Use Productively To Source Some Sort of Income For One Thing & Feel Relevant For Another.”

“As A Stand Up Comic I Feel Relevant As I Critique The Community In Which I Live For The Purpose of Humour & To Draw People In And Show That We Have More In Common Than We Have Not In Common. But If We Listen To The Press or The Broadcasters You Be Given The Impression That We Have Less In Common & That We Are At War With One Another.

I Understand What It Is To Put A Script Together, To Produce, To Direct And To Cast People. And I Can Edit Audio & Video. So I Decided To Produce A Set of Podcasts.”

The Pandemic & The Needs of The People

“People Wanted To Talk. People Wanted To Be Heard. People Had Their Own Views On The Situation We All Found Ourselves In. Because Businesses Were Bein’ Closed.”

“There Were Certain Businesses That Couldn’t Even Get Grants. And The Government Hadn’t Worked Out At That Time How They Were Goin’ To Pay People or How People Were Goin To Get Paid. But Utility Bills Were Still Comin’ In. So People Wanted To Vent And It Was Like Where Could They Go To Vent & Talk. And Then When You Started To Hear Things Like It’s Startin’ To Affect The Black Community It Became “Oh Why Are We Bein’ Targeted?”

I Ask If He Was Ever Worried About His Wife Workin’ For The NHS Durin’ The Lockdown, As He Previously Mentioned She Worked For The Health Service.

Shockingly He Describes How Work Pressures Durin The Pandemic Impacted His Wife & His Life. My Wife Is A Dental Hygienist. A Dental Nurse. She Was At Home Initially [As Dental Surgeries Were Closed]. It Wasn’t Until Later That Government Decided They Were Goin To Take Any NHS Worker And Place Them Wherever They Wanted Durin’ The Crisis. So Jenny Ended Up In Places Like A & E (Even Though She Was A Dental Nurse). I Cried When She Had To Go Back To Work. I Was Worried She Was Goin’ To Be Put In A Dangerous Position.

Rudi Explains That It Did Not Feel Like She Had Been Asked. Instead It Felt Like She Was Coerced. Like They Were Literally Coerced & Bullied Into Goin In. And Havin’ To Sign Different Job Descriptions.

The NHS, The Pandemic Hittin’ Home, And Social Media Shut Downs

Comedian & Social Commentator Rudi Lickwood Found The Brutal Realities of Covid & The NHS Practices Impacted His Life As He Feared For His Wife When She Was Re-assigned To Different Roles Durin’ The Covid Crisis. The Government Changed The Rules Around Normal Protocols Durin The Corona Outbreak Both For Workers & Suppliers As Highlighted By This ITV News Report Video Clip.

After Thousands of People Stepped Up When Boris Johnson Appealed For Help In The Covid Crisis – Many Argue NHS Workers Were Treated Roughly And With Little Regard To Their Own Well-Being & Safety. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Rewarded Them With The Clap! Whilst The NHS Frontline Workers Politely Thanked Him For His “Gesture” Which He Was Keen To Be Seen Deliverin’ With Great Vigour, NHS Staff Were Forced To Remind Him That Doesn’t Pay For Dinner Nor Help Keep Them Safer.

Over Worked. Under Paid. Clapped Out!

NHS Staff Did Work They Were Not Contracted To Do

Contracts Were Replaced With Disclaimers

Rudi Says “It Was Like Your Contract Said One Thing, But Now The Contract Has Changed. Your Hours Have Changed. Your Job Description Has Changed. You Are No Longer A Dental Nurse, You’re A Caterin’ Assistant. So Whereas You Might Have Been A Cook, You’re Now Just A Caterin’ Assistant, Which Means You Don’t Just Cook Anymore. You Cook, You Wash, You Do Everything That We Want You To Do, And You Go Into Areas We Want You To Go. But You’ve Also Got To Sign This Declaration Which Says That If Anything Happens To You, From An Insurance Point of View ‘You Nah Get Nuh ‘ting.”

A Number of Documentaries On This Issue Which Have Indicated That One Reason Black & Brown People Were Affected Disproportionately By The Pandemic Is Because of A Certain Amount of Coercion From Caucasian Colleagues Against Their Black & Brown Colleagues.

Rudi Continues “And The Worst Thing About It Was I Discovered That The More You Spoke About It Was The More You Would Be Blacklisted By The Likes of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook. My Comedy Has Always Been Based Around Challengin’ The Institution. The Amount of Times I Got Kicked off Facebook Was Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But This Was Another Reason I Was Able To Gain An Audience. “

Rantz, Bantz & Talkin’ To The People

“So We Were Rantin’ And Bantin’ With People About This (And Various Other Things) And Laughin’ And Jokin’ All At The Same Time. Because I’m A Comedian They Wanted Me To Make It Light Hearted…” As A Result His Regular Friday Mornin Show From 8.15 ‘Rants & Bants’ Was Born.

The Rantz & Bantz Podcast – Every Friday From 8.15 am – Was Born of Facebook Live Chats Durin’ Lockdown & “The People’s” Demand For More Open Discussion & Debate

“Because We Were Talkin’ About The Things They [The Government, Establishment & The Elite] Didn’t Want Us To Question – You Were Not Allowed To Question – We Started Doin Our Own Research On What Was Goin’ On. I Was Gettin’ Kicked off [Social Media] Left, Right & Centre.”

What The Institutions Were Sayin’ To Us Is ‘There’s A Virus Out Here & This [Vaccine] Is The Way To Combat It.‘

“Fine, OK. But Why Is The Virus Out There?” Then You Start Hearin’ What Took Place In China, What’s Goin’ On In America, You Start to Realize Who’s Behind It. You Start Callin’ The Names. You Start Callin’ All of These Things. And Then They Want To They Shut You Down. You Can’t Have That Conversation. You’re Not Allowed To Have That Conversation. We Came Up With The Pie Charts. We Came Up With Everything. So What Then Happened Is I Ended Up With This Core Set of People Who Were Sendin’ Me Information From Around The World About What Was Goin’ On. Then I Realized It Was Bigger Than Me. “This Was A Global Thing That Was Goin’ On Around The World.”

Such Was The Demand From The People For A Voice That His Mornin’ Shows Organically Morphed Into Evenin’ Shows.

“They [Listeners] Started Askin’ Me To Interview People. We Did Not See of Any of Our People Who We Grew Up With On ‘This Is Your Life’ or On The TV So To Speak, So I Said I Could Open Up My Little Black of People I Knew On The Celebrity Circuit. But They Said “No” We Want You To Interview Regular Everyday People. We Want You To Interview “Us.”

“I Thought That’s Quite A Novel Idea. I Never Thought of That.” So Was Born The ‘Keepin It Real’ Podcast Monday 8.30 – 9.30 pm

And Then Also Came ‘Anything Goes’ Wednesday Nights 10.00 pm. It Too Was Also Born of Facebook Live Chats Durin’ Lockdown & “The People’s” Demand For More Free & Open Discussion & Debate. It Features A Self-imposed Post Watershed Time Slot With A Panel Discussin’ Current Affairs & Social Issues Within The Black Community – Put To Them By The Black Community. He Compares It To ‘Blouse & Skirts’ The News Round Up Comedy & Entertainment Show Circa 2000. And Ultimately Calls It “A Black Tis Was For Black Adults.”

There Was Evenin’ A Quick Chat Podcast Session On A Saturday Morning With The Help of A Friend, DJ Country, From 10 am.

All These Platforms Reflect Lickwood’s Talent of Relatin’ To His Audience And Encouragin’ Then To Relate To Him. The Combination Creates A Continuous Desire To Develop The Conversation Again & Again And In The Process Help The Black Community Make Progress.

For Instance The Pandemic Brought Home That The Fact That A Significant Proportion of The Black Community Works For Local Authorities, And Black Businesses Were Notably Absent From The High Streets. This Led To Conversations About Wealth & Wealth Creation And A Realization That The Next Generation Needs To Be More Business Minded.

Find Out In The Second Part of This Powerful Topical Interview How His Professional Pivot And Creation of These New Platforms Made A Difference. Next Issue May 2021.

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