What A Load Of Rap!
They’re the comedy hip hop troupe ripping it up in Blighty. Ireland’s Abandoman talk about the challenge of making rhyming funny and discuss larking about with Alexa Chung at Daisy Lowe’s 21st. As you do.
Paul Nolan, 24 Jan 2012
Improvised hip hop tunes might sound like unusual terrain for comedy, but it’s precisely this approach that has seen Abandoman achieve growing popularity in the UK, with their hugely entertaining live shows landing them awards, critical kudos and TV and radio appearances. Comprised of Irish frontman Rob Broderick and multi-instrumentalist James Hancox – with the line-up swelling to include a full band for the bigger shows – Abandoman’s gigs find Rob bantering with audience members and extracting details about their lives, and using the information to construct brilliantly realised hip hop comedy numbers, with Hancox providing the musical backing.
The group have already gigged with chart-topping English artist Ed Sheeran, and this month sees them hitting the road to support the singer once again. How do Abandoman find performing to music audiences, as opposed to comedy club punters?
“If we weren’t music, I think that it would be a struggle,” considers Rob. “We’d be stood there going, ‘Lads, shut the fuck up – I’ve got shit to say!’ There are exceptions, like Jack Whitehall or Noel Fielding, where the performers have a certain element of fame, or are so handsome that people go, ‘He might have something to say’. I’m neither of the above!”
Unsurprisingly, Abandoman’s act has proved very popular at Edinburgh, and one late night series of slots which saw the duo performing with other comics (including The Mighty Boosh’s Rich Fulcher) resulted in them being offered a short stint on a BBC Two kids’ TV show. This provided them the opportunity to perform their unique style of improvised comedy in the company of some high-profile comics, including Catherine Tate.
“A BBC producer came up to Edinburgh and picked a load of sketch groups to do this show, and the idea was that the material would be kind of kid-friendly, but would still stay true to their acts,” explains Rob. “We were the house band on the show, and every day there would be a celebrity guest, people like Stephen K. Amos, Catherine Tate, Jessica Hynes and Jason Byrne. The kids would give us a word we had to use in a story about them, and they’d give us a little bit of stuff too. In Catherine Tate’s case, I think it was something about Doctor Who.
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