Stand-up comedian and TV star Mo Gilligan was doing a post-show Q&A a few years ago, when he was completely blindsided by one of the questions.
“Most people ask me, ‘What’s it like working with Big Narstie’, or ‘What’s it like going to this event, or that event?’ But someone said, ‘What do you want your legacy to be?’ And I was frozen. I was like, ‘I don’t know, no one’s ever asked me that before.’ I remember thinking about that for weeks.”
Now he has turned the tables as he gets to ask a string of celebrity guests that same question, as well as the life moments that made them who they are, on his new podcast Mo Gilligan: Beginning, Middle and End.
It’s a departure from the comedy and light entertainment shows he’s become known for; the series’ guests include Jonathan Ross, Aisling Bea and George the Poet.
“As a comic I’m always looking for a joke,” he says. “When you have a TV show, I’m front and centre. I have to lead it and ask the questions. Having the pod, people take it wherever they want to take it. I sit there as an audience member myself finding out about their journey; where they are and how they see themselves.”
Speaking to me from his home in north London, he doesn’t miss a beat when asked who he’d love interview next. “Ian Wright is a dream guest,” he says. “When I was a child, he is why I supported Arsenal. We have this running joke where every year I wish him happy Fathers’ Day, and he replies back and says, ‘Thank you son.’ People genuinely think he’s my dad – it’s very funny. I’d love to get him on the show.”
Gilligan, who grew up in Camberwell and then Peckham, initially wanted to be a footballer, but by 14 he knew it wasn’t going to happen. “I’m a realist. I knew what it took to get to the top. Then I found my love with comedy. I remember thinking early on, to be a footballer you have to be exceptional, and know you’re exceptional. I knew at football I wasn’t exceptional.”
But with comedy it was different. He had found performing arts at school, and by 16 was chasing the laughs. He knew he was good. “With comedy, my imagination for writing, and having ideas in my head I was like, ‘This is exceptional, it’s the funniest thing ever and I want to show this idea to someone.’”
He was in awe of actors such as Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. “I was thinking, ‘That’s the star.’ Your Sylvester Stallones and Arnold Schwarzeneggers are cool, but I wanted to be like those funny guys. Then I realised they were all stand-up comics.”
He did his first show at Dulwich Hamlet’s football ground aged 19, trying out some material to see if it worked. It did. “It was the first time I did stand-up in front of an audience who didn’t know me. I was fresh; I was hungry. I was ready to keep learning and perfecting. I still want to keep perfecting that.”
It was while gigging, as well as posting comic sketches online, and working a day job in retail, that social media supercharged Gilligan’s career. It was during his time working at the Levis store that Canadian rapper Drake shared some of his material. “That was a big deal for me.”
Though, returning to our earlier conversation, he says that as exciting as it was that Drake posted his work “I was more excited when Ian Wright liked a video”. He doesn’t take sides in Drake’s feud with Kendrick Lamar, either. He laughs. “Nah I’m just a fan of the music, man. I’ve got no alliances… as long as the beat’s good.”
Social media, for all its faults, has proved hugely useful for comedians, and not just when superstar rappers share material. “I’ve had people come to my shows because they’ve seen a sketch on their phones. Comedians are finding one of their pieces can go viral and you can tour off a single piece of a minute’s work, which is opening it up for everybody.”
For Gilligan, TV came calling and he was suddenly everywhere. From The Big Narstie Show to Celebrity Gogglebox, as a judge on The Masked Singer to The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan, and he proved a huge hit with audiences as well as awards judges, winning three TV Baftas along the way. He also hosted the Brit Awards twice. It got to the point where he was dubbed ‘Mr Saturday Night TV’.
For the moment though, he’s leaving it behind to return to stand-up on a tour that has taken in America, Australia and the Middle East as well as dates around the UK and Europe, selling out the majority on the way, until spring next year.
“TV has given me so much; it’s changed my life and I still love doing it. But when you do stand-up… it got me here, TV didn’t get me here,” he says. “At one point I was on every channel. I remember one night I was on TV four times on the same day. I was like ‘Come on man, even I’m fed up of seeing myself.’” He laughs heartily.
“It was always my decision [to step back from TV]. I remember when I did the Brits in 2023 for the second time, I had my own show, I was doing so many other shows. I felt that I really missed comedy. I missed stand up.
“I always wanted to do a world tour. The fact I could do a UK tour and sell over 65,000 tickets blew my mind. And I was like, ‘Can we do this in other places?’” Taking his work to Los Angeles and beyond for audiences who may have seen little more than his Netflix specials, or even just a sketch, has revitalised him. “It has birthed a new hunger for stand up... For me, comedy’s always going to be my first love.”
His humour is based largely off his easy charm and relatability as he riffs about his life and where he is now. (It is clearly not put on, and helps make him a particularly likeable interviewee: relaxed, engaged and very easy to talk to.) “The audiences like my relatability, I feel that they like my honesty. There are things I get to go to and [then] come back and share these opportunities. Like, cool, I went to this event, and Dave Chapelle was there and I didn’t know what to do… When I go on things like the Jimmy Fallon show I just want to come back and tell my friends. Because it’s not a normal experience.”
He adds, “People assume the lifestyle is a jet set, rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. When I have a day off I sometimes go to B&Q… I crave normality in my life.”
Going full circle to the beginning of the conversation, we discuss legacy – the question he was asked that stuck with him. As well as wanting to be remembered for his hard work and consistency, one legacy he wants to leave behind is how he brings people with him. He has consistently supported young talent, giving them slots on his shows, bringing them to a wider audience, and now with his production company offering opportunities.
“I’ve got a platform and I want to share it,” he says especially with young comics. “I’ve got to fly the flag for the place that gave me my platform. That’s where it’s stemmed from.”
I ask if there are other performing itches he’d like to scratch, and one is acting. “It’s the last Infinity Stone on the gauntlet,” he says referencing Thanos in the Avengers movies. “I want to keep ensuring I’m feeding myself. Going in new environments. I don’t want to be the guy who says, ‘Well I’ve done the Brits twice, three Baftas, two Netflix specials, I’m the guy.’ I want to make sure I’m feeding myself. I’ve always wanted more out of this job.”
