Simon Brodkin was already a stand-up in the making at the age of 13. “I cut my teeth on the year 9 comedy circuit,” he says with a grin. His compulsion to make people laugh had been there from a young age. But in lockdown last year, Brodkin made a discovery that helped him understand his desire to play class clown: he was diagnosed with ADHD. On reflection, it was his then undiagnosed ADHD that was driving him to that position of class clown. “Not everyone with ADHD is funny,” he quickly adds. “But when you’re in class, you’re not concentrating on anything, so let’s make everyone laugh.”
Since his diagnosis, 44-year-old Brodkin has really been getting to know himself. Before then, he’d rather have been anyone else. In the late Noughties, Brodkin became a household name as the so-called “chav” character Lee Nelson, who went on to land his own BBC comedy series and nationwide tours. When he crashed Kanye West’s set at Glastonbury, he was Lee-zus to West’s Yeezus. And when he threw a wad of money at then Fifa president Sepp Blatter in a statement on corruption, it was as footballer Jason Bent. Brodkin was one of the country’s biggest pranksters, but it was always under a different name. You’d think that self-confidence was a given for a man who gigged across the country, gatecrashed an X Factor live show and played pranks on some of the world’s biggest leaders. In reality, he was anything but.
