The live podcast event has become an unexpectedly lucrative modern phenomenon. An intimate genre that started out as the epitome of a contemporary cottage industry has spawned huge ticketed paydays, with comedians leading the way.
Later this month Chris Ramsey and his wife Rosie bring their Sh**ged Married Annoyed arena trek to Wembley. Last night Tom Davis and Romesh Ranganathan took a break from their own tour and being a semi-permanent TV fixture respectively and sold out the Apollo with their show which, by their own admission, is just two comics shooting the breeze "because they couldn’t work out a format."
As shooting breezes goes though this is as good as it gets. The friendship is clearly authentic. Davis and Ranganathan have a chemistry that could never be concocted in a test tube. Seated onstage the relatable conversation flowed and the laughs flew as they touched on subjects as diverse as the appeal of Airbnb, going for walks and the first dance at your wedding – Tom embarrassingly could not remember his.
They both played what felt like only slightly heightened versions of themselves. Davis is the "sweet, sweet soul" who combines an endearing streak of innocence with the street smarts of a market trader who uses his instagram account to sell T-shirts and other "merch".
Ranganathan, currently preparing for a solo tour next year, was less misanthropic than in his stand-up shows, though quick to mock Davis with a mix of brutality and affection whenever the slightest opportunity arose. At one point Davis talked about travelling by speedboat from a gig in Newcastle to visit Ranganathan in Sussex, before it was pointed out that maybe even the shambolic UK rail network might be a shrewder option.
If the first half felt like eavesdropping on two particularly witty blokes in the pub, the second half found the duo morphing into podcasting's most unlikely agony uncles, answering emails from their adoring public. Between hair transplant advice and food hygiene tips they generously offered to go to the stag do of a fan in the audience.
Of course, they are both so in demand there is always the small print that this depends on them being free and in the right part of the country to make it. But stranger things have happened. Maybe a speedboat can get them there.
