Comedy / Nick Helm
Nick Helm is back on the road and ‘No One Gets Out Alive’
“Are you ready to have the best damn night of your effing life?” we’re asked.
“Well don’t worry – the man with the golden larynx is back.”
That man, self-described as “the greatest living entertainer of his or any generation” could only be Nick Helm; spoken with his tongue buried so far inside his cheek that it is fully enveloped by his huge, and often electrifying, stage persona.
The multi-award-winning comic, actor and musician is back on tour in September with No One Gets Out Alive, which he describes as “both a promise as a threat” – calling at Tobacco Factory Theatres on September 28.
While it sounds like a deliberate change of tone from 2024’s Super Fun Good Time Show, the content of the show itself will largely be written on stage, which is the way Helm has always developed his material.
However, indisputably, his life has undergone a seismic shift in the last year with the dual diagnoses of first, bipolar, and later ADHD, with subsequent medication that has been utterly transformative. “Now, I feel absolutely incredible”, he reflects.
With the dawning realisation that he had never truly experienced happiness before, also came with another insight for Helm. “It turns out I wasn’t depressed; I was misdiagnosed with depression”, he says.
“My life has started again at the age of 44, and it’s the happiest I’ve ever been.”
He admits that the chaos and stress that characterised much of his life up to this newfound understanding of his mental health used to be a mechanism that he could channel into his work, whereas now, he can be prolific without the attendant suffering.
Alongside his other projects, in recent months Helm has also been working on a new album – his first since 2016. The 28-track Down ‘n’ Dirty will be a double album, expected to be released in October.
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Nick Helm: No One Gets Out Alive is at Tobacco Factory Theatres on September 28 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.tobaccofactorytheatres.comwww.tobaccofactorytheatres.com. Visit www.nick-helm.co.uk or follow @thenickhelm for updates.
All photos: Ed Moore
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