Spotlight: Adam Rowe

At only 22 years of age Adam Rowe is nothing short of prodigious. Gigging up and down the country since he was still at college, he has a rare combination of being fiercely ambitious and a thoroughly good person. He won Hot Water Comedy’s Comedian of the Year in 2011, which was only his second year on the circuit.

After a fair amount of tragedy in recent years Rowe has channelled this into his own show, Shit Happens, which will run as part of Liverpool Comedy Festival this month. Unflappable and a consummate professional at such a young age, he has already drawn comparisons with Jason Manford – let’s just hope he keeps the likeness to his quick wit and not his proclivity for social media philanderings. But then, he is only young… 

First gig:
"Hot Water Comedy at Envi (Liverpool). There was 32 people in the audience, 28 had come with me and two of them were Hungarian. It seemed to go well at the time, but I watched it back recently and wanted to kill myself afterwards."

Best gig:
"In all honesty, I can't pick between my favourite four. One was in Chester at The Laugh Inn which was probably the best reaction I've ever had, but in terms of nostalgia I'd go with winning Hot Water’s Comedian of the Year. All the acts had been winding each other up for months over who was going to win and I managed to win despite being on first. I also managed to get three years (and counting) of bragging rights."

Worst gig:
"A Laugh In Stockport, 2010. It was the day I got my A-Level results and realised I wasn't going to Uni for another year. I decided to rant about my day and not do my material. I died on my arse and got gonged off. Awful."

Circuit favourites in the Northwest:
"Nobody. They're literally all very bad people."

Favourite venue:
"It was The Laugh Inn but that's now gone, so I would say Hot Water, Baby Blue or Birmingham Glee. They're all just ridiculously good fun to play to."

Best heckle:
"It was an audience member heckling another audience member with a putdown. There was a girl chatting on the front row and I told her she looked like a student (she didn't, she looked 35+). She turned to her mate and said, 'Aww that's a compliment isn't it?' A girl at the back shouted 'Yeah but it's also a fucking lie!!!". Brilliant."

If you could be haunted by anyone, who would it be and why?
"Casper. He's proper sound."

If you were on death row, what would your last meal be? And why are you on death row?
"My last meal would be a T-bone steak with fries, onion rings, peppercorn sauce... Then when I'd finished I'd go all Law Abiding Citizen and kill all the guards with the bone from the steak.

"I'd be on death row for killing Liam Pickford."

If you lived in medieval times what would you do for a living?
"Window cleaner."

Question from past Spotlighter Peter Brush: Which member of the animal kingdom do you think would most enjoy your comedy stylings?
"The hyenas."