Rhod Gilbert interview

Rhod Gilbert doesn't like dressing as a woman, but he's fallen in love with teaching. We talk to him about his new tour, and his Work Experience show...

Rhod Gilbert interview

Rhod Gilbert has had more jobs than many stand-ups, only getting into professional comedy aged 32 after being nagged by his girlfriend.

Rhod Gilbert interview

Rhod Gilbert returns this week with the DVD release of Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience, the show that sees the funny man take on a whole host of everyday jobs...

Rhod Gilbert on being waxed, bitten, and beaten

He swapped his office job for stand-up fame, but Rhod Gilbert's about to return to the daily grind for another bout of Work Experience on TV.

Ah, Des O'Connor. Indefatigable crooner, Morecambe and Wise foil, chat-show host and borderline national treasure. Who knew he's daft enough to eat cat food by accident? Or is he? Maybe his long, peculiar story about how he dined on this strange dish in a holiday villa is all nonsense.

O'Connor, looking as bronzed as a 70s sideboard, is a game contestant on Lee Mack's team, and quickly gets into the spirit of the show after a giggly start. Meanwhile, on David Mitchell's team, Rhod Gilbert regales us with an account of the acute trauma he suffered at an airport.

And comic actress Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony, Miranda) apparently plays a texting-game with her husband while he's at the swimming baths. Worse, she once rode her uncle's mobility scooter with disastrous consequences. Perhaps. It's a great show, and what Friday nights are for.

Rhod Gilbert on the horrors of undergoing a 97% bodywax

"I can honestly say that one of most horrific things I've ever done is to walk into a pub quiz in Aldershot dressed as a 6ft 3in woman" says Rhod Gilbert.

First raft of shows for 2012 Edinburgh Fringe programme

Stewart Lee, Jimmy Carr, Rhod Gilbert and more to appear at Fringe 2012.

Now revamped as a panel show, Room 101's new incarnation benefits from the boisterous banter between the guests as they compete to have their pet peeves consigned to the dumpster. Tonight's hopefuls include Countdown crew members past and present, with current host Nick Hewer squaring up against the show's former number cruncher Carol Vorderman. Brash comedian Rhod Gilbert joins them as they bemoan personal horrors including advertising slogans, Facebook, and opening ceremonies.

Rhod Gilbert barely made a peep in 2011, but this year looks set to be more productive for the comic, with a new stand-up show, The Man With the Battenburg Tattoo, on its way. In the interim we'll have to make do with this, a reshowing of his first filmed live show. Award-Winning Mince Pie sees Gilbert leaving whimsy behind to try his hand at "real life" comedy, though an altercation with a mince pie at Knutsford service station soon has him tumbling back into fantasy.

This week saw the return of Rhod Gilbert's panel show in which he, his two regulars (Greg Davies and Lloyd Langford) and a selection of celebrity guests attempt to answer all manner of odd questions.

This week's guests included Phill Jupitus (good comedian) and Kimberly Wyatt (not sure who she is). There was also David Hasselhoff in the role of the "Authenticator", making sure everything discussed was correct and providing extra information. I suppose it is a suitable title as you can't really call him an "Expert", unless you want to know how to make rubbish TV programmes and make it big in the German music charts.

Ask Rhod Gilbert mixes obscure knowledge and debate with very cheap laughs. In the first edition of the new series we learnt that a dog is as clever as a two-year-old, how many words we use on average in a lifetime, and that it was Hugh Heffner who brought Pamela Anderson into Baywatch (I think we can skip past that last one).

However, we also experience the traditional end-of-show humiliation in which Langford always gets mocked in some stupid way. In this week's edition it was to see which was the most dangerous foodstuff, which was tested by firing different items of food at him. This included water balloons filled with gravy and a gun firing 99 ice creams at him.

One issue I have with this show is that Gilbert announces who has won each round, despite the fact that there is no winner. Now, obviously there are some panel shows in which the scoring is irrelevant like I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, but it's not as if there is any "competitive element" in it like ISIHAC has, so why have winners in the first place?

Ask Rhod Gilbert does have some laughs, but it's not the most brilliant show by any stretch of the imagination.