For Griff Rhys Jones, life has always been a journey and there's few places he's not prepared to explore.
The Welsh actor, comedian and writer known for his work on shows like 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' is bringing his 'Where Was I?' live show to Australia for an evening of laughter and stories from his forty years of travelling.
“I tell stories, that's what I do, and like everyone else once you start telling stories one story leads to another, so it's a huge mix and there's no big fixed theme,” Griff says.
From his journeys through family, manhood and the BBC, to navigating rivers, climbing mountains and even sailing to St Petersburg, Griff will share anecdotes that explore universal themes centred around travelling.
“The whole show starts by talking a little bit about why we travel, what we're up to and why people like me travel, because I'm part of a generation that didn't travel when we were young,” Griff says.
“We went to the beach wearing a black, sort-of string underpants called swimming costumes and that was about the limit of our travelling, it just wasn't something that happened, so this is all new.”
It's a chance to hear Griff's comedic perspective on the pros and cons of being a global explorer while pondering the notion of wanderlust.
“In Australia you're filled with Brits because they love coming to Australia, they love the whole idea,” he says.
“It's a place to go where so many people speak English, the sun shines and nobody gives a toss about Brexit, and that sort of thing is why people travel; a lot of people travel in order to try and be extremely comfortable somewhere else in the world.
“I like to travel in order to find different places. I kick off the show by talking with the audience about why they travel, in a funny sort of way, a bit dirty. You have to think that life, whatever we're doing, is about being on one long journey, so the thing that I talk about is rambling around that idea.”
Across various television shows and series, Griff has ventured the world and naturally found himself in some fairly dire situations, though none more dangerous in his mind than a trip to the islands of Torres Strait.
“At one point I find myself being taken to the sacred lake by the high priest and we went to feed the sacred crocodile, which was a saltwater crocodile in a sort of pond by the airport,” he recalls.
“He couldn't stay so he left me a with a big sack of chopped-up sheep offal to throw in. Later on people said that was a really dangerous thing to do, to walk to the edge of a pond and start throwing meat to a crocodile.”
The most valuable lesson Griff has taken from his adventures is that the main thing people want in travel programmes is the very real potential for the host to get seriously injured.
“For about ten years I became aware that if you make travel programmes and you're not Michael Palin, the most important thing for everyone who's putting them together is to see if they can kill the presenter,” he says.
“I can't work out who started it... But everybody decided all they wanted to watch on television was people like me struggling – especially me because I'm a middle-aged man – to do things like mountain climbing and abseiling and roller skating, all that stuff. They wanted to see how bad I was at it.”
Griff Rhys Jones 'Where Was I' Australia Tour 2018
19 October - The Concourse (Sydney)23 October - Astor Theatre (Perth)
25 October - Brisbane Powerhouse
30 October - Athenaeum Theatre (Melbourne)
