John Robins — Thirst
Comedian and podcaster John Robins brings his new solo show Thirst to the Southbank Centre — an exploration of desire, obsession, and what we want when we don't know what we want.
Why we picked this
Robins built a devoted following through his podcast work and stand-up shows that hold comedy and genuine emotional weight at the same time — Thirst continues that project in a venue that suits his particular kind of thoughtful, confessional performance.
John Robins is one of the more interesting voices in British comedy right now — a performer whose stand-up and podcast work takes the genre’s confessional tradition seriously enough to actually go somewhere with it. He won the Edinburgh Comedy Award’s Panel Prize and has become known for shows that use humor as a way into subjects that resist easier treatment: anxiety, romantic failure, the strange loops of obsessive thought.
Thirst arrives at the Southbank Centre as a new live work examining desire in its widest sense — what we pursue, what pursuing it costs us, and what we discover when we finally get there or definitively don’t. The Southbank Centre, with its focus on culture that takes ideas seriously without becoming academic, is a good home for Robins’ brand of comedy-as-inquiry.
This is the kind of live event that justifies buying a ticket rather than waiting for the podcast: the room shapes the work, and Robins is a performer who responds to an audience rather than simply delivering material at one.