Ian Smith

Ian Smith

From The Comedian's Comedian Podcast by Stuart Goldsmith

May 14, 2026 · 1h 26m · Episode 510

About this episode

Stuart Goldsmith interviews comedian Ian Smith about his career, creativity, and the challenges of stand-up comedy.

This week I’m joined by two-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, Ian Smith ! You may also know him best as the co-host of the Northern News podcast with Amy Gledhill, as well as appearances on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You and on his own Radio 4 series, Ian Smith is Stressed! He’s now back with Ian Smith: Foot Spa Half Empty - a sharp, surreal and painfully relatable look at stress, love, and the kind of life choices that include buying a magic spell off Amazon. In this episode we discuss: the brutal on-the-job experience that actually makes a stand-up the uncertainty of what actually leads to TV work learning the value of other comedians as “outside eyes” on your material why comedy as therapy is limited (but why it still helps anyway) the stuff that gets cut from The Northern News and we find out of Ian Smith is happy... Join the Insiders Club at Patreon.com/ComComPod where you can instantly WATCH the full episode and get access to 20 minutes of exclusive extras including: how writing for The News Quiz taught him to write on demand why previews are meant to be messy and how deadlines remove self-doubt and force clarity in creative decisions 👉 Sign up to the…

People in this episode

Host: Stuart Goldsmith

Guest: Ian Smith

Topics covered

  • comedy
  • stress
  • life choices
  • TV work
  • creativity
  • therapy

Keywords

  • Edinburgh Comedy Award
  • stand-up
  • comedy therapy
  • Northern News
  • creative decisions
  • UK tour

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Northern News, Radio 4

Books & works: Ian Smith is Stressed!, Ian Smith: Foot Spa Half Empty

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