Rob won at dancing like a celebrity trannnie in a leotard! To celebrate, here are some things from the media…

Behind the scenes at Comic Relief, week one.

From The Sun:

TV’S Peep Show comic Robert Webb confessed he was inspired to go on Let’s Dance for Comic Relief — by cheesy X Factor singer Chico. The comedy star was fired up to take part after seeing the ex-stripper having such a good time on the box. Robert, 36, confessed: “I was watching the X Factor in 2005 when I realised I was jealous of Chico. It was the feed for the whole thing. I thought he had a good sense of humour and rhythm. People were falling over themselves saying, ‘this is marvellous’ and I was like, ‘come on, I want to do that’.”

Robert, in a leotard and fake boobs, had 8million viewers in stitches when he won his first heat of the series with his rendition of Flashdance, from the 1983 musical romance. He’s keen to get the leg-warmers back on for tonight’s final. He said: “I once had to dress up as a banana, so this was quite restrained and sophisticated! In fact, I was suspiciously quick to sign up to do the Flashdance. It is one of those films from the 1980s that people remember — and it comes with a free amusing costume. I didn’t mind wearing the leotard. I had a special dancer’s support garment under it to de-emphasize a gentleman’s profile. I also wore a fake bra with modest little breasts. I didn’t want a big bosom because Jennifer Beals, the original star, was only 18. I didn’t want to get too carried away. I didn’t want to be some grotesque parody of womanhood.”

Webb’s wife, comedienne Abigail Burgess, loved his outfit. He said: “She thought I looked funny, but helped make some of the costume decisions. She was like, ‘no, you must wear American tan tights, you can’t have sheer black. She watched me on TV in the heats but she’ll be coming to watch me live at the final.”

Robert — who has made a string of TV hits with comic partner David Mitchell, 40 — said the leotard gave him confidence to get through the act. He said: “It was pretty nerve-racking as the screens went up. I tried not to think how many people were watching. I was too busy concentrating on what happened next to laugh. It was easy to keep a straight face as it is acting. Besides, the character got me through the embarrassment of standing there half naked! It never crossed my mind to do a routine with David though. He won’t mind me saying that he’s no born mover.”

Robert also revealed how he nearly threw up while in training because he’s so unfit. He confessed: “I rehearsed for four and a half days and it was massively tiring. There was definitely a lot of panting and sweating in the rehearsals! I am massively out of shape. This has been tough.” He said he didn’t think he’d make the final, but now he’s there he’s keen to win. “I’d love that,” he added, “But I think it’s going to be much harder. The pressure’s definitely on.”

And what about volunteering to go on Strictly Come Dancing? “Oh my God, no,” he said. “I don’t want to do any more dancing in public. Anyway, Strictly take ages.”

Rob and David laughing about David’s premature aging in the Sun article. Or something.

Still not all of the Comic Relief Sir Digby sketch…

…but this one is complete:

Bonus film:

Long version of last night’s Rob dancing, with the interview.

It’s on tonight. You must must must vote!

From The Times March 14, 2009

Diary: the actor Robert Webb on Let’s Dance for Comic Relief
The Peep Show star on leotards, Flashdancing and being whistled at by a white-van man

A couple of weeks ago I won the first heat of a charity dance competition called Let’s Dance for Comic Relief. This involved getting dressed up in a spandex leotard and giving a by no means subtle re-imagining of the audition scene at the end of Flashdance; you know the one, Irene Cara’s catchy Eighties number currently and weirdly being used to sell Gaviscon indigestion tablets. Absence of heartburn? What a feeling! (Thank God I didn’t do the voiceover for that one; it’s the kind of thing that sends internet conspiracy theorists into spasm.) Anyway, just before the curtain went up I vaguely wondered what my dad was going to make of this – his third son variously undulating and jumping around in full drag in front of seven million people. I needn’t have worried. By far the best “well-done” message after the show was from my dad. “Don’t worry that you were dressed up as a woman, boy, you looked GOOD!” Thanks mate.

Actually, getting physical compliments from heterosexual men has been one of the stranger aspects of the whole thing. I was ambling down a street recently when a white-van man wound his window down and yelled, “Nice legs, mate! Nice body!” and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I must have looked a bit freaked out because he then nodded vigorously and rebrandished the thumbs as if to reassure me that he wasn’t taking the p***. I don’t pretend that the mixed sensation of being flattered and objectified at the same time has given me some great insight into what many women have to put up with every day … I’m just saying it’s a new experience. I’ve also just learnt what women have known since the 1950s: a good pair of tights can make your legs look fantastic.

The costume was in fact the subject of some mild controversy. Such is the current climate that apparently a meeting was convened to discuss the wisdom of having a man in a leotard doing an energetic routine on live television for a family audience. Various senior executives had to be reassured that there was no prospect of a – how shall we put it? – catastrophic costume failure. I was quite keen for this not to happen too: if anyone was going to describe my performance as “ballsy”, I wanted this to be only figuratively true. But there was never going to be a problem. I was wearing a dancer’s “support garment” that acts to – again delicacy is required – de-emphasise one’s gentleman’s profile. Not exactly comfy and I’m glad to have conceived a child before putting it on, but all quite secure. Nobody had nightmares.

The point of all this is to raise a massive load of cash for charity. There have always been people willing to be cynical about Comic Relief, journalists, bloggers, even some comedians – let’s just call them twats – who think that the unavoidable queasiness of juxtaposing comic turns with worthy films about deprivation in some way negates the whole enterprise. For me, the idea of setting a minor aesthetic quibble above the unanswerable good that Comic Relief does is the act of a moral thickie. I’m well aware that charitable giving, like practical jokes, is a favourite domain of bullies. How I used to dread Rag week at university: everyone being pressured to sit in a tub of beans or go shopping in a bikini or whatever by humourless spoons in blazers because “it’s for charity”. Please. And I can also see the objection that sending aid to Africa, say, can sometimes cause more harm than good. US farmers being paid to send surplus corn over there and thereby putting local farmers out of business is, I daresay, something that we can all agree is a Bad Idea. Comic Relief, however, is very highly regarded within the charity sector in terms of its accountability and its vigilant monitoring of the real effect the various schemes are having. If you give money to Comic Relief (and that really is up to you – I’m not one of the guys in blazers, I promise) you can be confident that it will be spent with the same wisdom and care that went into choosing my special dancing pants. What a relief.

Like Dame David Bowie once decreed, Let’s Dance!

Mini report: There was a bit of a kerfuffle with over-subscription for tickets but my spies got in as they were on the ‘special’ list. The green room was not actually green but had free Red Nose Wine until it was time to go into the studio. No BBC Tuck Shop queue for them this time, unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately. Things that were given to the audience: Pompoms for the Eastenders dance, Blue Brothers hats and glasses for Dick & Dom’s dance, but no welding gear or leotard for Rob’s one. Shame.

The final is on Saturday 14th March. Vote Webb!

Have to show the video one more time:

More on this soon…

What’s going on at the moment? Well…

There’s another series of that other show about truth and lies with David Mitchell aka The Unbelievable Truth being recorded in London on 26nd February, 4th March, 22nd March, 26th March. Tickets are available at the usual place. It’s more fun that the other thing about truth and lies that he is in as it’s for the radio which means less production kerfuffles, a beter bar and he is the chairman.

David’s first Soapbox video podcast thing is up online. The picture below may be a clue to the subject.

But what’s Rob up to?

From BBC Press Release:
Jo Brand, Dragons from Dragons’ Den (Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden), Blue Peter presenters (Tim Vincent, Anthea Turner, Mark Curry, Diana Louise Jordan, Peter Duncan, Peter Purves, Janet Ellis, Helen Skelton), Dick & Dom, Keith Lemon & Paddy McGuinness and Robert Webb will be donning their dancing shoes for Let’s Dance For Comic Relief as part of this year’s Red Nose Day Campaign, it was announced today.

The show will be produced by Whizz Kid Entertainment for the BBC.

Robert is featured in the gay magazine for gays about gay things (aka Attitude) this month. Lucky for you I am one of them so I am allowed to purchase it. My scanner is crap but it’s better than an episode of The Kevin Bishop Show so here it is…

He’s always very friendly, isn’t he? How nice.

PS: Averagely-amusing BBC1 comedy panel show thing Would I Lie To You will be interesting this week (on Friday) … it has Olivia Colman on it (as well as the usual David Mitchell). And Peter Serafinowicz. Talking of him, where IS that DVD?

Item! David Mitchell is part of the panel on Question Time tonight (Thursday 3rd July for all you time travellers). This should be interesting as he loves to talk and could easily entertain the entire studio by rambling on about anything and everything.

Item! Robert Webb is still in Fat Pig, and will be until 6th September.

Item! Both Mitchell and Webb are warming up for series 3 of That Mitchell And Webb Look at The Drill Hall Theatre on 13th July and 10th August, which happen to be Sundays. Ticket applications self destructed almost as soon as they went online this week so anyone going should feel very lucky (and a little bit smug).

Item! James Bachman is currently appearing in Sorry I’ve Got No Head on CBBC on Fridays with other funny people that you might recognise from other stuff. Watch it on iPlayer or wait for normal telly time to see what I mean. Facebook Fan Page here!