Interview
Stuck In A Lift
Eddie Kadi got the cold shoulder from Hugh Grant
We grill the beloved comedian and presenter ahead of his debut UK stand-up tour Let Me Land
Back in 2010, the BBC called Eddie Kadi “the most famous comedian you’ve never heard of.” Today, the perennially smiling comedian can be seen hosting the MOBO Awards, dancing on Strictly or heard on Radio 1 Xtra’s Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show, and yet it is still true that the trajectory of his career has been unconventional.
Fourteen years ago, just days after that article was published, the British-Congolese comic became the first Black British comedian to headline the O2 Arena, and yet next month he embarks of his first national headline stand-up tour. Frequent trips to perform in Africa, where he remains a huge name, plus forays into acting and hosting sports and music events meant he didn’t follow the traditional UK circuit.
It’s this long but fruitful path from arriving in the UK at the age of 8, getting into comedy at uni and, in the last few years, becoming a household name that makes up the Let Me Land tour, kicking off next month. “I’ve kind of told my story when it comes to stand up, but never fully,” he tells us. “I think it’s just come to a stage for me where I feel like I want to be a lot more transparent with myself and not shy away from some home truths about what I’ve been through, especially coming to this country at a young age, what the reasons behind that was. Africans use ‘let me land’ a lot in terms of, let me explain, let me get to the bottom of it. So it’s a double entendre, as it works for me literally landing into the country.”
In keeping with Let Me Land‘s autobiographical arc, we dig a little deeper to uncover further truths, asking the important questions as always.
Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
This person is not with us anymore, but I would love to be stuck in a little more grandad, my goodness, because this guy, I just feel like the last time we interacted, many years ago, and I went back to where I was born, Congo, and the man was there in his Manchester United wooly hat and a jumper, really cool, with toothpick in his mouth, and it was scorching hot. Just don’t know how he was able to handle that heat. But this guy had 23 kids, man. 23 kids and it was just me asking, how did you handle them all,because I’m struggling with one? Also, there’s so much information about my entire family, you know, the things that I’ve occurred how he grew up, that I really want to get my my teeth into. There’s so many things that people tell you, people have got stories about grandad, and I’m like, I want to hear it from that man himself, you know, like, yeah. I also want to do a sort of general knowledge with him, yeah, 23 kids, and just ask him random questions about his kids. See, I don’t think he knew all his kids names. I think he knew them by face. I think sometimes he remembers by chance, certainly not all his grandkids’ names. Don’t even think he met all his grandkids. So I want to do like a general knowledge and show him pictures like, you know, and just be like, Yeah, who’s this? What’s this? And just see him get really frustrated.
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
I mean this in the most loving way: I just feel like it will be my mum. The reason why that is the conversation will start all nice and that, and then what will start happening? She’ll start picking into my life, start asking me questions I don’t want to answer, and there’ll be nowhere to escape. Usually I’m like, “Mum I’ve got to go, I’ve got a show tonight,” that kind of thing. We’re not going anywhere. Just start nitpicking. So go into a whole rant about my siblings as well. I don’t want to hear it, because I’m not a super hero. I can’t save everybody. Yeah, there’ll be no escaping this time. The worst place for that to happen will be in the lift, because I’ll be forced to either really, really lie or start convincing things. I’m not sure if you’ve seen that new trend that says we speak, but we don’t judge. It’s like a trend where couples, or just people general, talk to each other about their home truths. When you can’t react, it’s just letting that happen, right? That’s going to go wrong, because I’ll be in a situation where I’m gonna have to play that game with my mum and she is angry. I will be judged. I will be judged.
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve ever had with a famous person?
Oh, my goodness, mate. I think I was about 13 years old. I grew up in Southwest London, Fulham, and I walked to school every day. Sometimes I’d pick my mate and walk together on the way back. It’s always a nice place, we played football, then I’d go past a corner shop. Normal, normal, normal. But one day, when I got to the top of my road, literally top of my road, I go past what I think was a white Audi. I’m walking past and I look, there’s a gentleman sitting in his car, but he’s a bit lower, almost like maybe he’s a little bit hidden. And I just happened to be a bit nosey. I looked at the car and I thought no, it can’t be! Let me just double check. I looked back again, and it was Hugh Grant. It was Hugh Grant. He seemed to be really jolly on the phone, having a nice conversation. He looked at me. I looked at him, and then he rolled his window down and I thought, oh my God. He looked at me, and he said: “What?” I’m like “Hello Mr. Grant, I’m a real big fan of yours. Such a pleasure to meet you!” He looked at me, I wouldn’t say he kissed his teeth, but whatever it was, he made this noise, looked at me, and just rolled his window back up and continued on the phone. I will never forget that. I didn’t even think, Oh, what a tw*t. I just thought that was a bit… I don’t know what that was.
I did have another one while I was at the EFL Awards. I walk into the toilet, you know, taking a leak, I look to my right, Ryan Giggs is doing exactly the same thing right next to me. And all I can say to him was, “You alright Ryan?” He says, “You alright right, mate?” And then I went, “Picture?” “Not now, mate.” I guess I should have been a bit more clearer. We did end up taking a selfie outside of the toilet, but I think, yeah, I don’t know what you thought I wanted to take a picture of.
What was the last show that you went to?
The last show I went to was a Kenyan artist called Bien and it was phenomenal. He was actually the first East African to headline KOKO in Camden. He’s very versatile. It was a lot of fun. Prior to that, I was in Paris filming, but I got to sneak out at night, and my mate Mo Gilligan was playing as part of his world tour. To see him performing abroad in Paris was amazing, but what was even more amazing was me telling people I went to see Mo in Paris. And everyone’s like, “Wow, did he do it in French?” My goodness, no, he just happened to be Paris!
What work of yours didn’t get the attention that it deserved?
I think I would have been a phenomenal rapper if people just really took it seriously. I has a song. It was called ‘Pounded Yam’. It was a remix of Lethal B’s ‘Pow’. I loved it, I was very serious when I first performed it with Lethal B, that clip has gone viral, it’s been going viral since 2005 and people keep laughing. I was being serious! Rhat’s not the attention that I wanted, literally, even till now, I’m like, no I really wanted to tap into the grime world. Every time it goes viral I think this is my chance, you know? Nope, people are still laughing at it, so I just, yeah, it’s got the wrong attention, man.
What did 12-year-old you imagine that you’d be doing now?
Literally taking notes from José Mourinho or one of these big managers – Pep Guardiola, Don Carlo Ancelotti – as a centre midfielder playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world. That’s what the 12 year old me did every single day after school when I played with my boys, in my head is practicing the World Cup, because I was convinced at one stage I’m going to end up in a World Cup finals, you know? But, yeah, I think the 12-year-old me would be like, You know what? The comedy is not bad. You’re still kind of performing in front of people, and you love it, and that’s the most important thing. But yeah, they’re rather me challenging the VAR decision.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
The worst advice I’ve ever been given was by my mother, actually. I was, I was at university, I called and I said, “Mum, listen, I’m living by myself now. I really want to learn how to make some of the food that you make.” She was so happy. She said it’s great to be independent, she gave me some advice. There’s a Congolese dish, which is basically a white kidney bean stew with some meat, and it’s nice. My mum told me all the recipes, how much salt to put in, all that stuff. I was excited, and as she hung up the phone she said, “I’m so proud of you.” I cooked it, and it tasted like poison. It was disgusting. And I called my mum back, and she said, “You think I’m going to give you the real recipe? You’re crazy. You will always come and visit your mother.” She told me the wrong amount of salt. She told me the wrong ingredients.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Oh, man, now we’re getting triggered. The worst job I ever had… I worked for a betting company. Am I allowed to say the name? It’s called Coral. It was probably in my second year of uni, one of those jobs, you know, just a side job because the student loan was never enough. I went to Kingston University, and I’ll travel to Southfields. My first week was alright, it was one of those jobs dragged on. It just felt very quiet, generally, and I felt like I was on top of it. But at the end of the day, every single day, I was always short £50. It just didn’t make sense, and the manager often kept saying “We’ll just take inside your wages,you’ve not bee counting properly, don’t fall under pressure.” I knew I definitely counted the money, and I remember just thinking there’s something wrong here. It was always the same manager, and I made sure one day I came in with my own money, and at the end of the day, I counted the money and added £50. I literally put my own 50 pounds in, and the manager came to me and said I was still short 50 pounds. And that’s the day I realised it was this guy taking the money. I remember going home and didn’t even complain about it, but I just never turned up. I did not turn up the next day. I didn’t know what was going on. It was just horrible. And I just remember this guy’s this guy’s face, I should have known, he just looked like a thief.
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
Honestly, I love my afro beat. I love my old school garage. But if I had to stay with one song it would have to be ‘It’s My Life’ by Bon Jovi. In my playlists I can’t go without Bon Jovi. It just gets you going, man. I had that as an intro when I was going, when I was on the Mo Gilligan + Friends tour. That was the intro, it just feels like I’m ready to go, I’m not scared of anybody. All my nerves start to disappear if I’m walking into any meeting, audition, in fact, I’d probably want that to come on if I had to speak to my mum and then lift and answer a few questions.
What film have you most rewatched?
I have watched The Shawshank Redemption… quite a few times. Yeah, I love it. I love the Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are phenomenal in it. And you know what it is for me, I always watch it because I don’t want him to die at the end.
But another film that I used to watch over and over again growing up, was called Absent Without Leave. I’ve never heard anybody else really talk to me about this film but Jean Claude Van Damme is one of my favourite actors ever. This film might be one of his least popular ones, actually, but it’s just emotional. It’s got about action. But I always get attached to the film, I feel like I’m a part of it, so I used to rinse that film as well.
What’s the skill that no one else knows that you’re great at?
Oh, falling asleep at any given time. Let me tell you something, I’m a power napper to the core. If there was a power nap olympics, I’m your guy. If I get on the plane, whether the flight is nine hours or 45 minutes, as soon as I sit down, I switch off, gone. I think it’s a skill set everybody needs. When you need that power nap, when you’re tired, or you know that you haven’t had much sleep, like just give me five minutes, gone, gone.
For me to sleep at night is a struggle, but during the day, straight away. I’ll probably do that as soon as I come off this call.
What’s your controversial food opinion?
So… I do love pineapple with pepperoni. Don’t judge me. I found that by mistake. The majority of the time they don’t really offer you that option. It’s usually ham and pepperoni. I had a home economics class at school – I don’t know what they call it now, because every time I bring it up, my younger cousins be like, what’s that? It’s where you learn how to cook food. So in secondary school, me and my mate had an assignment they gave us all. We had to come up with something creative, so me and my best friend Henry decided we’re going to make a pizza, and I wanted to do something different. We thought pineapple, but we thought we’re going to put pepperoni with this pineapple, and it was the best thing ever. And I tell you, that’s, that’s the one thing I’m constantly ordering. If I order a pizza, it’s got to be that, and everyone goes, “Oh, how can you do it yourself?” Mind your business. You don’t love it like I do.
Do you have any superstitions?
I don’t really have any superstitions. But to be honest with you, I never go on stage without praying, that’s me. Even if I forget, right, and I’m on stage, as I’m doing my set in my head I’m like, Oh God, I forgot to pray. So then I go into one. That’s pretty much my thing.
Eddie Kadi is touring Let Me Land from Feb-May 2025 – find tickets here
