Rory Marshall’s Gallery of Guyhood: Inside the Weird, Warm World of Pathetic Little Characters

What do a fridge-door headbutter, a tragically performative football boy, and a parade of awkwardly endearing men have in common? They all live rent-free in the mind of comedian Rory, the creator and star of Pathetic Little Characters – a sketch show that turns male insecurity into comedic gold. In this exclusive interview, Rory unpacks the unexpected origins of his characters, the fine line between satire and sincerity, and why social desperation might just be the most human (and hilarious) thing of all.

Where did the idea for Pathetic Little Characters come from - was it always going to be a sketch show about male awkwardness, or did the characters take over?

When I started writing the show I simply set out to write a bunch of character sketches and it was by total chance that they pretty much all turned out to be awkward, pathetic, problematic men. YES, upon this realisation I had to take a long hard look in the mirror and YES what I saw was pretty sobering BUT I had found myself a theme for the show and luckily for me I was able to engage in ‘write what comes naturally to you’ mode and let my patheticness do its thing. 

You clearly have a soft spot for characters who are desperate to be liked. Why do you think that specific kind of social cringe is so funny - and so revealing?

It’s quite a lovely thing that we all want to be liked by other people. But it's quite alarming the range of different methods people have for impressing people. You know when boys in the playground would boot a football at the girl they fancy. To be honest, i think that's a pretty advanced method - It shows off your kicking, it physically gets their attention because they wonder who kicked the ball and of course it shows them that you’re into sports which is the coolest thing in the world! I once saw a guy at a party repeatedly smash his head in a fridge door- I was definitely impressed and I told him that. ‘Hey dude, i'm really impressed with how you smashed your head with that fridge door. I’d love to take you for a coffee and pick your brains sometime.’ Regardless, what’s more funny and revealing than smashing your head in a fridge?

Vulnerability and comedy can be a powerful mix. What draws you to those moments where confidence cracks and people fall apart a bit?

We are all trying our best aren’t we? We are all trying our best to do different things but we are all giving it a bloody good go. Seeing someone trying to do something and struggling a bit shows us they care about something and that's just very sweet and human! Listen, I don't want to see anyone fall apart, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone, but if they do there's a possibility it might make for a nice little comedy sketch and at that point it’s just out of my hands, okay?

Your characters feel painfully familiar - are they mostly drawn from real life, or are they Frankenstein monsters built from things overheard on buses?

Some of these characters are real life people I have met or worked with and some of the material is verbatim what they’ve said. I’m not going to say which characters and which quotes but some of the most surreal parts of the show are real things real people said. It’s quite alarming actually what these people have said actually - maybe I should have said something at the time? Only time will tell…

You've spoken about having Tourette’s -  how has that shaped your relationship with performance, control, and comedy?

I thought for a long time that I wasn’t going to be able to do comedy or be an actor because I wouldn’t be able to perform without doing some weird twitch with my head or blink loads. I still am very nervous about it but the more I perform the more I realise that I'm lucky that I can still do my thing without it interfering too much. I find that getting stuck into a character can really help with suppressing it. Also, they whack a load of botox into my cranium every 3 months which seems to help. 

Is this show pure satire, personal storytelling in disguise, or something weirder and more chaotic than both?

There is satire in there, there’s also story stelling, there’s also some handcuffs at one point! There’s loads in there! The stories are some of mine, some are my versions of other people’s stories, some stories are other people’s versions of my stories, some aren’t stories at all! Listen, there’s a lot of stories in there and I like to think that they all tell us something about masculinity, insecurity and ultimately about this crazy little thing called life!

There’s a real warmth in how you portray these flawed characters. Do you find yourself defending them, even when they’re being ridiculous?

All these characters ultimately come from a place of love. I’m not mocking these people for acting a certain way, i’m acknowledging that everyone is different and thats f*****g awesome! People are great and nobody is perfect and thats f*****g awesome! SO, YES I'm defending them! I suppose this show is trying to see the best in people, even if they act in the most unbelievably insufferable way possible and thats f******g awesome! (there are some characters demonstrating problematic behaviour in this show and i'm not defending that part, okay?)

What’s it been like watching people respond to your sketches online - does that change how you write for the stage?

The thing about putting something online is you can’t hear the people that don't laugh. You CAN see the laughing emojis they put in the comments. But no one puts the ‘sitting with a straight face not laughing’ emoji. That would be quite a useful data collection tool actually. It would be soul destroying, but useful. Generally, if the video gets a million views it might make the live show. I haven’t had a million views before and the show is currently empty but hopefully I come up with some great online content over the next 3 weeks and can produce a great show with a great audience full of lovely online comedy consumers! 

Rory Marshall will be performing Pathetic Little Characters at Pleasance Courtyard (Attic) from 30th July - 24th August. Ticket link HERE.