{"id":4566,"date":"2011-11-11T08:53:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T08:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2011-11-11T08:53:36","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T08:53:36","slug":"cardiff-character-matt-rees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2011\/11\/11\/cardiff-character-matt-rees\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff character: Matt Rees"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Comic Matt Rees doesn\u2019t have a day job as such<\/h2>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<div id=\"attachment_4579\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 480px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4579\" title=\"large pic matt\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4579\" title=\"large pic matt\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/large-pic-matt-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stand Up comic Matt gets ready to make the crowds laugh<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cI suppose I do write in my time off. It\u2019s not what I spend most of my time doing, but you can\u2019t just put \u2018x-box\u2019 can you?\u201d Matt\u2019s days may be on the sedate side, but his evenings certainly aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Dressed in a black t-shirt and sipping a pint of cider, most people wouldn\u2019t guess that this seemingly unimposing figure is a rising star on the Welsh comedy circuit. The winner of this year\u2019s Welsh Unsigned Stand-Up Award (WUSA), Matt has turned his natural dry wit and self-effacing humour towards the comedy stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning the award has made me try harder and gig more,\u201d he says. \u201cI was trying to do one gig a week before, and not always doing that. I\u2019m doing six out of seven nights this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Getting into comedy<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, the 21 year old from the Welsh town of Maesteg, near Bridgend, has only been on the comedy scene for eighteen months, \u201cI only started gigging properly in March 2011. Before that I\u2019d only done about four gigs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A former psychology student, Matt decided to pick up the microphone after witnessing a student comedy night. \u201cI saw someone die on his arse in my student union. It was just seeing somebody who was very trial and error and a couple of months later, I had a go myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matt is a lifelong comedy fan who grew up watching DVD\u2019s of his comedy idol, Jack Dee. Like Dee, Matt spends a lot of time and effort on his routine, planning his running order in advance. \u201cI\u2019ve got it all set before I go on but if it\u2019s going badly or it\u2019s a bit weird, I do edit in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the list of things that could go badly during a comedy set, the heckler would probably feature in the top ten. Matt has found a unique (if unadvisable) way of dealing with their taunts. \u201cI kicked a heckler a couple of weeks ago,\u201d he laughs. \u201cHe was really drunk and it was obvious I had to give him some attention just so he would shut up, and he did for a bit, but then he sort of recharged. He wasn\u2019t even trying to offend me, he was just shouting out unintelligible sentences. So those were his first two chances and on the third, I went over and kicked him (jokingly) in the knee. He seemed to understand then.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u201cComedy is in right now\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Cardiff comedy scene has boomed in recent years and Matt is right at its heart \u201cIt\u2019s been like a mini-golden age around the Cardiff area,\u201d says Matt. \u201cI think that right now, Cardiff as a mini-scene (in terms of concentration of good acts) is the best in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matt thinks the boom in Cardiff mirrors the popularity of the UK comedy scene as a whole. \u201cComedy is in right now. I think we\u2019re the first generation who can realistically do comedy for a living. There are people now who do make a crust out of it, where as a few years ago, that wasn\u2019t happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although anyone would expect him to be riding high on his success, Matt\u2019s natural modesty prevents him from speculating too much on his future career.\u00a0 He was recently approached about gigging professionally but turned down the offer as he felt he wasn\u2019t ready to tackle full professional sets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still not sure I can do it yet,\u201d he confides. \u201cYou\u2019ve met me at a weird point because I\u2019m not having fun a lot of the time on stage. It probably could be fixed if I was trying out more new material. I get nerves a lot of the time, so I tend to do my tried and tested. You can\u2019t do the same stuff all the time, or you will bore yourself.\u201d \u201cWith new material, about a minute before you go on stage you do think \u2018What was I thinking?\u2019 \u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Even though he is currently unsure what his comedy future holds, success is already knocking at his door. As part of his WUSA prize, he is due to play three weekend slots at the Cardiff Glee Club between the 17 and 19 of November, sharing the bill with four professional comedians: no doubt boosting his reputation even further.<\/p>\n<p>Matt\u2019s focus turns to the gig he\u2019s about to perform at a local comedy night and how he can best entertain the crowd. \u00a0His latest plan involves playing games with the audience and rewarding them with Maltesers. \u201cWe\u2019ll see, depending on how many pints I have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In case you were wondering, Matt did manage to work his new idea into his set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comic Matt Rees doesn\u2019t have a day job as such \u00a0\u201cI suppose I do write in my time off. It\u2019s not what I spend most of my time doing, but you can\u2019t just put \u2018x-box\u2019 can you?\u201d Matt\u2019s days may be on the sedate side, but his evenings certainly aren\u2019t. Dressed in a black t-shirt and sipping a pint of cider, most people wouldn\u2019t guess that this seemingly unimposing figure is a rising star on the Welsh comedy circuit. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":4591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[345,1046,426,348,1047],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-comedy","tag-matt-rees","tag-stand-up","tag-welsh-unsigned-stand-up-award","tag-wusa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardiff character: Matt Rees - alt.cardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2011\/11\/11\/cardiff-character-matt-rees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff character: Matt Rees - alt.cardiff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comic Matt Rees doesn\u2019t have a day job as such \u00a0\u201cI suppose I do write in my time off. 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