Nick Mohammed

“Show Pony is quite a good expression to describe him,” Nick Mohammed concedes. “He's such a frustrated performer. Jack of all trades, master of none... But he likes to have his voice heard, even if he's not the loudest person in the room, or even if he's not the best at what he's talking about.” The star of stage and screen is venturing out on his second proper tour, giving audiences a fresh chance to love the mercurial and contradictory brilliance of Mr Swallow.  

It’s a sizeable tour, taking in dates at Guildford’s G Live on Thurs 13 May, London’s Richmond Theatre on Sat 17 May, Theatre Royal Brighton on Sat 31 May, Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre Sun 1 June and London’s Hackney Empire on Weds 4 – Thurs 5 June, which has prompted Mohammed to further evolve the loveable lunatic we’ve seen roller-skating around stages and delighting TV panel shows with dodgy opera. It's typically frenetic Mr Swallow fair, packed with lots of distractions and covering lots of topics.

“I'm not doing a run of sketches for this one, because I feel like I did that for The Very Best And Worst Of Mr Swallow. That first tour was an amalgamation. There was plenty of new stuff in there, but a lot I’d done before. This is completely starting from scratch, and it's been really fun writing it. I’m exploring the origin of the character. I talk about the teacher who the character is based on, but I sort of am talking about that whilst in character as Mr Swallow. It’s sort of going through him as an altered history really.”

Audiences will be able to discover what Mr Swallow has been up to since breaking into the big-time, as well as hearing what he remains angry about. The show contains magic tricks, a bit of music and recollections of his performance at the BAFTAs, which is broken down.

There's a genuine unpredictability to the character. But there’s a sense that everything has place and purpose. Even his habit of doing previous shows while on roller-skates works as an analogy of sorts. “He just doesn’t know where he's going to go. Is he in control of it? What's his thought process? That's what I like about the character. One minute he could be talking about Phantom Of The Opera, the next he’ll be talking about Toby Carvery. You can just make those leaps.”  

Likening it to plate spinning at times, Mohammed clearly has an abundance of ideas bubbling around in his head. Perhaps he’s just trying to get them all out, even if they joyously fire in different directions. He’s keen to point out there should be some vague framework, rather than simply abstract ideas bombarding the audience.  

“It can become a little bit nebulous otherwise. Even if it's sometimes quite hidden by the character’s persona, there is structure in place. Often, with a Mr Swallow show, it does end with a big payoff. That’s usually some kind of stunt, like memorising playing cards or climbing a big tower, but all looking like it's going to fall apart at the last minute!”

He describes the performance as being quite old school in some ways. It harks back to the golden age of vaudeville and musical hall theatre. Surprisingly, for someone who delves into so many different entertainment forms, Mohammed isn’t from a stage school background. “I wish I was,” he concedes. “I got into comedy relatively late. The first TV job I did, I was about 27. I always loved magic as a kid, and knew I liked performing and comedy, but never thought it was viable.” While attending Cambridge, he became involved in the Footlights Society.  

The experience did make him wonder if performing might be his calling. “It's taken a while to get to a place where I feel comfortable describing myself as a ‘working actor, comedian, or writer.’ At least having a consistent amount of work and so on…”

As he mentioned earlier, Mr Swallow is based upon a high school teacher. Everything from the attitude to the voice. Mohammed has been doing impressions of this individual since the age of 15. Although it’s development into a rounded character, the one he’s been touring around comedy festivals like Edinburgh, has been a bit more recent.

“I feel like I can think in that character as quick as I can me in real life. It has become an altar to that extent. Sometimes, I will have to stop myself from reacting in the character, because it would overstep the mark. I guess that’s a result of having done it for so long.”

The ease with how he can switch in out of the Mr Swallow character speaks to his wider ability as an actor. Starring in and writing various British sitcoms, he’s since made a move into cinema. Mohammed was seen last year beside Jon Hamm and Tina Fey in John Slattery’s warmly received Maggie Moore(s). He’s also the chap driving the Mars Rover in The Martian… There are two more big screen appearances coming this summer, in the form of Deep Cover (which also starts Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom) and Control (featuring James McAvoy and Julianne Moore). “Both of those things were just really interesting character studies. I’d say I'm very much still learning, but I'm definitely hungry to do more.”

Mohammed will be most familiar, at least to box-set fiends, as one of the stars of Apple TV+’s huge hit, Ted Lasso. Created by and starring Jason Sudeikis, it’s ostensibly a comedy about an American Football coach parachuted in to turn round the fortunes of a failing London team. But, below the surface, it explored themes around untraditional families and life-changing loss. His character, Nate Shelley, a former kit man turned assistant coach, arguably has the greatest journey of any across the show’s three seasons. “I know that Jason talks of it as less of a redemption story, but more of a lack of forgiveness story. The writing in season three very deliberately tested people's capacity for forgiveness. Obviously, Nate does betray those who got him to where he was.” There’s some discussion amongst the show’s fanbase (which is curiously larger stateside than in the UK) about whether Nate should have been accepted for his actions. But, through the questions it prompts and attitudes it explores, this isn’t a regular show.

Even Mohammed is in two minds as to whether his character crossed one too many lines. “I don't really know. But that was a gift of a part. I was so grateful.” Throughout Ted Lasso are fractured relationships and different approaches to finding peace with them. “Nate doesn't get on with his dad at all. There's bad blood there. Ted talks about his dad and his own son, you know? But there are these unifying themes of hope and optimism in the face of adversity.”

While the new tour is very much on his mind, there’s also a few writing projects, and potentially something about to start filming There’s also a TV show finishing post-production, which has yet to be announced officially, but he promises it’ll be out this year. “I'm also going through all sorts of auditions at the moment. It's exciting… and really interesting to see what's out there. One of the nice things about being a writer and an actor is you can have spells where you just decide to sit and write for a bit. Then, if a casting comes about that you like the look of, you can go for that. It nice to have that kind of variety. I feel very lucky in that regard.”

Nick Mohammed takes Mr Swallow’s Show Pony to Guildford’s G Live on Thurs 13 May, London’s Richmond Theatre on Sat 17 May, Theatre Royal Brighton on Sat 31 May, Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre Sun 1 June and London’s Hackney Empire on Weds 4 – Thurs 5 June 2025, as part of a nationwide tour.

www.nickmohammedlive.com  

‍All images by Matt Crockett

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