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“My position on Bristol is clear: I love multiculturalism and hate air balloons.”
A Bristol native and host of The Comedian’s Comedian podcast (no relation), Goldsmith notes how seeing England for above takes the wind out of the sails for any anti-immigration arguments, simply by revealing how much empty green space still remains open for newcomers. Of course, hot air balloons use propane, which isn’t so great for green living. And it’s just one more thing for his wife to shake her head at him over, after having perhaps the irony lost on her that it’s somehow OK for her to lie about their children on Instagram, and yet somehow not OK for him to joke about the kids now that they’re old enough to ask him not to.
“I’m particularly fun at children’s parties. We’re running out of helium, actually!”
Such is life for Goldsmith since he has settled into a niche as a climate comedian. Or, if you cannot laugh at his jokes about how our planet’s atmosphere is decaying life for humans and animals alike, he is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
That ’twas a Scotsman who actually first proposed using canaries to warn of carbon monoxide in coal mines only adds more ammunition to Goldsmith’s premise and practice.
Of course, his wife keeps asking him not to talk at parties. Even Goldsmith’s own therapist doesn’t want to hear it. “I found a niche and everyone hates it,” he jokes, perhaps ruefully. Even if his comedy niche does serve him well as the comedic correspondent or ambassador at even more seriously depressing climate conferences around the world; which, of course, he probably should beam into virtually instead of jetting to. But that’s just one more laugh to be had.
Truth is, Goldsmith doesn’t want to scare any audiences away. Nor does he want to preach too much. He simply hopes his jokes might move you an inch closer to individual activism. In fact, he’d love to be the coal mine canary. Because the bigger fear is that he’s no canary, but instead the bandleader on the Titanic.
What we’d both do for some more icebergs right now.
Stuart Goldsmith: Canary plays Cabaret Voltaire during the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe.
