In Conversation With John Tothill

Critically-acclaimed new comedian John Tothill, ahead of his debut UK Tour in April 2025, coming to - GRUB, Manchester on April 4 and Leeds’ Hyde Park Book Club on April 6.


How are you feeling about bringing your show to Manchester?

I can’t wait to take my show to Manchester, because it is the home of Vimto, and I am obsessed with Vimto. In fact, to celebrate, I’m going to visit the Vimto statue on Granby Row before the show, and onstage I’m going to drink my favourite cocktail: Vimto, Bacardi and lime. We’ll see how much of the show I remember, but I can guarantee it’s going to be a seriously nice evening.

And what about Leeds?

I have only been to Leeds once before. It was to do the Otley Run for a friend’s birthday. I got to pub number fourteen and, blackout drunk, sent a company-wide work email saying ‘Dear all’ as the subject line and nothing in the message body. I had been working in that job for two weeks. Could have been worse. In fact, I’m hoping to do exactly the same thing after my show on 6th April.

What is your show, Thank God This Lasts Forever, about?

It's about a malaria trial I went on in 2023, and what I feel like it taught me - and most of all, I think it's about prioritising your pleasure in life over anything like a career or any kind of precious notion of time-keeping or that sort of thing.

How did the medical trial come about?

When I was preparing to go to the notoriously expensive Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, I desperately needed to find a way to fund the show. So I signed up for flu camp - which is a paid medical trial for out-of-work actors, comedians and bored students - all of which, at various points in my life, I have been. What could possibly go wrong? The answer to that is, you can turn out to be too healthy, and end up instead taking a malaria infection that causes you to hallucinate…

How much did the trial pay?

I got paid about £2,500 all in and if I'm honest, I would have done it for less. I probably shouldn't have had to have got a life-threatening disease in order to do a comedy show, but I don't regret it. It was either that or work a regular nine-to-five in the hope of saving money.
Given my impulsive approach to finances, it was really a choice between a death sentence and a life sentence. I chose the death sentence and thankfully got away with it. And I’d do it again! And because it’s compensation and not pay, I don’t have to declare it as tax, which is fantastic.

How dangerous was the Malaria trial?

The malaria trial was much better paid - not because it’s dangerous, but because people are scared of malaria. But the scientists running the trial were very nice and really upfront about the risks. “Not all types of malaria kill,” the doctor told me. “But the one we’re giving you does.” I had to sign a lot of forms basically saying I would not leave the study, because if I did, without medication, I would die. I was also told if I left, to absolutely not to go to Kent - as the marshlands are the only place in the UK with malarial mosquitoes. Which got me out of going to a wedding I didn’t want to attend. Absolutely ideal.

How long were you on the Malaria trial?

Well, there were just two of us who got the prize to be injected with malaria. And after a few days, the other person got to the necessary level of malaria bugs in their blood, was given the antibodies and was able to go home. But after about 10 days, my malaria count was still at zero. So the doctors called me in and asked if I was sabotaging the experiment to make more money (because the trials are paid by the day). They asked if I was drinking gin and tonic to keep the malaria at bay - but that I’d have to be drinking about three pints of it a day, and I could promise them I wasn’t doing that. The doctors told me they thought the malaria was hiding in my liver. Frankly, after the Hereculian trials I had put my liver through as a student, I was actually quite touched to find out the parasites still wanted to hang out there, because I for one wouldn’t have chosen to. And then, about two weeks after being injected, I suddenly started to feel really sick.

How sick did the malaria trial make you?

It was by a long way the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. I was really, horribly sick and delirious, with very sharp pains all across my body, and my temperature soaring and soaring. At one point I was having strange feverish nightmares where the devil was dragging me into hell as part of this Faustian pact I’d made to fund my comedy show. The doctors then tested me again, and my count had gone from zero to well into the thousands. And they were pretty excited about that. The trial was supposed to be examining the body at an early stage of malaria, but now my body was at mid-stage malaria. I was given some pills, which didn’t work for days - which really started to worry the doctors, until they observed me taking the pills with Diet Coke (which was destroying the pills’ medical properties). The doctors were pretty irritated about that. We compromised on letting me drink them with chocolate milk. To this day, I swear that I owe my life to Nesquik.

How long did it take you to recover after that?

After that moment, my recovery was, frankly, humiliatingly quick. Malaria medication works unbelievably fast. After four days of fever, I was back on the streets again, ready for a big night out. And what a night out I had, toasting my recovery and, frankly, my immortality. The next day I woke up with a terrible hangover. My head was pounding, and I was surrounded by empty McDonald’s wrappers and a thousand Lost Mary vapes. “Oh god”, I thought, “is this the malaria coming back?” It was not. Thank god.

And so would you recommend a clinical trial?

Oh absolutely. There were times when it was scary, but the doctors were absolutely amazing. The physical pain was offset by the security and support of them telling me ‘We know exactly what’s wrong with you, we put it there.’ The other thing I’d recommend is that you buy a ticket to my show on April 6, because hilariously it’s still in the red financially. I would actually recommend clinical trials to anybody, but I’d rather fund my show another way next time.

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