Internal. Enter the passphrase.
Everything in one place ahead of the call — who he is, where he stands online, the two show formats, real figures, and the flags. This is the working surface; the client-facing admin portal comes once the corporate is locked down.
You're sounding him out, not pitching. The aim is a yes to a conversation, not a yes to a tour.
"An Evening With Ricky Grover — and Bulla closes it." That's a far easier yes than "let's do a national tour". It sounds like an event, not a commitment to forty nights in a van.
Low commitment, visible in weeks, and it proves we deliver before he risks anything. It's also the thing that makes the tour work at all — so it's honest, not a sweetener.
Say we'll size the venues off what the content does. That's more credible than promising 500, and it protects you if the build is slower than we'd like.
He'll take a build-it-properly plan from you that he would not take from an agency deck. Lean on that. ⭐ And he currently has acting representation only — nobody is working his live career. That's the open door, and it's worth naming plainly rather than dancing round.
| Strand | What's there | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bulla on TV | Regular on Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show — same show that launched Ali G and Gervais. Interviewed Michael Parkinson on BBC. | Third-party proof the character crossed over. Sells itself in one line. |
| "Raging Bulla" in Loaded, 2003 → final issue 2015. Also Front. | Twelve years monthly, in front of exactly the people who now buy theatre tickets. | |
| Film | Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (2011) — directed, co-wrote with wife Maria, produced, starred as Bulla. | He's carried the character at feature length. He's a maker, not just a performer. |
| Mainstream | EastEnders (Andrew Cotton) · Porridge revival as inmate "Scudds" · 'Orrible (BBC2, Johnny Vaughan) | Reach beyond comedy — and Porridge is the key to the staging, see §03. |
| Still working | SuperBob (2015) · Nemesis (2021) · Vengeance Is Mine (2021) · Fyre Rises (2024) | Not a comeback from nowhere. |
| The life | East End. Ex-boxer, ex-hairdresser. Illiterate until his early thirties, now award-winning writer (Best Actor, Brest, 2000). Mental-health patron. | This is the spine of the show and the press angle in one. |
⚠️ Taken off a ticketing listing — verify the original before print.
| Channel | Size | State |
|---|---|---|
Facebook @rickygroveruk | 6,805 | The main account. Modest. |
X @RickyGroverUK | active | Bio: "Actor, comedian, dyslexic-writer, born and bred East London, now living North Wales." |
| — | No significant official presence found. | |
| TikTok | — | Audience interest exists (a Bulla discovery page) but no official account behind it. |
| Live listings | 0 | Ents24 shows only "the most recent dates we had listed". Nothing upcoming anywhere. |
Several agency pages still advertise a one-man show going to Edinburgh in August 2002, and one says the Bulla film "is currently in production" — it came out in 2011. Anyone googling him lands on a twenty-year-old page.
The audience exists and simply isn't being spoken to. Someone who was 25 when Bulla was on the 11 O'Clock Show is around 50 now; a Loaded reader is 45–60. That is the best-converting demographic in regional theatre — money, books ahead, turns up.
⭐ Zero competition for the lane. Nobody else can post Bulla. And the archive — 11 O'Clock Show clips, Parkinson, the film — is all postable from day one while new material spins up.
Clean, and how a comedy audience expects a night to be built. Bulla second half is the payoff.
Risk: asks Ricky for a full new stand-up hour plus a character hour. Big ask for someone who hasn't toured in this shape.
Ricky played inmate "Scudds" in the revived Porridge. So framing the Bulla segment around a prison officer isn't random staging — it's a callback the audience half-recognises, and nobody else can use it. Chain, proper lighting, a real backdrop: cheap, high-impact, and it turns a character spot into a produced set-piece rather than a bloke doing a voice.
⚠️ On Glen playing the officer — see §06 before this is floated.
Illustrative, not quoted. Built on standard regional-theatre terms (70/30 split in the act's favour after VAT). Every number here moves once we have real venue terms — treat as the shape of the deal, not the deal.
| Line | Per night | 8 dates |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 250 | 2,000 |
| Sold at 75% | 188 | 1,500 |
| Ticket £25 · gross | £4,700 | £37,600 |
| Less VAT @20% | −£783 | −£6,267 |
| Net box office | £3,917 | £31,333 |
| Venue 30% | −£1,175 | −£9,400 |
| Travel · accom · production | −£650 | −£5,200 |
| Marketing | −£300 | −£2,400 |
| To the production | £1,792 | £14,333 |
| Line | Per night | 12 dates |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 400 | 4,800 |
| Sold at 75% | 300 | 3,600 |
| Ticket £27 · gross | £8,100 | £97,200 |
| Less VAT @20% | −£1,350 | −£16,200 |
| Net box office | £6,750 | £81,000 |
| Venue 30% | −£2,025 | −£24,300 |
| Travel · accom · production | −£900 | −£10,800 |
| Marketing | −£500 | −£6,000 |
| To the production | £3,325 | £39,900 |
£97k gross is over the £90,000 VAT registration threshold. Whoever is promoter of record has to be registered, and it changes the arithmetic on every line above. Route to Clara and Albert before any figure is shown to Ricky — this is the same entity question the Sean tour hit with The Stand.
Everything above assumes 75% full. At 50% the phase-1 run returns roughly £6.5k, not £14k, and phase 2 about £18k, not £40k. Fill rate, not capacity, is the whole business. That is the argument for smaller rooms first, in one sentence.
The split between Ricky and the production is yours and Reed's to set, not mine — I triage and route, I don't price. What I'd flag is only this: if we're producing, carrying the risk and doing the marketing, that's a genuinely different deal from a promoter taking a percentage of an act who arrives with an audience. Get Reed to model two or three shapes before the figures go over.
Glen's onboarding file carries a reputational note: ex-National Liberal Party. The standing position, recorded in June, is that Melissa is across it before Glen goes press-facing at scale. Putting him on a touring stage — named on posters, doing regional press — is precisely that trigger.
It isn't a no. It's a "get Melissa's read first, not after the poster's printed."
⚠️ Second, separate point: Glen is a principal, not roster — 50/50 with you on Limelight. Asking him to play a supporting character in another act's show is a different kind of ask from booking a performer, and he already sits across two divisions (Films with Cassie, comedy with me). A third role should be deliberate.
GDA Management (acting) and The Joneses (voice). Live appears uncovered. Establish that explicitly and early so nobody's toes get trodden on — but you're right that it's the opening.
Not London any more. Changes routing, travel cost, and how much of an East London run is really a "hometown" run. Chester / Llandudno / Wrexham become natural.
Patron of the AAA Zone; it's part of his public identity and part of the story. Handle genuinely — and it's a real press angle, not a footnote.
Affectionate, and he owns it entirely. But the marketing needs a lighter touch in 2026 than 2003. Don't let a poster write a cheque the show has to cash.
Ricky sits with Cassie in V360 Films. A live tour is mine. Same ambiguity as Glen — settle who owns the relationship before two of us are talking to him.
Our network is 100–300 comedy rooms. 350–500 regional theatres are a different tier with different bookers. That's the real argument for an agent — for access, not for selling.
| What | Detail | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Acting rep | GDA Management | Confirm scope — live believed uncovered |
| Voice rep | The Joneses | — |
facebook.com/rickygroveruk | 6,805 likes · main channel | |
| X | @RickyGroverUK | Active |
| Corporate | JR handling directly | Client admin portal follows once locked |
| Collaborator | Maria Grover | Co-wrote Big Fat Gypsy Gangster · wife |
Socials — the engine that makes the tour possible
Not the support act to the tour. The prerequisite. 6–9 months before any date is announced.
Cadence
2–3 Bulla pieces a week, 30–60 seconds, vertical. Consistency beats production value — the character is the production value.
Start from archive
11 O'Clock Show clips, the Parkinson interview, Big Fat Gypsy Gangster. Free, instantly postable, and does the "remember him?" job while new material spins up.
Then Bulla-isms
Topical, short, one idea each. He's a social commentator by design — it's why the Loaded column ran twelve years. The format was built for this.
FirstFix the shop window
No real Instagram or TikTok, and agency pages still say Edinburgh 2002. A morning's work, and it has to happen before any push.
BeebleTest one before committing
Worth trying for backgrounds — but Bulla's power is that he feels real. Over-produced backdrops could work against the character. One test, then decide.
RoutingThree briefs off one plan
Nova owns owned-channel strategy · Atlas owns production · Melissa owns the press angle. Brief all three off a single plan, not three conversations.