Interview with Phil Boothman

Comedy Blogedy: How long have you been gigging in stand-up?

Phil Boothman: Just over three years, I started back in August 2008 at a variety night at The Oakford Social Club in Reading, where I used to live. Because there weren’t too many places to gig around Reading I was the only comedian on the bill, so the audience didn’t really know what to make of me. I got nervous, hit myself in the face with the mic as I got it out of the stand and stumbled drunkenly through a 10-minute set, but it never put me off!

Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your comedy?

Phil Boothman: Mostly I tell self-deprecating anecdotes, long stories which usually tend to be about times that I’ve made a dick of myself. But I try to pack in as many jokes and imaginative descriptions to the stories as I possibly can, to try and get a decent volume of laughs to my set. That should explain the rambling answers to all of these questions, I guess!

Comedy Blogedy: Which comedians influence your comedy?

Phil Boothman: It often comes as a surprise to people who find out I’m a comedian without having seen my act that I’m not really influenced by Bill Hicks – I respect him as a comic and a legend, but his work has never really influenced anything I’ve done as a comic. Really, the most influential show I’ve ever seen is Greg Davies’ ‘Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog’ – it was an amazingly crafted show that simultaneously represented everything I’ve ever wanted to do as a comic and made me ashamed of everything I’d done up until that point. But it really gave me the ambition to try harder and do the best I can onstage from then on.

Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?

Phil Boothman: I always enjoyed making people laugh, but it wasn’t really until I was about 15 that I got the motivation to do anything proactive. Even then, it was still around three years until I really got the courage up to just get up onstage and give it a go. I was quite a lazy teenager, but since then I’ve made an effort to keep up with stand-up, if only because I enjoy it so much!

Comedy Blogedy: How do you go about writing your material?

Phil Boothman: I don’t tend to actually write a lot of stuff down, it usually consists of a single idea which I like to work through onstage or in my head until it becomes a full routine. It probably won’t come as a surprise that I also talk to myself a lot, which is where a lot of my material comes from.

Comedy Blogedy: Do you gig as a stand-up full time or is it more of a part-time hobby? If so, do you find that your main job influences your material?

Phil Boothman: I’m definitely a part-timer, but with the ambition and hopefully the talent to take it full time. I’m a full time student, so my evenings are usually free to gig, and I try to get onstage three times a week if I can. The thing I’m not so good at is self-promotion, which could potentially be a bit of a barrier to moving into full time, but I’m sure I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the amateur comedy circuit?

Phil Boothman: The most enjoyable part is when a gig goes well, whether it’s due to a particular audience or a particularly good performance on my part, but the feeling of making a whole room laugh is really something. The community is also really great, and you meet a lot of people you wouldn’t meet in any other situation. I guess the most frustrating part is not being able to get gigs, or when you travel or prepare a lot for a gig that you get a lukewarm audience reaction at, then have to travel all the way home under a bit of a cloud. But that’s a small price to pay in the end!

Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite type of audience to perform to?

Phil Boothman: I don’t really like judging an audience before I get to a gig, but generally an audience that’s up for a laugh is the ideal audience. I’ve had people sit right at the front of gigs and refuse to laugh through any act, those ones aren’t ideal. But there’s almost always a few people in any audience who like me, so most audiences are fine with me!

Comedy Blogedy: Have you been heckled a lot since you’ve started gigging? Do you enjoy being heckled? What’s the best heckle you’ve had?

Phil Boothman: I’ve not been heckled too much, my set is a little on the breathless side so there’s rarely a time for people to interrupt with any kind of clarity. I don’t tend to be too confrontational either, so when I do get heckled they’re usually pretty friendly as well. I once commented on someone’s unusual laugh after a joke, to which I thought they said “Because I’m drunk”. So I went in and tried to have some fun with the drunk lady, and it turned out she actually said “Because it was funny”. So that pretty much took the wind from under my sails.

Comedy Blogedy: What advice would you give to new acts thinking about starting out in comedy?

Phil Boothman: I don’t really feel entitled to give new acts advice as I still am one, but really if you haven’t started at all, just go for it and get some stage time. If you’ve already started but you’re still fairly new, just gig as much as possible and spend as much of the rest of your time as possible writing and working out new routines.

Phil also participates in a fortnightly comedy/film podcast called SQUODCAST for  Squarise, which is available on iTunes.  

www.philboothman.com

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