Interview with Best Boy

BB: We’ve been gigging since September last year, but writing together for about 3 years; for another sketch group we were part of and collaborating on sketches and one liners for BBC radio. 

CB: How would you describe your comedy?

BB: Plain good fun. We like a bit of variety, so sometimes we’ll go quite dark and others we’ll just be making lots of puns. It’s all quite stripped back, no flamboyant showmanship – this was mainly a conscious decision to make it easier to do short gigs and shows that don’t require much tech or carting around a big bag of props and costumes. Instead we like to think we rely a lot on scripting and language more than the visuals.

CB: Which comedians influence your comedy?

BB: Many and more. Lots of other contemporary sketch acts like Max and Ivan and The Pin, to classics like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and the League of Gentlemen. 

CB: Did you always want to go into comedy?

BB: Not necessarily comedy, but we met at our university’s drama society so there’s always been a craving for the attention of others. Comedy seemed the next natural step when we realised we were so narcissistic that we wanted to be performing our own material.

CB: How do you go about writing your material?

BB: We come up with a premise then we build the rest around that; usually this will be the punchline so we’ll start there and work backwards. Once we get that initial structure in place we write the dialogue. This usually consists of Dan sitting at a computer and typing, while Charlie paces around the room. Then we throw lines at each other and constantly read the script back, changing individual words or phrases. Where the initial ideas for our sketches come from is anybody’s guess though – they’re just out there in the ether and every now and then we’ll happen upon one, which is why it’s essential to note down every idea, no matter how bizarre or terrible it seems when we read them back a few days later.

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

BB: Right now it’s a part-time thing, mainly because we’re both fans of being able to afford to eat. Charlie works in medical research and Dan works in TV news. As of yet we seem to have kept these aspects of our life totally separate from the comedy, but we’ve definitely got ambitions to try our hand at writing longer form material and as everyone says you should write about what you know, our jobs could provide plenty of material. 

CB: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the comedy circuit?

BB: The most enjoyable is being on a great bill and getting a big reaction; a giant laugh from a room full of people is great. Meeting other brilliant acts in the process is a bonus. The most frustrating thing is our perception that there are fewer opportunities for sketch acts – so we do a lot of stand up nights and freak out the audience when they see there’s two of us on stage. 

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

BB: The ones we get on board quickly – we do a lot of audience interaction and participation sketches and this is great fun when the audience has warmed to us. We also appreciate performing to people who have never seen us before and have no idea what to expect, that way you get a really honest reaction – and hopefully some kind of feedback after the show. 

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

BB: We haven’t really had much in the way of heckles, it’s probably because there’s something more theatrical with a sketch act so people don’t feel as inclined to interrupt. But we do enjoy them when we get them. Some highlights include a man setting off a party popper after a punchline, the friend of a woman we’d got up on stage to play a knight shouting ‘kick him in the balls, Sharon’ and another man who just refused to come up on stage to play the part of Dan’s girlfriend in a film noir parody. He just sat there and said ‘no’. Eventually we charmed him enough that he got up, but it was touch and go for a while.