Interview with Harriet Braine
Comedy Blogedy: How long have you been gigging in stand-up?
The Custard Chucker: I’ve been playing Musical Comedy Songs around the country for the past twelve years but only started writing ‘Jokes’ and incorporating Stand Up comedy in my act for the last two years. (That answer makes me sound like one of two things… A veteran in comedy or an Old Age Pensioner lol)
Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your comedy?
The Custard Chucker: I would say Edgy/Smutty Musical Stand Up Comedy but there is a lot more to it then that. To give you more of an idea, I’ll say that if Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson, Tim Minchin, Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr, Tenacious D, Derek and Clive and Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown met up secretly in a hotel room, had a orgy of hot steamy passionate sex and one of them had a baby mixed with all of their comedy DNA…. Then that would be me.
Comedy Blogedy: Which comedians influence your comedy?
The Custard Chucker: I am influenced by any comedian who are not afraid to use material that makes an audience think – not necessarily to shock an audience but to use shocking material in a clever and unique way. Comedians like Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, who are both amazing gag writers and can structure a joke cleverly, to the point, with the perfect punch line. Then there’s comics like Louis CK and Chris Rock who tell stories that take you on a journey of some sort of depravity with jokes from beginning to end until the main punch line hits you like a hammer to the face.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?
The Custard Chucker: I always knew I wanted to entertain people from an early age from about five or six years old. My parents would leave me with my Nan and I’d be upstairs in her room going through her wardrobe. I’d come down the stairs wearing a skirt, a blouse, tights, high heels and a feather bower, my genitals would be tucked in-between my legs and I’d do Lily Savage impressions to make my Nan laugh. I now know that there was no need to tuck anything anywhere. Then when I was a little older around ten or eleven years of age, I would go through all my Dad’s old Records and tapes of old school comedians like Derek and Clive, Judge Dread and Jimmy Jones to learn their entire act. I remember learning the whole of the Jimmy Jones ‘Would I Lie To You’ tape word for word and performing it as an act of love to a girl I liked at school… She never spoke to me again.
Comedy Blogedy: How do you go about writing your material?
The Custard Chucker: My songs are about Taboo situation’s in everyday life, whether it be Sex, Drugs, Adultery, Death, Disability, Pornography, Love, Hate and even Religion. I just use Topics that people are afraid to talk about or don’t want to talk about, take those situations and push them to the max.
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?
The Custard Chucker: I work full time but in all honesty, I hate my ‘Proper Job’ and consider the stage as my second home. In a profession, some people don’t want to talk about or even take their work home with them as it is sometimes stressful. The same rule applies with my material, the last thing I want to talk about on stage is my work day. As for my stand u
p being a hobby, I would consider it as more of a way of life for me, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do and give it 100% on stage whether I’m performing to one person or two hundred people…
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the amateur comedy circuit?
The Custard Chucker: The most enjoyable thing about the amateur comedy circuit is meeting and sharing the stage with extremely talented people, most of my friends are all comedians now days. You also get to have a great comics around you where you can discuss material, give advice and talk about what works and what doesn’t work. I also love the feeling when you turn up to an Open Mic show where no one knows who you are, do your show, storm it and other comedians talk to you about how good your material was or a particular joke. I know that may sound self-absorbed BUT what I say is, if you can make a good comedian laugh then you know you’re going in the right direction because they know what you have to go through to get that laugh. As for the frustrating sides to the amateur comedy circuit there are to many to mention but I will say is it is frustrating when you see brilliant comics on the circuit that have been on it for eight or nine years but haven’t been snapped up. You really do have to be at the right gig at the right time or get down on your knees and take one for the team. Oh… not to mention that traveling to shows is bloody expensive! That’s annoying.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite type of audience to perform to?
The Custard Chucker: An audience that are willing to listen and an audience who get that what I am either talking or singing about… are only jokes. I hate an ignorant audience, if you don’t like what you hear, then why on earth would you go to a comedy show? Comedy is about freedom of speech! I also love a bit of a rowdy audience. I performed at Donington/Download Festival Comedy Tent in 2010 and 2011 and it was just full of a thousand drunk rowdy metal heads, the banter was brilliant because my act fitted the mood of the festival. Oh and where there is alcohol, there is always a good show.
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?
The Custard Chucker: I really don’t mind hecklers, if it’s a good heckle I will deal with it cleverly but if it’s a rubbish heckle I will go straight for the jugular! I did a show once where I played a song called ‘Blue Bus Ride.’ The song was actually about two disabled people who go out on an outing, spend the whole day together and fall in love. A drunk lady stood up after the song and shouted “Oi! I can’t believe you sang about that! My son’s disabled! You don’t deserve that applause! You ignorant! W***ker!” I then said calmly, “Well I have two things to say to you lady.. ONE… Disabled people CAN fall in love you know and TWO… If your son is disabled, then you should be at home looking after him rather than spending his disability benefits on your alcohol problem! You’re the ignorant one, now get bent!” She left swiftly after that.
Comedy Blogedy: What advice would you give to new acts thinking about starting out in comedy?
The Custard Chucker: Take that chance and do it. The feeling you get when that first laugh comes I just can’t describe. Stand Up Comedy is like a drug once you do one gig, you want more. It’s not easy but if you get past that first step, then you’ll be OK. Get some material together, keep true to yourself and don’t change your material for anybody.
The Custard Chucker is a Stand Up Comedian and comedic song writer from South London. He has been a comedic songwriter for the past twelve years but has been performing stand up since early 2010. With his dark, blue and mostly filthy cut throat style, The Custard Chucker has been wowing the comedy circuit and is now ready to take on anyone in his path.
With six appearances on London’s Absolute Radio 105.8 ‘Tim Shaw’s Absolution’ and two very successful appearances at ‘Download Festival Comedy Tent’ (2010/2011)
He is also the voice on the phone skits on ‘Tim Shaw’s LOL Show’ on Rock FM Manchester every Sunday Evening from 10pm till 2am.
The Custard Chucker’s debut solo album ‘Toilet Humour’ is out in June 2012.
SUPPORTING CREDITS
PHIL NICHOL- (Solo and Corky and the juice pigs)- Download Festival
ARTHUR SMITH-(QI, Have I got News For You, Grumpy Old Men)
COLE PARKER (Show Me The Funny)
ROB ROUSE-(The Friday night Project- Series1)
JASON ROUSE-(HBO Special)
ERIC LAMBAERT- (TV Comedian and Actor)
IMRAN YUSEF (Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow)
He is Also a ‘Golden Jester’ Competition Quarter Finalist for 2012.
The Custard Chucker will not leave you disappointed and his plans are to make the ‘Dark, Edgy smutty Blue’ Genre of comedy excepted with his own kind of ‘Shock Comedy’
QUOTES
“The Custard Chucker is a Dark, Edgy Comedian, Lovably Horrible….Ace!” – Eric Lambaert
“If Oscar Wild Wrote Disgustingly Brilliant Comedy Songs in his life time…he would of changed his name to The Custard Chucker” – Radio’s Shock Jock and Balls Of Steel’s (Mr Inappropriate)- Tim Shaw.
“F***ing Mental… I laughed so much I shat out my insides!” -Neg Dupree (Ball’s of Steel, Channel 4)
“Watching a Custard Chucker performance is like a crank personified… You’re worried that your doing it and that others might catch you doing it… But it feel’s so God-Dam good!”-TNT’s Comedy
For more interviews with new acts, visit comedyblogedy.com/newacts
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