Interviews
INTERVIEW WITH JOSH WIDDICOMBE
Click here to listen!
Best Newcomer Nominee – Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2011
FHM Stand Up Hero 2010 (ITV4)
Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2010
Chortle Best Breakthrough Act Nominee 2011
‘So You Think You’re Funny’ finalist 2008
As well as star of Live At The Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Stand-up for the Week & more!
Check out Josh’s debut stand-up show ‘If This Show Saves One Life’ at The Soho Theatre and on tour!
Watch Josh Widdicombe on Live At The Apollo!
www.joshwiddicombe.co.uk
@Joshwiddicombe
INTERVIEW WITH JOE WILKINSON
Sara Shulman: How did you get into comedy?
Joe Wilkinson: My local pub was putting on an open mic night and I thought I might give it a go and I booked myself in and then felt sick with nerves everyday until I did it
Sara Shulman: Did you always want to go into comedy?
Joe Wilkinson: I have always loved comedy but I could never imagine myself doing it, it still feels very surreal
Sara Shulman: What was your first gig like?
Joe Wilkinson: I don’t remember a thing about it as I was so nervous. After someone told me that the first thing I said was “I’m not sure but I may have shat myself” What a great start to a comedy career
Sara Shulman: You’re currently starring in BBC 3’s Him & Her and you’ve also taken part in Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks ,The Rob Brydon Show and Russell Howard’s Good News . Do you prefer performing comedy live on stage or on screen?
Joe Wilkinson: I am lucky enough to do lots of different things in comedy and I love the mixture. It keeps it interesting
Sara Shulman: You’re also part of the sketch group Two Episodes of Mash. Do you prefer performing comedy solo or in a group?
Joe Wilkinson: I love doing my weird double act with Diane because it is so much fun, we have a laugh together and if we die we find it funny where as if you are on your own it’s mortifying
Sara Shulman: How would you describe your comedy?
Joe Wilkinson: Mundane
Sara Shulman: Are there any comedians that influence your style of comedy?
Joe Wilkinson: I like to think I am individual but all the acts I love must have influenced probably without me knowing
Sara Shulman: You’re going to be performing Joe Wilkinson: My Mum’s called Stella & my Dad’s called Brian at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 6th December. What can we expect from the show?
Joe Wilkinson: You should expect a show about a man admitting that he has lived a very boring life and then watch him try and make that funny. I will also be wearing a suit and shinyish shoes
Sara Shulman: You engage a lot with the audience in your stand-up. Do you find you get heckled a lot?
Joe Wilkinson: I do get heckled quite a lot because I think people look at me and think ‘There’s a man who needs shouting at’, and they are probably right
Sara Shulman: What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
Joe Wilkinson: I thought someone shouting “for the love of god at me” was very funny. I would have probably found it funnier if he wasn’t shouting it at me
Sara Shulman: Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring comics?
Joe Wilkinson: If you love comedy just give it a go! And try and be original even if people don’t get it straight away keep trying
Sara Shulman: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
Joe Wilkinson: Fray bentos pies are lovely
Joe Wilkinson will be performing My Mum’s called Stella & my Dad’s called Brian at The Bloomsbury Theatre on 6th December 2011. Click here for ticket information.
Follow Joe Wilkinson on Twitter: @gillinghamjoe
INTERVIEW WITH HATTY ASHDOWN
Interview by Sara Shulman
Listen to the interview
For details of Hatty’s show ‘Nan Child’
(10th October, at the Black Heart Pub in Camden, 7.30pm)
INTERVIEW WITH TOM GOODLIFFE
August 2011
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get into comedy?
Tom Goodliffe: I was always a comedy nerd growing up and would watch as much comedy as possble, mostly on TV and a variety of videos. I wanted to be one ofthose guys that made everyone laugh, which was highly unlikely given that I was a shy, quiet “square” at school. I went to university in London partly so I could watch as much comedy as possible, but it took me years to summon up the courage to do it. I did a comedy course in 2006 – a lot of successful acts dd it and it seemed like a good idea – but i was too busy with my day job so I didn’t really get gigging properly until 2007.
Comedy Blogedy: What made you want to stop being an accountant and go into comedy?
Tom Goodliffe: I just have a passion for comedy that I don’t have for accountancy. That’s not to say I don’t like accountancy, far form it. I bloody love a spreadsheet! Plus it’s easier to pay the bills being an accountant. I was trying to balance the two but after a while I felt like I couldn’t go any further with comedy unless I made more time for it, so I went part-time with the day job and recently quit.
Comedy Blogedy: Does your degree in Engineering with Business Finance influence your comedy?
Tom Goodliffe: Not really. There are a few mathematical and financial references in some of my stand-up, and of course I covered a lot of similar ground in my degree but I keep the maths at GCSE/A-Level grade to make it more accessible!
Comedy Blogedy: Do you find that you have a different attitude now to the Edinburgh Festival than when you first went to the Fringe?
Tom Goodliffe: My attitude to the Fringe is much the same as when I first went up. The first time was as a punter in 2003. I went up on my own, watched as much stand-up as possible and loved every minute. I first went up as a performer in 2008 and did a couple of shows every day with other new comedians with the aim of improving as a comedian. I still try to watch as many shows as possible and this year is still about improving as a comedian, but I’m also doing a lot more work on publicity and trying to build my audience.
Comedy Blogedy: How did you go about writing material for your Edinburgh show The Good Liffe? Is it different to how you would write material for a regular comedy gig?
Tom Goodliffe: My show this year is a personal story that centres around an incident that happened a couple of years ago. The story part of the show wouldn’t work in a regular gig when there is pressure to really bang the jokes out, but it’s crucial to the structure of the show and holding the crowd’s attention for an hour. That said, there’s a lot of personal material in the show that I do at regular gigs all the time. I tend to improvise and ‘banter’ a bit more at regular gigs, especially when MCing, but there’s not much time for it in my Edinburgh show and afternoon crowds are a little less drunk and a little more self-conscious so are not up for banter as they might be in the evening.
Comedy Blogedy: You’ve performed comedy both solo, with your comedy/podcast-pal Broderick Chow and as part of the ‘Homework for Heroes’ trio. Do you prefer performing alone or in a group?
Tom Goodliffe: The ‘Homework for Heroes’ and ‘Tom and Brody…’ shows were still mostly solo stand-up sets, but we did share the stage briefly at the start/end of each show. It was fun collaborating on a show, working with like-minded performers, and I do enjoy bouncing sketch ideas off a writing partner occasionally. I’d love to do some more sketch work and share the stage with other comedians, but I think I’ll always keep doing stand-up as I like having that outlet for personal opinions and stories.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite joke?
Tom Goodliffe: There’s too many great comics doing too much good stuff for me to pick a favourite. My favourite joke of my own is probably always the newest one. At the moment I have one about turning 30 that I really enjoy telling.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you find that branding yourself as a nerdy comedian and spreadsheet hero increases the chances of you being heckled?
Tom Goodliffe: I don’t think so. I don’t really get heckled a lot. If anything it attracts the sort of audiences that like what I do.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
Tom Goodliffe: I’ve had a couple of funny and/or weird heckles in my short time on the circuit, but my favourite interruption from the audience happened at a preview for my Edinburgh show during a bit about cakes. It can be seen on Youtube here.
Comedy Blogedy: As the residnet MC of Every Other Monday at the Black Heart pub in Camden, what do you find the most enjoyable/frustrating part of being an MC?
Tom Goodliffe: I really enjoy MCing. While it’s a different skill and comes with a lot of responsibility (a good MC makes for a good gig, and vice versa) I find it quite freeing and I try to spend most of my time chatting with the audience and seeing where it goes. The msot frustrating part is when people think you’re just some bloke there to introduce the comedians and say things like” you should do comedy” – I AM!
Comedy Blogedy: What made you want to start podcasting about movies in Every Other Movie?
Tom Goodliffe: I love movies and realised that because I was gigging lots but I wasn’t going to the cinema as much and I was starting to miss it. Doing the podcast gave me a good reason to start going to the cinema again. It’s good writing practice – finding jokes in the serious movies we’ve seen – and I don’t feel guilty about not gigging because I’m still getting my voice out there over the internet.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you find it easier to perform on stage or in a studio?
Tom Goodliffe: The podcast is fun but I enjoy live gigs more. Stand-up is so immediate – you tell a joke and the audience laugh (or not!). Nothing gives me a bigger buzz.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
Tom Goodliffe: Work out what you want to do with your life and spend some time doing it every day. If you can’t make money from it straight away, find something that you can earn from but never let a day go by without doing something towards pursuing your passion.
TOM GOODLIFFE IS PERFORMING HIS EDINBURGH SHOW THE GOOD LIFFE AT CABARET VOLTAIRE (3.45pm)
YOU CAN FOLLOW TOM ON FACEBOOK OR ON TWITTER @TOMGOODLIFFE
INTERVIEW WITH ELIS JAMES
June 2011
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get into stand-up?
Elis James: I had always been obsessed with comedy, but didn’t know how comedy ‘happened,’ until a friend called me to say that an arts centre in Cardiff were starting an open mic night. I asked to go on the bill and the promoter said yes which amazed me (even though that’s the point of an open mic night), and within about ten seconds of being on stage I thought ‘I want to do this again’
Comedy Blogedy: Where do you get inspiration for your material?
Elis James: Real life.
Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your comedy?
Elis James: I like telling stories, and I’m quite chatty. I have recently started swearing more to avoid the tag of ‘housewives favourite’
Comedy Blogedy: Does it take you a long time to prepare for gigs/write material?
Elis James: When I MC I like it to be quite spontaneous, and for a normal set I can go straight on stage. Edinburgh however, takes months of preparation. I start having anxiety dreams about Edinburgh around six months before the festival starts.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to be a comedian?
Elis James: From about the age of 14 I think, but I grew up in a small town miles from anywhere, and no-one could tell me how it happened or who made it, so until I was in my mid twenties a career in comedy seemed totally implausible
Comedy Blogedy: If you could tell one joke, what would it be?
Elis James: I phoned the local gym and asked if they could teach me how to do the splits. He said, “How flexible are you?” I said, “I can’t make Tuesdays.” One of Tim Vine’s. That man is hilarious
Comedy Blogedy: Do you enjoy being heckled? What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
Elis James: I like audience interaction, and a bit of banter with the crowd can make a gig really memorable. That however, is different to some drunk idiot who just wants to ruin the night. At one of my first gigs in Bristol, a man stood up during my set and shouted ‘YOU HAVE LOST CONTROL.’ And he was quite right.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite type of gig?
Elis James: One that’s a bit informal where you can mess about a bit, and anything could happen. I did one in Penzance where a woman stripped off into a swimsuit and started swimming around the stage, and when I asked her to explain herself she said ‘I want to be the mayor of Penzance’ before ‘swimming’ off
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find to be the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of being a comedian?
Elis James: The most enjoyable part is coming up with a great new bit of material. The worst bit is driving 30,000 miles a year and eating in a service station five times a week.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you want to continue in stand-up or branch into a different area of comedy?
Elis James: I used to be in a sketch show which I loved doing, and I’m currently writing two radio pilots. I’m writing the pilots with two other people which is great, as stand up can be quite solitary
Comedy Blogedy: What can we expect from your 2011 Edinburgh Festival Show “Do you remember the first time?”
Elis James: I want to make people laugh. I also talk a lot about my childhood in this one, so there’s hopefully plenty of stuff people can relate to
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips/advice for students?
Elis James: I was a student at Cardiff University between 1999-2003, and it was the happiest four years of my life. That said, I didn’t pay back my student overdraft until I was 28, so it’s probably best you’re better with money than I was. Also don’t get a credit card. And drink more. I watched too much telly. There were a few hot babes I liked but didn’t ask out, which annoys me looking back – I just made do with asking them ‘if they were alright’ every couple of weeks which wasn’t quite what I wanted. Try to eat properly. Give stuff a go, because you might not get that opportunity again. And believe me – the year you’re temping after you graduate sucks. Remember to floss. Plaque can really take you by surprise.
ELIS JAMES PERFORMS AT KINGS PLACE ON 19TH JULY AS PART OF ‘BEFORE THE FRINGE’ – A WEEK OF EDINBURGH PREVIEW DOUBLE (AND TRIPLE) BILLS 18TH – 24THJULY www.kingsplace.co.uk
INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS COX
“A mind-reader who can’t read minds”. Check out what Chris Cox has to say about his comedy, his Edinburgh show and his advice for students!
June 2011
Comedy Blogedy: Your love of magic seems to have started from your Paul Daniels magic set. Would you say that the tricks you performed when you were younger still influence the way you put your magic tricks together now?
Chris Cox: In some ways yes, the basics you learn of magic, are like the basics for anything, they underpin every thought you have after that. I think the thing which is more important than the tricks is the thinking behind them. A lot of my early inspiration came from Penn & Teller, I realise now loads of my thoughts and ideas come from their style. The simple fact a trick can just be a trick, that you’re job is to entertain and you don’t have to lie about that, or dress it up as something more. Magic is a fantastic form of entertainment, it’s unique in that it shows you the impossible, and that alone is enough to wow someone, you don’t then need to pretend you have any special powers on top of that.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?
Chris Cox: I always wanted to perform, I’ve never thought of anything else that I’d like to do. I always loved magic, I always loved comedy, so it was a natural place to go. When I was 15 I watched a documentary on the Edinburgh Fringe which made me want to take a show there. By my last year of Uni I’d saved up enough money to do my first year and I haven’t looked back since.
Comedy Blogedy: In many of your acts, you often provide a psychological explanation of what’s happening. What sparked your interest in mixing comedy and mind-reading together?
Chris Cox: It was always a natural thing to do, I loved both so it seemed right to combine the two and, at the time, nobody else was doing funny mind-reading. It’s all about the performance, in creating a world on stage where these amazing things happen. I can’t really do any of what I do, be it psychological, magic, or something else, that’s for you to decide!
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any specific inspirations for your comedy e.g. people, magic shows?
Chris Cox: In terms of magic Penn & Teller, and obviously the work of Derren Brown & Andy Nyman. In terms of everything else, I have many wonderful friends who are huge inspirations, people like Tim Minchin & Matt Edmondson have really helped me as a performer.
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating aspects of your magic-making comedy?
Chris Cox: The most enjoyable is easy, performing it, I love getting out on stage and doing it. I love creating gasps and laughs. Sounds cheesy as it rhymes, but it’s true. The hardest part is putting together new shows. Many magicians will get stuff from a magic shop and perform that, I try to create everything from scratch, trick, method, story, theme. So it’s unique to me and something the audience hasn’t ever seen before. It takes nearly a year to get a show ready, it’s hard, hard work. But ultimately very rewarding.
Comedy Blogedy: Since all your tricks and effects are self-taught, does it take you a long time to prepare your material?
Chris Cox: About a year, at the moment I’m on the 8th draft of the new show script, I’ve created 12 new effects for the show which I’m still trying to get working, it’s a long and tough process and one that I won’t know whether it works or not till I get it on stage.
Comedy Blogedy: What can we expect from your 2011 Edinburgh Festival show ‘Fatal Distraction’?
Chris Cox: More mind reading related nonsense, tricks you’ve never seen before and a little bit of a story and a theme to allow me to enter your mind and cause my mischief. I’ll be attempting to memorise the fringe programme, I’ll be letting my audience control what I do on stage by performing tasks they want to see me do, and I’ll be getting them to realise the girl of my dreams as I attempt to answer the question: “can you use this stuff on girls?”
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have a favourite type of gig or audience?
Chris Cox: Honestly, I adore a nice intimate theatre, with an audience who are totally up for getting involved and having their minds played with. An audience who isn’t shy is always nice, as there is a lot of audience participation.
Comedy Blogedy: Having toured all over the world, do you find there to be different reactions to your comedy in different countries?
Chris Cox: In essence we’re all the same so there aren’t any huge changes but Americans will be more vocal in their response and it’s a real joy to perform for New Zealand audiences.
Comedy Blogedy: You’ve also performed many of your tricks on radio? Do you find this a difficult medium to perform your magic?
Chris Cox: Radio is in a similar way to magic and comedy a real love of mine, so creating magic for radio actually isn’t too hard. If I were to just make a card vanish, that wouldn’t work on the radio. The great thing about mind reading is that it can all be about what you hear, so can work very well on the radio. It’s all in the mind of those listening.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you ever get heckled? If so, do you enjoy it?
Chris Cox: Fortunately not too much. I don’t love it as I have to think about so many different things to make my show work, but I have lots of audience interaction so manage to avoid heckles because of that. We’re all in it together I suppose.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
Chris Cox: Enjoy your time as a student while you can, get involved in everything that you love. Make mistakes, as now is the time to make them without getting in too much trouble. You lucky bastards.
CHRIS COX PERFORMS AT KINGS PLACE ON 23RD JULY AS PART OF ‘BEFORE THE FRINGE’ – A WEEK OF EDINBURGH PREVIEW DOUBLE (AND TRIPLE) BILLS 18TH – 24TH JULY www.kingsplace.co.uk for Chris’ other news/gigs see www.magiccox.com
INTERVIEW WITH JAMES ACASTER
June 2011
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get into comedy?
James Acaster: It’s a long story but the short version is that my band split up and I decided I wanted to do something completely different so gave comedy a go. Itturned out to be a lot of fun.
Comedy Blogedy: Do any specific people or shows influence your comedy?
James Acaster: There’s countless comedians that I like who I’m sure have all had an influence, I really like Ross Noble, Bill Cosby and Daniel Kitson but there are so many others, too many to list!
Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your comedy?
James Acaster: Nice comedy
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to be a comedian?
James Acaster: No, for years all I wanted to be was a musician, at one point I also wanted to be a cartoonist, but now I enjoy this more than I’ve enjoyed anything
Comedy Blogedy: A lot of your comedy sets seem to involve audience participation. Do you have a favourite audience to perform to?
James Acaster: A friendly audience who know that I am not out to make them look stupid and so are up for a laugh. The defensive crowds who have it in their heads that it’s them versus you are not much fun at all. Ultimately, I want to celebrate the people I get involved in the show and not belittle them in the slightest.
Comedy Blogedy: You often seem to integrate any heckles into your performance. What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
James Acaster: “I could read a poem, do you think that would help?” It didn’t. But it was a nice end to the gig.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite joke?
James Acaster: I asked the Governor of California “Do you hate all religious holidays?”, he said “No, I still love Easter, baby.” (I heard it on the Adam and Joe Podcast, it’s not one of mine)
Comedy Blogedy: What can we expect from your 2011 Edinburgh Festival Show “James Acaster: Amongst Other Things”?
James Acaster: A young man doing comedy, sometimes running round, sometimes sitting down, talking about his excitements and disappointments and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Comedy Blogedy: You seem to be quite a frequent user of social networking sites such as Twitter (@JamesAcaster) and Facebook. As a comedian, do you find it challenging to write comic tweets when you’re restricted to 140 characters?
James Acaster: It’s not too challenging but it’s a good exercise in writing concisely I think. It would be harder if there were a minimum amount of characters and we had to write a page a day. That would be trickier.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite type of gig?
James Acaster: A room full of brilliant people. That really is it.
Comedy Blogedy: You vary your set with a mixture of stories, audience participation and reasons why you’re ‘not that cool’. Are there certain parts of your set that work better in different areas of the country?
James Acaster: Not so much different areas of the country, it’s more that every room you play is full of a different group of people and you can never really judge them before you go on. I think you just have to come up with a set you enjoy and if you’re enjoying it then there’s that little bit more of a chance that they will too.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips/advice for students?
James Acaster: It depends what the advice is on! I have never been a student so I don’t know what it’s like. If you want to do comedy then I would say to just do it and try every idea you have and experiment and keep on doing as many gigs as possible and being critical with yourself and honest with yourself as go. If you want advice on being a student…um…study hard?
You can follow James Acaster on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jamesacaster
INTERVIEW WITH TOM PRICE
Comedy Blogedy recently caught up with Tom Price – comedian, actor, presenter and voice-over artiste. Apart from his stand-up shows, his TV credits include BBC’s ‘Torchwood’, ITV’s ‘Secret Diary of A Call Girl’, Channel 4′s ‘Star Stories’ and several radio comedies on BBC Radio 4.
March 2011
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get into comedy?
Tom Price: I used to show off a lot as a kid, and then I used to watch lots of comedy, like The Young Ones – I used to stand in front of the mirror doing Rik Mayall impressions. I watched mainly sitcoms, like Fawlty Towers and Black Adder and as I got older, I got into more stand-up stuff, so I started watching a lot of Eddie Izzard and Dillan Morran and people like that. And when I was 18 years-old, I went to Edinburgh, and the minute you go to Edinburgh, everything changes! I went to Warwick University and studied English, but I went with the sole intention of going to Edinburgh with a show, because I knew that Warwick took a show to the Fringe. So that’s what I did for three years in a row and I never looked back.
Comedy Blogedy: What was your first show at Edinburgh?
Tom Price: My first show was a sketch-show called “Uber Sausage”. It was pretty studenty and whacky. The first year there were eight of us and we did sketches about ginger rappers and a re-enactment of celebrity deaths called ‘Skars in their Thighs’, it was all a bit sick and dark. It was really good fun. We were on every other day, so you just drink, recover a bit, do the show and then drink. Now the original members of the sketch group are TV comedy producers, stand-up comedians, comedy directors, some are in a sketch group. So, we’re all still doing comedy apart from maybe one guy who has become an accountant…
Comedy Blogedy: How long do you recommend staying in the Edinburgh Festival for?
Tom Price: The perfect time, if you’re not doing a show, is about three or four days. Imagine it’s like Glastonbury or a long weekend. Any longer than that and you can go a bit mad or get a bit bored. A week could be too long.
Comedy Blogedy: Does your sketch work take longer to prepare than your stand-up?
Tom Price: It’s about the same, it’s just writing. It depends what the sketch is and how long it is… With stand-up, you need to refine it – you’re always changing it and witling it down. With sketch comedy, you might add little things in but the basic structure is there.
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of sketch comedy?
Tom Price: In stand-up, the most enjoyable part is new material working but it’s frustrating when you have old material that you can’t get rid of because it gets laughs. In sketch comedy, the most enjoyable part is when a little throw away line works or when you’re doing a character and the audience just completely get it and when they love all the small little things that you milk. The bitchiness and politics of sketch comedy can be quite frustrating though…
Comedy Blogedy: Would you say you have a specific source of inspiration for your material? Has studying English had an effect on your comedy?
Tom Price: I read all the time and I think that effects my character development. I do a lot of stuff about my mum at the moment and now she has become a fully-formed character. Doing good characters is the truth to life, that’s what comedy’s brilliant at.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have a favourite genre of gig?
Tom Price: My favourite genre of gig is a mid-week gig. UCL is fantastic for that, I really like UCL! I love doing a little gig in a little pub where the people are bright. That’s why the Edinburgh Festival is so fantastic! It’s completely different to doing a gig on a Friday night in front of 400 pissed people.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you like being heckled? What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
Tom Price: When I’m gigging yes, but not in real life. It depends if it’s an important gig and it depends what they say – I like heckles that are supportive. The most effective heckle I’ve had, which completely threw my entire gig, was when an audience member sat and read the entire Evening Standard in front of me – and that was at the time when you had to pay for the Evening Standard! In 2001 at a gig in Colliers Wood, a man heckled me by spending the whole evening saying ‘Be Dum Bum Tsss’ after every joke, which was horrible because you can’t stop him from doing it and there’s no put down for it.
Comedy Blogedy: You’ve done a lot of TV Presenting, as well as TV and Radio performance. Do you prefer live interaction with people or scripted entertainment?
Tom Price: Live interaction with people because you don’t know what’s going to happen and when it works, it’s great – the sense of risk is exciting. I do like TV performance as well, I’m doing Torchwood at the moment, but when you’re doing live performance it’s like a muscle, it just keeps you on it and you know what to do but when you do TV you forget it. For example, when you do a gig and the audience laughs, you’re always thinking “What’s next? What’s next?” but when you do something on TV and you get a laugh, your brain just isn’t there.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to be in different areas of performance?
Tom Price: Yes, definitely. I always wanted to do different things. I wanted to be an actor first of all but when I found comedy, I wanted to do that as well.
Comedy Blogedy: What were your favourite memories of being a student?
Tom Price: Doing my first stand-up gig to all my mates in ‘Zippie’s Bar’ at the top of the building at Warwick university. I was wearing combats, a nylon zip-up Adidas top and moccasins, weirdly – I looked like a horrendous fashion victim. I did it with Dan Antopolski and Howard Reed.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips/advice for students?
Tom Price: Always get as little out from the cash point as possible
Don’t go to any foam parties
Stay at university for as long as possible
Have some good baths
Don’t live with dickheads
If you’re a girl, don’t be a tart
Be careful how many pictures get taken of you, because you could end up with a lot of photographs that expose your entire wardrobe as being a disaster and when you look back, your future self will thank you. The current generation will be saved on hard disk whereas my photos are in the loft.
Never grow a chin beard – I grew a ginger chin beard, it looked like I just dipped my chin in red paint and I had it for about 8 weeks… I regret that so much! Male Students – DO NOT EXPERIMENT WITH FACIAL HAIR!!! It is only going to lead to the future catastrophe of your dignity and women will not get off with you! No matter how much you think they’ll think it makes you look different, it makes you look like a fucking tramp! Don’t do it!
Follow Tom Price on Twitter: @pricetom
http://www.tompriceofficial.com/
After Liam’s excellent gig at UCL Ministry of Comedy, Rare FM caught-up with the stand-up comedian and sketch comedy performer. Find out how he got involved in stand-up, his advice for students and what comedians tend to look for when picking on someone in the audience!
March 2011
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get involved in stand-up?
Liam Williams: Well, when I went to University, I was doing sketches with some friends as a sort of hobby. I was part of Cambridge Footlights, which is a comedy group where some people do stand up as well, and I was jealous of the fact that stand ups got the whole of the applause and adoration. So I started performing stuff for them a year into my degree and then I got onto the committee after another year. Officially, I was the Junior Archivist and Webmaster but I never saw the archives and I don’t think the website either. But they’re nominal positions because everybody helps with the comedy and keeping the club running. I think I started doing it for the attention and because it was the only way I could get people to like me, but then it became more about the ‘art’ and I’ve kept on doing it ever since.
Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your stand-up?
Liam Williams: I’ve only being doing stand-up properly for 2 years and have only been doing regular gigs in London for a year, so I’m still, as they say, ‘finding my voice’. But I’m beginning to find my voice now. I think in quite a stereotypical way, I’m the outsider and I use my shallow, pretentious intellectualism as a way to distance myself from society and I try to find something funny in the gaps between my own self-perception and reality. For example, although I think I’m very intelligent and insightful all the time, I’m constantly distracted by little things that remind me that I’m not the genius I want to be. Or, things that I find stupid in other people, for example, I do a set about strip clubs and night clubs because they make me feel uncomfortable. But those are very hack topics. I feel my style and approach are developing well and I can see where it’s going but I’m still quite young and I’m always looking to find topics and inspiration points which are different.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?
Liam Williams: I don’t think so. When I was young, even a teenager, I didn’t really think about what I wanted to do, but I was one of those children who was told they were very special at a young age, so I was always convinced and deluded that I would do something really good. I remember in a drama lesson in Year 7, we were given a character building exercise, which involved writing the story of a character you’d created– you could write a biography about anybody, no matter how fanciful – but I think I misinterpreted the point of the exercise with “write down all your ambitions and delusions of grandeur”. I remember creating this character who was a writer, actor and performer and did comedy shows on the BBC, so I sensed that I might like to do that or at least I might like to do something creative and language-based. But I never particularly knew that I wanted to be in comedy. It was only really at university, when I realised that I liked performing comedy and it gave me a big self-esteem boost that I became quite convinced that it was what I wanted to do.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to study English?
Liam Williams: Until I was about 16, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to university. I used to really like history and playing history computer games, like Age of Empires, but that was about the extent of my academic interests. And then, I really got into English at about the same time that I started drinking and thinking “I’m an adult now!” and also discovered The Streets, which I’m not embarrassed to say was a major formative influence on me as a young person. There was something about rhythm and poetic expression of ordinary experiences, which can be really inspirational and I found very exciting – even if it’s to do with really trivial things. Studying English at school became a place where I could fulfil those interests and I also came to enjoy language and realised that a mastery of language could get you a long way, so that was a turn on. I try and put the techniques I’ve learned from English into my own stand-up as well.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you like performance poetry?
Liam Williams: I was into it for a while, like slam poetry, because of its similarities to rap. When I was about 15, I had a friend, who was really into rap music. Everybody at school liked 50 Cent and Eminem but he used to go and find these really weird, obscure artists and I really respected him for that. He bought all this equipment and we used to make raps about serious things and silly ones about our friends, which felt like a nice creative thing to do. I think that’s because I’ve always really liked what rhythm and rhyme can do and how verse forms can elevate an idea. Now I’ve started writing material that is more dependent on rhythm and sounds. I’ve recently started trying to use T.S. Eliot’s free verse patterns in stand up because I find him rhythmically amazing. I feel it’s something about using rhythm to build a hypnotic atmosphere, for example – although it sounds far-fetched and pretentious again – it’s the same as if you think about how any preachers in any religion and all great orators use the power of sound to make people pay attention. So, sound is something that I’d like to explore more in stand-up.
Comedy Blogedy: How about musical comedians like Tim Minchin and Bill Bailey? Or would you say they take it too far?
Liam Williams: I wouldn’t say they take it too far, but musicality and rhythm shouldn’t just be for musicians. I do like good musical comedy but you do get shit stuff as well – so it’s not just the musicality that’s exciting. Even, let’s say, Michael McIntyre has a distinctive rhythm because all his observations are branded with the sound of his voice and everything is cohesive about the performance. Rap and performance poetry are about ‘flow’, and it’s the same thing with stand-ups.
Comedy Blogedy: Does it take you a long time to prepare material?
Liam Williams: There’s a really hard process of getting material from page to stage – at the moment it’s not that hard to write, although I definitely go through phases. Sometimes I can’t write anything but other times I bash out hundreds of words in an afternoon. But once it’s written, you have to apply the sounds and think about how you’re going to say the joke, because laughs have got to come in specific places. It’s not like when you write a poem, or a bit of prose or an article or anything else designed to be read. Ultimately, material which is well written is designed to get laughs and you don’t know whether it will get laughs until you’ve performed it. Even if you put loads of joke-devices in, you don’t know what the reaction will be until you’re on stage, with the material memorised and you’ve thought about how you’re going to say it all… Again, it’s the ebb and flow – some days it’s brilliant, write loads and do it that night, sometimes nothing comes out.
Comedy Blogedy: If you could tell one joke what would it be?
Liam Williams: Thinking on my feet I’ve got a few quite poor one-liners. Maybe I would do:
“To me, women are like dogs, because I can’t get them to talk to me. And if I rub them the wrong way, they’ll sometimes bite me.”
Comedy Blogedy: How do you feel about heckles?
Liam Williams: It depends on the context and type of heckles. Being authoritative reduces the possibility of being challenged. Sometimes you do get good heckles with people contributing to the joke or making jokes themselves. But some people just like to challenge the comedian – it often happens at Christmas parties and corporate gigs where the office alpha-male can’t take the idea that he’s not the funniest guy in the room and so he shouts out. I don’t really get heckled very often because I’ve kind of designed a persona that, although I’m not physically intimidating, I like to think that if someone were to shout out, I would [ironically] “whip them with my words” and put them down so they didn’t persist.
Comedy Blogedy: Is there a certain way in which you go about picking on someone in the audience?
Liam Williams: I wouldn’t say I pick on people – comedy doesn’t have to be cruel and taking the piss, although it often is, which can be fun. Sometimes you just want to make people think it’s spontaneous and like a conversation because that creates a good atmosphere. The nicest moments are when you talk to people in the audience and something a bit weird will happen in the room, like if someone has a weird object with them or just mutters something, or laughs at a weird time or even if they heckle in a nice way. Interacting with the audience can be really special because everyone knows that this is only happening for us today and we are all contributing to it.
Comedy Blogedy: There are lots of student reviews that rave about your stand-up. Do you prefer doing student gigs or do you have another favourite kind of gig?
Liam Williams: My favourite kind of gig is the gig where I go down best. Student gigs are good because people are generally intelligent and are in the process of learning every day, so they’re open to cleverer stuff. But some universities don’t want to hear anything clever. I did a gig at a university recently, and I was doing the ‘Grammar-Man’ set and there’s a part of the joke which involves a deliberately boring explanation about a split infinitive, and one would expect people to think “Why is this guy being so boring?!” but unexpectedly this girl on the front row went, “No! I don’t want to hear it. I don’t understand it.” I still can’t quite compute what happened – it didn’t ruin the gig – but it does make me think that maybe all audiences should be that honest? It was possibly the best heckle I’ve ever had, but I wouldn’t like it to happen the whole time!
Comedy Blogedy: Your ‘Grammar Man’ set went down extremely well at the UCL Ministry of Comedy. I assume that’s inspired by your English degree? Where else do you find sources for inspiration?
Liam Williams: I like the feeling that I can carry on my English degree into my comedy but I try not to be pretentious for the sake of it. But the most important thing now is to talk about stuff that I care about. Part of the skill of stand up is an act of persuasion and studying English feeds into it because it takes writing skills to make it work. I wouldn’t always try and write my set about T.S. Eliot or “Hey, what about that Jane Austen novel?!”. Instead, I’d always be thinking of the best word to use or how joke structures work. English is always relevant in a creative form-based respect, even if it’s not as content, although I think I’d like to use more literary content.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you find that you get different reactions to your comedy in different areas of the country?
Liam Williams: I havn’t noticed necessarily a geographical difference but there are so many factors, like at student gigs, you always get a slightly different response. Part of the fun is going into a place and working out what kind of audience you’ve got and how you have to adapt your language and physicality. It’s not the audience that’s the problem, it’s making sure that you use the right tools to solve the problem.
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable as well as frustrating aspects of being a stand-up comic?
Liam Williams: The most enjoyable aspect is language and working it out and words in general. My brain is better at dealing with the machinery of language than other things. People might say that “you’re reading too much into that” but if you are not good at reading someone’s body language or tone of voice, then really understanding things about language, which people don’t necessarily understand themselves when they’re saying them, is quite empowering and comedy seems all about how you can affect people by using language.
It sounds really cynical but most communities in the world that have ever existed would have a ritual of gathering and listening to one person speak every week. And then now there are a lot of societies that have given up on formal religion and people don’t go to listen to one person speak so comedy has become this nice thing where communities can come together. But just listening to one person give their perspective on things, be it politics or humanity or even “Hey guys, what’s it like when your iPod doesn’t work properly?!” and everyone’s like “Yeaahhh!!!” is a nice collective experience. It sounds a bit weird to say I like using language to control people, but I mean it in a positive way because I really like the idea that one day I could make a room full of people bond together and think slightly differently about things – even if it’s just for that one hour.
The frustrating aspect of comedy is that having such big aims, you can understand why it’s such a valid art form. Stand-up comedy has parallels with preaching and comedians and satirists are often akin to clowns in ancient cultures, because their primitive important role is often used as a pressure valve for things that are going wrong within society, like injustice and greed and vices, and clowns are generally all about pointing them out. If you point out how everyone behaves in the same way without really thinking about it – which Michael Mcintyre is so good at – then it makes people more self-aware. It could be in the form of “Aren’t bankers all pricks?!”, which is quite clichéd but it’s enjoyable to point it out in a fun way.
But it’s very hard to be good at comedy and I’m working every day to think of things that feel original and interesting and that I can offer something new and that’s funny, as well as slightly thought-provoking, but it takes a long time to get there because you have to work at it, like you do in all art forms. And other forms of entertainment, such as a painter, singer, composer, actor, dancer, you have to train for ages because there’s such a technical mastery and skill. There are some, although fewer, comedians who come at it later in their life and you sense that they’re just a really funny guy and it translates really well on stage. But there’s a slight preconception that if you’re funny you can just go on stage and be funny which is rarely true. In reality there’s a constant ebb and flow of contentment, going from one day where you feel “I’m really good” and then the next day it’s like, “I’m shit. I want to give up.”
Comedy Blogedy: As a member of the Cambridge Footlights, you directed the 2010 International Tour Show Good For You. Do you prefer directing or performing?
Liam Williams: I performed in their show the previous year, called Wishful Thinking and it’s a tradition for people who’ve performed one year to direct the next year. I think directing was an easier rite because it was the same show experience from two perspectives: directing is quite relaxed because you’re doing something creative and thinking about comedy all day and performing and acting stuff out as well but without the stress of having to get geared up to go on stage. I was co-directing with my friend Daran Johnson, (who I’m now in a new sketch group ‘Sheeps’ with) and we had 5 people plus an extra writer, Keith Akushie. I co-edited and directed the show and it’s great fun until the performers come off stage after a good show and women are flocking up to the guys and everybody’s getting attention and I…am not.
Comedy Blogedy: Since you’re both a stand-up comedian and in a sketch group – do you prefer performing on your own or in a group?
Liam Williams: It’s very dependent on context – sometimes better ideas come out of collaborative projects because you bounce off each other, the sketch show which we’re doing in Edinburgh this year is better than what I can produce on my own because there are three minds contributing to it and editing and provoking each other and stimulating each other into improving.
The show is with two guys I was in Footlights with - Alastair Roberts and Daran Johnson. Our trio is very “organic” because it doesn’t feel forced. We write and rehearse most days. If the show has any theme or unique personality to it, then it’s the fact that there’s a running joke that the audience are in on, which is that we’re not very good at doing sketches, so, for example, some of them are deliberately bad sketches, where the performance breaks down and we have mock arguments, but I like to think they’re funny. I think we try not to be old fashioned, particularly coming out of Footlights where people think we’re just going to be doing the old Monty Python style stuff.
Comedy Blogedy: Having recently graduated, do you have any tips or advice for students?
Liam Williams: In terms of comedy advice for students, most universities have a comedy club or society that I suggest you join and perform at. But for students, especially in London, you need to do some open mics and stuff. Go and watch as much comedy as you can, both live or on the internet. Be confident, don’t see it as a battle, don’t hate the audience because they’re the ones making you feel nervous – love the audience!
Just keep gigging and write about the things that matter to you. Think – if you sat down a stranger and said, as if in a weird psychological study, “So what do you find funny?” they wouldn’t be able to answer the question – funniness is so dependent on context so talk about what you find funny in real life and you’ll just start writing. The trick for me is to think about the things that interest me and in a weird way what troubles me about humanity. These things and weird little patterns in your head tend to be more interesting than what you contrivedly think is going to make people laugh. It’s all about hard work – gigging and thinking and analysis, so come at it from that perspective and enjoy it!
In terms of general student advice – live as much as you can and try as many different things as you can because that will set you up for proper life. Be active and energetic and be interested and open and challenge your perceptions and don’t do things according to routine as much as possible because when you leave you’ll miss all those opportunities. If you’ve really pushed yourself in every way for the length of your degree, at the end of it, although this all sounds very fatuous, you’ll be better served to go into the world. The one thing that is really useful is to remember that things get better because it feels shit when you first get out of university, but then in a year’s time, you look back and think how naive you were and that there was nothing really to worry about. The only way to get past the fears and worries of inexperience is to keep experiencing them until they become little. And drink a lot.
Comedy Blogedy: What would you say is your favourite memory from your time as a student?
Liam Williams: Probably something to do with comedy… Maybe when I was about to go on stage for the last time with with no material prepared, just me and my friend Daran from Footlights. We went on stage and just improvised – we were both so emotionally blitzed-out by the fact that it was the last time we were going to go on stage there and our brains were working faster than they had ever worked.
Check out Liam at http://liamwilliamscomedy.blogspot.com/!
INTERVIEW WITH PRIVATE EYE’S CRAIG BROWN
Craig Brown is a columnist, satirist and author. Brown’s ‘Diary’ regularly features in Private Eye. His work also features in The Spectator, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday.
November 2010
Comedy Blogedy: Why did you decide to write the lost diaries?
Craig Brown: Well, it’s a book of parodies. I’ve been writing parodies since I was about 12, largely the same people I’m doing now, so for 40 years I’ve been doing the same thing, though they’re slightly slicker and cleverer now. And so it’s largely a collection of pieces I’ve already written over the last 20 years for Private Eye. Parodies is my thing, really.
Comedy Blogedy:What kind of characters do you enjoy writing?
Craig Brown: I liked doing people with bad tempers – I think it’s always very funny. Harold Pinter always had a very bad temper and so there’s a series of re-writings of the Oxford Book of English Verse book and I like performing them or just reading a piece to the audience. I’m also interested in people’s language, so anyone like John Prescott is fun to write because you can just play with the language. When I was assembling the book, I had trouble with some of the characters because lots were out of date. I found this particularly with some of the people from the early Tony Blair years… even Jacqui smith who about a year ago was so current and now you think, ‘What did she look like?!’ You can hardly remember…
Comedy Blogedy: Do the people you impersonate ever write to you about how you’ve satirised them?
Craig Brown: It’s quite unpredictable; most I don’t have any contact with. Some people actually like it, some I’ve had solicitors’ letters from. MPs by and large are kind of tough – they’re used to being abused all the time. Writers tend to be rather prickly and over sensitive.
Comedy Blogedy: Are there any media personalities that you have not satirised yet but would like to?
Craig Brown: I’m always on the lookout – I tend to be slightly irritated by someone beforehand, which provides the electricity. You can’t fake indignation about someone, well you can, but it doesn’t work comically. The good thing about being topical is that, if, for example, John Prescott goes through the exit door there will always be someone form the X Factor or a kind of ‘Nick Clegg’ coming through…
Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the biggest challenge in terms of satirising people or events?
Craig Brown: I think the challenge with satire is to keep it funny. At the moment I feel there are too many Stand-Up Comics, but of the Stand-Up Comics, there are too many who think that to have the right attitude is enough. I like Harry Hill and Tim Vine, those comedians that are just naturally comical and have a kind of persona. I find jollity a rather underrated side of humour.
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get into satirical writing?
Craig Brown: I did a bit at university, student publications, plays… I started off doing straight journalism – TLS and literary stuff – but then you start doing more of what you’re good at.
Comedy Blogedy: Why do you think The Lost Diaries will appeal to students?
Craig Brown: I think, to all students, some of it will be like a history book and need elaborate footnotes now. There are some characters, mainly politicians who would probably be unfamiliar. It is also a studenty-humour, in that it’s kind of sophisticated but it’s not grown up… Polished but still essentially not adult.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
Craig Brown: I was a student but I didn’t complete my course (for no particular reason, I think maybe just because I could). So in some ways I’d say complete your course. Also, read in bed a lot!
Comedy Blogedy: You also wrote The Tony Years. Do you have any amusingobservations about the current Coalition?
Craig Brown: It is rather brilliant of the Conservatives to have Nick Clegg, because everyone’s forgotten that Cameron and people are behind this. Everyone is content to use old Clegg as the whipping-boy!
Craig Brown’s ‘The Lost Diaries’ (Paperback £9.99) and ‘The Tony Years’ (Paperback £7.99) are out now.
November 2010
Comedy Blogedy: Much of your book is based on the TV show – how come you decided to write a book?
Alexander Armstrong: We’ve been wanting to write a book forever – it’s been our secret hope to get a book out. The way we go about writing our comedy is that we like to have a substantial back story to all our characters so there’s a bit more of a 3D feel to all our characters, which adds a certain texture to things. The book has all new material that’s been extended from little riffs on our characters. If you like the TV show and the characters then there’s plenty more in there, for example, there’s a comic strip of the pilots and there’s lots of fun bits and pieces in there as well.
Comedy Blogedy: Why do you think your book will appeal to students?
Alexander Armstrong: Well, I hope it will appeal to everyone. I’d say to students that this is the sort of book I would keep in the loo.
Comedy Blogedy: I read a review saying it was ‘The best toilet book out at the moment’…
Alexander Armstrong: Well it’s just got lots of nice little succinct bits that you can lose yourself momentarily in or more than momentarily… You can enjoy little moments of it and then put it back. It’s full of page-long gems! It’s something you can pick up and lose yourself in, really in no time at all!
Comedy Blogedy: What have been significant inspirations for the characters? Is there anything in specific that you see in daily life…?
Alexander Armstrong: I would say daily life informs all our characters. We’re magpies; we just write stuff down or remember particular things. It’s not always people I dislike; it’s often people I adore. You take a little bit of this and a little bit of that… They’re definitely inspired by people but not usually carbon copies.
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any particular favourite characters?
Alexander Armstrong: I used to love Jack Force who was a policeman who’d been fired for alcoholism but was still convinced that he was a policeman and he had an imaginary side kick called Chuffy. It was loosely based on Inspector Morse.
Comedy Blogedy: You’ve just finished a national tour. How was it?
Alexander Armstrong: We have. We did 60 dates in about 65 nights and we finished off with 6 days in The New Wimbledon theatre. We’ve been everywhere! We went up to Inverness down to Bournemouth, to Belfast, Cardiff, Bristol… We had an amazing time but I’ve never been so tired in my life and I’ve never been more ready for a break.
Comedy Blogedy: What would you say was the most memorable experience?
Alexander Armstrong: Probably the very last night in Wimbledon, we ended on the most glorious high!
Comedy Blogedy: Do you find that different audiences affect the way you perform?
Alexander Armstrong: So completely! We notice that you get a Thursday night crowd, which is a quiet but a very appreciative crowd. At half time you think “They’re not enjoying it at all! Why aren’t we getting anything back from them?” And then, at the end of the show, when it comes to the applause, they’re all standing and it turns out they were all just listening. Friday night crowds are amazing… because they’re drunk and Saturday night crowds are amazing… because they’re drunk. Sunday night crowds are quite chilly because it’s a school night and in the general course of nature we were designed to watch Antiques Roadshow presented by ex-nationwide presenters, so you’re not programmed for sketch comedy really on Sunday nights. The audiences were all lovely actually. We didn’t have a bad audience; we just had different colours of audiences and different receptions. You have to make sure that if things are going a bit slow you have to tighten up your cues and make sure you’re doing as good a show as you can and audiences generally come with you. Obviously it’s been a long time since we’ve played live. You can’t hide in front of a live audience, you have to be funny! And you quickly sense it if they’re not laughing.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you and Ben meet as students?
Alexander Armstrong: We didn’t properly meet each other until we both left Cambridge. Ben is a few years older than me and he was staying on doing a PhD, which he then stopped doing. I knew all about Ben but Ben didn’t know anything about me. A mutual friend introduced us the year after I left and we started doing comedy in 1993. Seventeen and a half years we’ve known each other!
Comedy Blogedy: What do you remember most about being a student?
Alexander Armstrong: I remember lots of things; sadly I wish I remembered more academic stuff. But most of my memories are just idyllic and as the years go by they get more so. I was a choral scholar when I was at university so I had to sing a lot and I have a scrap book of memories all attached to things we sang. We did two or three CDs every year and I only have to listen to those CDs and I have glorious memories of Christmas holidays or the era around that CD. Other memories… well, memories of friends nearly dying, those are the sort of things one generally remembers. There was the time a friend of mine decided to test out the second floor fire escape at about two in the morning, he got in quite drunkenly and it jammed after about three feet and just by his hand he managed not to fall onto the railings below. Those are the sort of memories I still have…
Comedy Blogedy: Do you have any tips or advice for students?
Alexander Armstrong: Do everything you possibly can and not all of it is the sort of thing that should be encouraged. And as much of it off-piste as possible – make sure you do your work but having done that, try everything! This is your last chance to take every risk you possibly can and seize it. If you have half an inkling to jack it all in and do something else or pursue some slightly unorthodox career path or do anything that’s just slightly left field – do it now, this is the time. If it goes tits up it doesn’t matter, you tried! Because the terrible pressure of grown-updom is just around the corner and that’s when people do then start looking at thinking “What are you going to do with your life?” And make sure you’ve tried everything because it would be too sad to go into some humdrum job if you really felt you should be doing something else. And once you’ve left university give yourself a year to do something exciting! Take a step into the unknown and a leap of faith!
Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller’s ‘The Armstrong and Miller Book’ (£19.99) is out now.
Interview: Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann from Answer Me This!podcast
Answer us this!
October 2010
Comedy Blogedy: Why did you decide to do a podcast?
Olly Mann: I was working in production for ITV on a show called ‘Confessions’, which was the lowest rated factual entertainment show of the last ten years in prime time ITV. I decided that after 2 months of exploring, in the most synical way, the dark underside of human endeavour, I wanted to do something else. At the time, I had just finished collating a play based on blogs for Edinburgh Fringe (2006) and thought it was really exciting and really enjoyed the autonomy and creativity. Because the play had been about blogs, lots of podcasters had interviewed me about it so I thought I could do my own podcast… So I decided to do a home-made show, which was about the time that The Ricky Gervais Showwas getting big. There were a lot of American shows with men and women talking but there weren’t really many English ones, so I felt we had a niche. There seemed to be a vacancy for someone, who wasn’t a complete geek, to do a home-made show so I thought we could give it a go. It was an experiment, we didn’t really know what was going to happen. We will have done 160 podcasts by Christmas!
Helen Zaltzman: It was meant to be a hobby!
Olly Mann: We don’t understand why we don’t have proper competition from amateurs. We’d like some competition!
Comedy Blogedy: So why did you decide to write a book?
Olly Mann: We decided to write a book because there are some things you just can’t do in a podcast but that you can do in a book. We did student radio together – it was one of the first things we did together – and one thing we’ve always wanted to do is our own banter-driven music show.
Helen Zaltzman: I did a show on Rare FM after a gig once. It was with Jamie Paul and I went on with Josie Long and we sang songs…
Comedy Blogedy: How did you guys meet?
Olly Mann: We met at St. Catz, Oxford, both studying English. There was a position on the JCR Committee for publications officer.
Helen Zaltzman: It’s where you poster things and write the guides for Freshers. We wrote the Fresher’s Guide together, which contained incredible advice for young people coming to St. Cats.
Olly Mann: It had a lot of stuff we thought was funny (for the intended audience).
Helen Zaltzman: When I arrived, I got a Fresher’s Guide that was for people that knew each other but I wanted to make things accessible so that it didn’t feel like a club that you’re not in…
Comedy Blogedy: What do you remember most about being students?
Helen Zaltzman: What was amazing about it was just the fact that my closest friends all lived in the same building as me and I saw them every day, and they were at a really interesting point in their lives when they were really coming to fruition. When you’re at Uni, you can do whatever you like! You don’t have a job, you can stay up until 5am everyday… You never really have that level of conversation again.
Olly Mann: I remember when I started University, people would say “What were your A Levels?”…
Helen Zaltzman: … or “What did you do on your Gap Year?”
Olly Mann: But actually what happens for the rest of you life is people come up and ask you about your job, and in real life people just define you by what you do for a living. You find that on a daily basis a friend or acquaintance is suddenly religious, or gay, or is suddenly a broadcaster or interested in writing a novel…
Helen Zaltzman: …or manufacturing kites or taking drugs.
Olly Mann: Being a student was a really great time to be able to try stuff.
Helen Zaltzman: Not that we tried most of those things… We didn’t really watch TV, and didn’t really have the internet.
Comedy Blogedy: So no Facebook?!
Olly Mann: No Facebook!
Helen Zaltzman: The defining activity was hanging out with people…
Olly Mann: …and socialising.. But lots of people meet online now before starting Uni – I suppose more knowledge equals less anxiety..? Actually, the two most common questions we get from students are either “I’ve just graduated and I can’t get a job – what do I do?” or “I’ve just started Uni and I don’t want to go clubbing or go to a particular drinks thing or a particular birthday thing – how do I make friends?”
Comedy Blogedy: So what’s your advice?
Helen Zaltzman: I found if you were capable of cooking you became popular, especially if you were capable of cooking late when most places were closed. Olly was popular because he had a television in his room.
Comedy Blogedy: In your book, there’s lots of stories about student life. Do you have any advice or tips for students?
Olly Mann: We both had different academic strategies. We both ended up just scraping through with a 2:1. In Helen’s case by 0.7%
Helen Zaltzman: I was busy…
Olly Mann: And in my case 0.5% away from a 2:2. I spent pretty much the whole of my second year doing student journalism, student radio, student theatre, filming stuff and making posters… just anything that wasn’t work! But that was the best experience in terms of getting a career in the media.
Helen Zaltzman: The extra-curricular seems to be much more helpful than the academic pursuits, enjoyable as those are as well. We both really enjoyed being students. We both said if we could re-live three years of our 20s it would probably be those three years.
Comedy Blogedy: Why do you think students would be interested in this book?
Olly Mann: Well, it’s quite a studenty humour. A lot of our humour is quite juvenile. ‘Cerebral juvenilia’ was a quote by William Cook, who was a comedy critic in The Guardian, and I think that applies to our show too. We always thought our humour would appeal to a 16-20 year olds market. We talk in a silly way about clever things and a clever way about silly things. There’s a quite a broad range of people that listen to our shows from 10 year-olds to 60 year-olds. But the 10 year-olds seem to be quite academically precocious and the 60 year-olds tend to be unusually juvenile. It is to an extent the kind of Sixth-Formy kind of humour that people never grow out of.
Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?
Helen Zaltzman: I don’t feel like I’ve got into comedy. My brother’s a comedian and I’ve done shows with people but I don’t really consider myself a comedian. Comedians work at it and do it properly and they’re expected to be funny.
Olly Mann: I’d consider myself a writer and broadcaster, who does a funny show.
Helen Zaltzman: I’m socially amusing but it’s a really different thing to be able to write stand-up.
Olly Mann: I actually find stand-up quite awkward. Often when I’m watching stand-up I feel like there are too many times when comedians will go for a cheap laugh to get the audience on their side or because everyone is drunk. Or I just get embarrassed because I’m watching someone do something very clever and almost always the audience isn’t really on side because they’re drunk.Comedy Blogedy: What comedians inspire you?
Olly Mann: When we were teenagers, Stuart Lee and Richard Herring were a massive influence for both of us. Personally, I’m interested in TV Comedy, I think I’m Alan Partridge Series 1 is the best sitcom of our lifetimes – I love it! I also really like some of the Americans as well, such as Joan Rivers, Mel Brooks and Robin Williams.
Comedy Blogedy: What’s been your favourite question and what’s been your favourite topic to talk about?
Helen Zaltzman: I like talking about when people have a weird emotional problem. We had this 17-year-old who said, “My 43 year-old married neighbour wants to have sex with me – should I do it?” and we said, “You shouldn’t, she’s married, her husband lives next door…” Then he said, “I decided not to because she texted me some pictures of herself and I didn’t think she was that fit after all.” So it was nice having that weird insight into his life. This other guy said “I’ve been offered the chance to be in a professionally done porno, should I do it?” These things have never really been a problem for us to decide so it’s nice putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
Olly Mann: I like the funny questions – for example, someone asked us “Can you make black pudding out of menstrual blood?” Sometimes the question isn’t particularly interesting so it’s often what we do with it rather than the questions… We just make it up as we go along. The answers we give often have lots of different options but we like to give the most interesting or plausible answers. You can see the types of questions we’ve been asked at www.answermethispodcast.com/questions.
Comedy Blogedy: What do you want people to take away from reading your book and/or listening to your podcast?
Olly Mann: We want people to be entertained. We wanted to write the best toilet book we could – we didn’t have any aspirations to write War and Peace – we’re both pretty proud of how it is. It’s an entertaining book with a gag on every page and that’s what we wanted, because that’s the kind of thing we like to read.
Helen Zaltzman: It’s nice to be able to give someone half an hour’s entertainment each week – to take their mind of their commute. We get lots of emails in saying that our show is their favourite 30 minutes of travelling to and from work every week, and it’s really nice to be that for someone.
You can follow Helen and Olly on Twitter (www.twitter.com/helenandolly) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/AnswerMeThis)
If you want to buy their book, the cheapest and easiest way is fromwww.tinyurl.com/amtamazon
Check out their website www.answermethispodcast.com
INTERVIEW WITH SMUG ROBERTS
Interview by Liam Garrett
Comedy Blogedy: How did you get in to stand-up and what or who inspired you to get in to it?
Smug Roberts: I’d always wanted to have a go at comedy then I saw an advert in the local paper for an open mic night at The Frog and Bucket comedy club in Manchester so I decided to give it a go without telling anyone in case I died on my ass. My fate was sealed as I met Caroline Aherne that very night, she was in the audience and she loved my act. She helped me get started as a stand-up
Comedy Blogedy: Who are your influences and how would you describe your style?
Smug Roberts: I love Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor and British greats Tommy Cooper and Eric and Ernie. I would describe myself as a story teller, I don’t tell jokes I tell stories that are funny.
Comedy Blogedy: You are going be touring your new one man show FLIP soon, how would you describe it?
Smug Roberts: Flip is a play about the two sides of a comedian. The onstage funny man and the real person behind the comedy mask who is having to deal with the parts of life that aren’t so funny. The play sees me flip between being my usual very funny self – and revealing the traumatic events that are going on off stage. It should make you laugh and make you cry!
Comedy Blogedy: What inspired the show?
Smug Roberts: It’s the true story of the time in my life when my dad suddenly passed away and how I had to deal with that but at the same time still go to work and be funny. It was just such a weird time – having a job where you have to make people laugh but really your heart is breaking. Even when it was happening to me I’d look out at the audience and see people laughing their heads off, but in my head a little voice was saying “If only you knew !”. I realised afterwards it was such a strong idea for a play that I just sat down and wrote it. I want to show how much my Dad means to me and show that you can get through a traumatic event and come out stronger.
Comedy Blogedy: The show sounds like it is a deeply personal one. Do you often discuss personal issues in your stand-up?
Smug Roberts: All my material is based on something personal to me. As I say I don’t really tell “jokes” or even crazy made up tales. All my act is based on real true life. The things that really go on in my life, and everyone else’s are much funnier than anything you could make up if you ask me. Life is funny.
Comedy Blogedy: FLIP has been described as leaving the audience ‘crying both tears of joy and sadness’. Do you find it difficult to explore this broad range of emotions?
Smug Roberts: I have found it difficult and emotional but Noreen Kershaw my director has shown me how to explore those emotions without losing my focus on the story I want to tell. I am able to flip between the comic and the tragic parts of the story very quickly though. I think that comes from years of practice on the comedy circuit.
Comedy Blogedy: What side of Smug Roberts do you think is more apparent in FLIP – the comic or the performer?
Smug Roberts: As the title suggests during the play I flip from one side to the other so the audience can see ‘the performer’ and ‘the man behind the mask’ I think this play gives you an all round picture of a comedian, which is quite a rare thing to see.
Comedy Blogedy: You have many credits as both a straight and a comic actor. Do you prefer film and television acting to stand-up?
Smug Roberts: Stand up will always be my first love but acting in either film or TV gives you a chance to work alongside great people. Stand up can be lonely and it’s sometimes good to feel part of a team.
Comedy Blogedy: As a follow on, do you prefer straight or comic roles on screen? Why?
Smug Roberts: I’m always grateful to be offered either and whichever I’m doing I just always want to do a good job.
Comedy Blogedy: You clearly have a great deal of experience in the industry. Have you got any advice for anyone wanting to start out as a stand-up?
Smug Roberts: Work Hard and Be Funny!
Flip” will be playing at The Dancehouse Theatre from Wednesday November 30th to Saturday December 3rd followed by Nottingham, London, Sheffield, Glasgow, Dublin, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Birmingham. Manchester premiere Tuesday November 29th by invitation only.
TICKETS are available from TICKETLINE 0161 832 1111 £12 and £10.
www.thedancehouse.co.uk www.smugroberts.co.uk
