What do your parents/children (delete as applicable) think of your job?
My parents have always been very supportive and I think they’re proud of me, which at the end of the day I suppose is one of the main reasons I did it in the first place. I think they struggle to understand it at some times. From the outside it can look like a cruel and unnecessary thing to put yourself through, especially if they see me have a bad gig or when they see how nervous I get beforehand, but they know me as their son and understand who I am and what I am attempting to achieve and that it is all coming from a good place. At the end of the day it is a piece of entertainment and they take it in the spirit that its intended, so when they see their boy standing in his pants yelling the word ‘cunt’ into a stranger’s face I’m sure they can’t help but swell with a bit of pride.
What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?
I guess it is the constant need to prove yourself. Either to yourself or to your audience. You can have the best gig of your life, but as soon as it’s over you have to start at square one again because that success doesn’t carry over to the next one. On a positive note the same can be said for bad gigs, however they have a tendency to psychologically stick with you longer. I guess it teaches you to enjoy it for what it is and not to dwell on anything too long.
I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?
I like what I do and am proud and grateful that I can use stand up as a way of expressing myself. It has sort of gone full circle, where I started out as a writer being very personal and then my stage act became more and more separated from myself where it was almost like writing for a character. The last show I wrote (am writing), which I took around the North this year as a work in progress tour, is one of the most personal things I’ve ever written and its taken me out of my comfort zone a little, but actually I feel like I have rediscovered my voice a bit over the last year. I think I haven’t taken the easy route with what I do and I struggle sometimes to make myself understood, but at the end of the day you have to take all this with a pinch of salt and not navel gaze too much otherwise you may end up just finding its all full of fluff.
How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?
I earn enough to keep me grounded.
How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?
I have had my fair share of luck over the years, and there are plenty of acts out there that deserve to be more successful or well known than they are. I think all success comes down to a combination of talent, hard work and luck. I work hard at what I do and I think that, especially in comedy, hard work and persistence is not a thing that can be cheated or faked. You can win a competition to get better gigs, but that will never be as useful as years of trial, error, failure and experience. However all the hard work in the world isn’t going to help if you haven’t got an act that people want to watch, so it’s about learning from your successes and failures and then working in the right direction. But then you can work hard in the right direction and yet somehow never be in a place where the right people see you, so that’s where luck comes in I guess. And I think that if you were to look at all the success stories out there it would be some sort of combination of these three things. At the end of the day you’re not really in control of luck so all you can do is work hard and learn from your experiences.
Alan Davies has said that comedians fall into two categories - golfers and self-harmers. The former just get on with life, the latter are tortured artists. Which are you – or do you think you fit into a third category?
It depends what day it is. I am probably more of a self-harming tortured artist, but I am also sort of taking the piss out of that as well, so I wouldn’t want to think I was so un-self-aware that my own joke was lost on me. Maybe the trick is to make yourself so busy that you have no option other than to go on auto-pilot and take it as it comes. The less busy you are the more of a luxury agonizing over every aspect of your life is. I’ve started saying yes to a lot more things and work-wise I have never been happier, although I remain chronically unhappy with nearly every other aspect of my life so it hasn’t affected my ability to generate material.
Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?
Oh I see. All of a sudden the real reason for this questionnaire rears its ugly head. Are we all meant to say Bruce Dessau? Because I’m not going to Bruce. You can’t just fish for compliments like this. My three heroes are Alice Cooper, Bruce Campbell and Sylvester Stallone. I have others, but these three are the unshakable foundations of what I do and what gets me going in the morning. But that’s not the question is it? “Who is your favourite person – not including family, friends or other comedians?” Hmmmm. Probably Steve Bennett.
Do you keep your drawers tidy and if not why not?
Every so often I tidy my drawers, usually when I have a writing deadline looming, but at the moment my flat is a total shit hole so maybe I have overcome my tendency to procrastinate. Having said that, look at how long some of these answers are. I am blatantly putting off writing my Christmas Show to drag out this very quick little Q&A you’ve sent me. This is the last question too. I can’t drag this out any more than I have done. I guess I’ll have to go and do some real writing now instead of providing your website with free content. Fuck. Wish me luck.
