Boothby Graffoe – The Insight

Journalism

Radio Four poster boy Boothby Graffoe, will be refurbishing Komedia fresh from his award-winning show In No Particular Order. Interviewing Graffoe is like being caught in the headlights. With a wit so quick it’s like, well … quick, Boothby moves from silly off-the-cuff stuff to pithy and punchy one-liners. As fast as you’ve understood the last joke he’s onto the next and as soon as you’ve understood the next, he’s waiting for you to catch up. Not only a gifted comedian, Graffoe is also a fine musician, combining a mix of Zappa and Milligan, Boothby will make you laugh with his absurdist slants, melodic rants, and just the plain ole sound of his voice.

How would you describe your comedy?

Purple, frilly, animal friendly, and very tasty in the afternoon when you’ve forgotten your breakfast.

What are your influences?

Alcohol, Nurofen, Ibuprofen, any painkillers.

Why did you want to be a comedian?

I didn’t. I wanted to be great Shakespearian actor, but wasn’t any good at it.

Where does your inspiration come from?

Well sometimes I write with a guy called Dave Thompson (Tinky Winky from the Teletubbies) and other times things are just given to you on a plate. Like George Bush when he said about Osama Bin Laden, “We don’t know where he is, but when we find him – we will.” Or when Claire Short said, “I think we should legalise Marijuana,” and the next day she said; “I don’t remember saying that”. Probably had a few spliffs herself …

What makes someone funny? Plato said that comedy was just tragedy plus distance.

Well, Woody Allen said it’s tragedy plus timing, but I think its tragedy plus tiiiime. I mean, people have jokes about The Titanic, which are funny now, but at the time – I can imagine they weren’t. Like when I did this song about the Israeli – Palestine question. I mean it wasn’t exactly ground breaking, all I was suggesting was, that, seeing as the only people the Arabs dislike more than Jews are the Americans, then maybe they aren’t the best people to be in charge of the peace process – and this bloke complained about my handling of the peace process!? I mean why’s he writing to me?!

Do you think different cultures have different senses of humour?

Yeah, but a fat man with bricks being dropped on his head – that’s funny in any language.

Steve Punt – The Insight

Journalism

One half of comedy duo, Punt and Dennis, and one quarter of classic comedy quartet, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Steve Punt will be performing his new show with Hugh Dennis – Grown men in public. Famous for coining “milky milky” Steve Punt has written for Spitting image, The Rory Bremner show, The Kumars at Number 72, Canned Carrott and more recently, Alistair McGowan and John Culshaw.

So Steve, what’s your new show about?

It’s not really about anything… there is a trend towards comedians setting themselves the ridiculous task of basing their act around just one theme… Stand up requires hard-hitting material, its very gladiatorial. When you finish, you feel like shouting “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!” (I laugh as he puts on his Maximus voice.) The more gentler, visual jokes, you can do in theatre – our show will be a mixture of the two.

How do you write in a duo?

Classic theory is the typer and the pacer. One sits and writes, while the pacer throws ideas out. Ours has never worked like that. It’s usually a huge bag of bits and if you can remember the joke, that tends to be the good one.

Have you ever used messenger to write comedy?

There was talk of having a show scripted on that basis. You’d have a group of actors in a room with webcams and people would message in lines, which would be improvised. But I think that’s too far ahead of its time, I don’t think even BBC 3 would touch that.

How do you pitch your ideas?

With extreme caution. I’ll give you an example. There was going to be an American version of porridge. TV executives noticed the main character was a criminal… what about a wrongly convicted criminal? Well ok… What about a female comedian? Well, it’s not going to be porridge then. Things tend to go through a sausage machine.

Do you still keep in touch with Baddiel and Newman?

Hugh and Dave play football together and Rob is in America promoting his book.

Why have they never repeated The Mary Whitehouse Experience?

That’s a good question. In fact I think there might be DVD release, but why it was never repeated? – I don’t know. Probably a technical dull reason… I’m not sure if Rob would like to see his old hair cut on the TV again.

Hyperbolix – Club previews – The Source

Journalism

Sindrome The Gloucester – Tuesdays

Tuesday is The Gloucester’s fright night for Brighton darklings. Death metallers with spikes and hardcore tats – quite nice people actually, and Goths – surprisingly chirpy. There’s a sweeping esplanade to testify the merits of metal, a balcony for a birds eye view of the stomping and pogoing, and a huge bar mirror to check if you really are one of the ‘beautiful people’ (geddit?!). Whether you wanna mosh, or just look miserable in the corner with your snakebite, there’s loads of gruff stuff to appeal to everyone’s dark-side. From techy and industrial Prodigy, the self-hating beauty of NIN, to the grand rock ballads of Guns‘n’Roses and angrrry anger of Sepultura, It’s a cheap and cheerful night, which is well worth a look if you’re into rock. A night to let your hair down, head bang, and… well…erm, whip people with it.. owch!
Continue Reading

Mark Thomas – The Insight

Journalism

Campaigning comedy must be a strange business. Torture, arms dealing and globalization are not usually full of laughs. Mark Thomas’ comedy is combination of political activism and investigative journalism; tangled tales of cover-up and conspiracy at break neck speed and mental breakdown stylee. Growing up as the son of a lay preacher and the grandson of a Baptist preacher, Thomas came naturally to the soapbox. He won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital public school and then went on to study drama at Bretton Hall, before getting political with a benefit gig for the miners’ strike. He now performs standup around the UK and regularly has a column in the New Statesman. I thought I’d catch a brief word with Thomas, before he hopped on a plane to his latest fact finding mission to India.

Are you a capitalist or socialist?

Anarcholiberal.

Are you working or middle class?

I was working class, but my family didn’t like it, became middle class. There are more c**ts around being middle class but the food is better.

Do we destroy the system from the inside or end up becoming part of the system?

No you can’t and yes you do.

What would you say to the cynical and apathetic?

Keep it up.

When was the last time you had a McDonalds?

Some Morris dancers and myself went to dance in front of their in-store cameras and claim the footage back under the Data Protection Act – so about four years ago.

How would you like to see society organised in the future?

Disorganised.

Is it getting better or getting worse?

Things can only get better. Get better. Get better. Things can only get. Things can only get. And with that, Thomas is running out the door to catch his plane.

Dave Gorman – The Insight

Journalism

What have ambidextrous scallywags and shoe-horning matrons got in common? The same as the velvety proletariat and a fetishized armadillo. They are all successful googlewhacks. Googlewacking, the latest insane Internet game is going from cult to mainstream with the help of Britain’s wackiest brain – Dave Gorman.

Nominated for a Perrier award and winner of two BAFTAs’ as part of the Mrs Merton team, Gorman blends mathematical monkey business with astrological gobbledygook, with often hilarious as well as thought-provoking results.

His latest exploration into the absurd is Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure, a number one bestseller which has already sold over 100,000 copies. Googlewhacking is a game that derives from internet search engine Google, where the goal is to find any two word phrase with a search result of one, or in other words, a googlewhack. Although Gorman admits, “Googlewhacking took over my life, ” he doesn’t really see himself as a nerd, confiding, “There is some geekiness inside but I think we should all learn to love our inner geek.”

Having started out at Manchester University, he now stands alongside classic comedy alumni Ben ELton, Rick Mayall and Ade Edmondson, yet says; ‘I had no idea why I got into comedy. It just happened. I used to do some work for Amnesty International, they were sponsoring a tour that had a workshop tagged on as an extra fundraiser, run by a little-known-at-the-time Frank Skinner. I bumped into him a few weeks later and he invited me to perform, I think I must have the show off gene.”

His shows Are you Dave Gorman? – a rip-roaringly entertaining search for other Dave Gormans, and Dave Gorman’s Important Astrological Experiment – a madcap epistemological study of horoscopes, brought him celebrity. “Fame wasn’t really my goal, ‘ he says, ‘I don’t even really think that I am famous.” But surely it has its benefits? “Well take Chris Evans, my dad knows who he is – yet hasn’t seen any of his shows. Now that’s got to bed bad thing. Geri Halliwell, she’ll do presenting, performing, singing – she wants to be famous, bless her heart – but I can’t really think in terms of fame, it’s just a thing.”

His tone is perplexed, conveying an audible vexation at the obsession with celebrity. “I mean you would have to be inhuman to say that you don’t enjoy it. I feel the same, only where I used to play to l00, l now play to a 1000.” Just to prove it Gorman presented and sold out The Comedy Zone for five consecutive years. “In the late Nineties I was having a lot of success in Edinburgh, and it’s exciting proving you’ve got the goods. Once you’ve done that, when people know who you are – you don’t know how good you are. It’s not about wanting to be successful, but doing the job well. There are a lot of comedians about, who project this image that they just watch daytime TV. Some do try to sell this image to you and, I mean, that’s part of the act. For me, I’m up at eight every morning.”

A hard work ethic combined with an obsessive personality, is this what makes a great comedian? “I can’t really define what the essential quality is. I think if people knew the answer to that, there would be a lot more great comedians. But yeah … I was talking to Barry Cryer, and he said, the thing with all comedians is, that they are all … (long pause) aliens.” I laugh as he puts on a Martian drawl. “In a way though, I think it’s good that I don’t know the answers to these questions.”

Gorman is a reflective and thoughtful soul who weighs his answers as honestly, as much as he takes his comedy seriously. But there are things which you can’t joke about, aren’t there? “I don’t think there are any taboos – Caroline Aherne once did a joke as Sister Mary Immaculate, about the way the Catholic Church perceives rape. Rape is disgusting and abhorrent. But if what informs your joke is the correct attitude, then it’s acceptable comedy.”

Great comedy has at its heart a powerful message. Gorman’s adventures take a look at whether there really is anything in a name and whether there really is any truth in the stars. A thoroughly nice chap, I recommend his googlewhack.