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After five minutes researching Marcus Brigstocke I am exhausted. I need a lie down just reading about what he does. Does this man ever stand still? If he is not on TV he is on Radio 4 – and now he is coming to Brighton to host a special evening of comedy and music from entertainers who support a greener political future.
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Where are you Danyl?
I am coming to you live from my bed, in Reading, and I am eating a bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. I just played eight gigs in three days so I think I’m staying put today! I haven’t even virtually seen my own mum.
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Star of Oscar-nominated film In The Loop, BAFTA-winning The Thick Of It and writer of BBC2 sitcom Lab Rats, Chris Addison is returning to stand-up with a brand new show. First off though, congrats to him on the Oscar nomination as In The Loop has just been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
Chris Addison: Thanks, I wrote all of that. The whole film.
Victoria Nangle: Really, you scripted it?
CA: Well, it was the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, so it was adapted from things I was saying in the dining bus.
VN: What were you eating?
CA: Pure wit.
VN: I’m sure they were hanging on your every word.
CA: That’s it.
VN: Well congratulations.
CA: Thank you.
VN: I hope you have a nice suit ready.
CA: Err… I don’t think I’ll be going.
VN: You’re getting back into stand-up.
CA: Sure am. Yeah.
VN: Do you feel that you’re more of an actor lately than a stand-up?
CA: I’m a stand-up. That’s what I do. I have had to do other things. I’ve had to put it on the backburner for a couple of years, but basically I’m a stand-up. I’ve been a stand-up for 15 years, and it’s doing stand-up that got me into doing all of those other little things that have taken me slightly away from it. That’s just what happens. I think if you go on with these sorts of things – if you often work on the television or writing things – there are only so many hours in the day. You’ve got to take the time. But it’s all come from stand-up really.
VN: Is this a new stand-up show that you’re doing now?
CA: It is, yes.
VN: Will you be taking it to the Edinburgh Festival?
CA: I don’t know. We’ll see. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
VN: What’s it about?
CA: It’s not really about anything. The big shows that I’ve done previously, with themes and so on – I didn’t really want to do one of those again. I wanted to write something – this show’s a bit more personal I suppose. The first half in particular is very personal. But it doesn’t have a big theme in the way my shows always used to. It’s about how I’m not really made for this world, and why the world isn’t really made for this world I suppose.
VN: You’re pondering on your place in this world?
CA: Not really. That makes it sound terribly introspective and fey. No. I would deny that utterly.
VN: Alright, I won’t say that. What do you love about stand-up?
CA: It’s very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t done stand-up. It’s tremendously exciting. You can do things like acting and so forth – acting’s great because you’re with a bunch of people, which is not the case in stand-up. Writing is really good because you’ve got time to consider what you’re doing and what’s going on. Stand-up’s incredibly live. You’re the final arbiter of everything you do. You’re totally in control. When it’s at its best, it’s you and an audience building something in a room that’s a complete one-off and will never happen again. There’s something about live performance that just can’t be replicated on the telly. Even things like Live At The Apollo, which is definitely the best stand-up show that’s ever been on the telly. It’s become the closest to that total excitement you get at a live gig. But for years television tried to do stand-up and it kind of looked flat and leaden as soon as it hit the screen. And now, when you’re in the room there’s nothing better. I think it’s just a bunch of people knowing that they’re building something.
VN: Do you remember your first gig?
CA: Yes, of course I do.
VN: Where was it?
CA: It was at the Frog & Bucket, which is a pub – it’s moved now – it used to be a little pub in Manchester. Tiny wee thing. On Easter Monday 1995.
VN: And how did it go?
CA: It was terrible.
VN: But you kept going.
CA: Yeah.
VN: You got that one laugh that made you want to carry on?
CA: No, no. I didn’t get that. Don’t let’s build this up. No, I didn’t but I kept going. Dave Gorman happened to be there and he said to me afterwards, ‘don’t worry about that, this lot are rubbish tonight. You should come and do that again, there’s some good stuff in there.’ And I thought, oh, OK. But I wasn’t really convinced. It was about three months later, when I said ‘yeah, alright I’ll have another go’ – and that was much, much better.
VN: Did you actually write your first set, as you hear of some people just getting up and having a go with no plan?
CA: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, those people are idiots. Those people are the same people that think Tom and Jerry are real animals.
VN: You seem very active on Twitter at the moment. You wrote Lab Rats as well. Do you find that you have an imperative to keep working all the time?
CA: I think of myself as quite a lazy person, actually. But if I’m not doing something creative I do find myself getting a bit… itchy I think. I don’t think that I have an imperative to work.
VN: It seems that with some comics and writers they have an attention span where they have to entertain themselves, rather than an imperative to work.
CA: Well, there’s possibly that, yeah. The need to think is absolutely that, I don’t know about the need to work. I think all writers will tell you that the act of writing is in itself horrible, painful, and not a lot of fun. Which is true. It isn’t a lot of fun at all. So there must be something beyond it that compels you to do it because what you’re actually forcing yourself to do is quite unpleasant. No one likes writing and anyone who says they do is a liar.
VN: Who would you really like to work with? Would you like to do something along the lines of your own themed variety show, or would you like to do a film with your ideal cast?
CA: Well, I think you’d always like to do a film with your ideal cast wouldn’t you?
VN: Maybe.
CA: You know this is a really boring answer but it just depends on the part.
VN: You want a good casting director?
CA: No, no. What you want – actually to a point, that’s exactly what you want. You could write a film thinking, I want to write a film in which so-and-so will be in, in which case you can tailor the character. Or you could write a film and look at the characters and go, wait, who’d be good for these? Sometimes it’s quite useful actually to write with someone in mind. When we wrote Lab Rats we knew that Kara the Brummy lab assistant would be played by Jo Enright. So that part was written specifically for her. And that makes writing the part a lot easier. Imagine, it would’ve been a bastard if she’d said no. We’d've been in real trouble.
I’ve never harbored a grand ambition, you know what I mean? So I always find questions like that – who’s your ideal/who would you like to work with – very, very hard to answer. Because I don’t really know.
VN: So you just do what you enjoy and see where it takes you?
SA: Yeah. What I’m allowed to do.
VN: Who says what you’re allowed to do?
SA: The people who have control of the media through which I do it. Which is one of the good things about stand-up. I’ve got control of that, largely. Even if nobody would book me I could book a room myself and put a thing on. If I want to make a television programme that’s not entirely up to me. Or if I want to write a book I unfortunately don’t have a spare publishing house under my bag. Other people do it. You see what I mean? So you sort of have to do things (with other people). My career has never had any – there’s no driving force behind it. An awful lot of what’s happened to me has been accidental. People asking me to do stuff which has lead to other stuff, and so on. Which is great. It’s sort of how most people’s lives are. Nobody really ends up like they think they were going to end up.
VA: Very few people have an idea about where they’d like to end up.
SA: I think that’s true. Surprisingly, people in my sort of job are often in that position. Imagine that they’ve all got a plan. I don’t know what that plan might be. Sometimes I’ve spoken to comics who have been going for a very long time who are quite bitter about the fact that they’re still plugging away on the circuit and stuff. Why haven’t they got telly? – they say. And you say – what do you mean? What telly? Do you mean a sketch show? A chat show? Would you like a sitcom? Have you written anything? What are you doing? And they don’t really have any answers for that. They’ve just got this idea that they want to do a thing. I think there are some people who have an absolute idea about what they’d like to do in life. But for most people it’s just a combination of happenstance and opportunity coming along that probably wouldn’t have ever occurred to them. They end up doing something else.
VN: Do you enjoy what you’re doing now?
CA: I love it, yeah. Absolutely love it. I’m incredibly privileged in terms of what I’m doing. I’ve made a living for 15 years out of comedy, which I just love, and I’ve been given the opportunity to do things that I never would’ve considered. I would never have put myself up for The Thick Of It and In The Loop. And off the back of that I got to make a sitcom for BBC2. If you’d have told me that at 14 I’d have gone nuts. Absolutely nuts. It’s not the path that you expect it to be. You know, it all comes in different ways.
VN: Finally, what tips would you give to aspiring comics, as there’s a big new act circuit here in Brighton.
CA: I would say give up. There is no room. We’re full. There’s no hope for you. The chances of you making anything of yourselves are so slim to encourage you would be a cruelty. I think that we really ought to have a moratorium on new acts for at least seven years. And if you still want to do stand-up after that time then come back and have a word. But in the meantime, if you need any numbers for PGCEs or Job Centres I’m very happy to supply them.
Chris Addison, Komedia, Saturday 6 March, 5pm & 8pm, £15.
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Without Nick Broomfield, there’s a distinct possibility that the critically lauded likes of Michael Moore would be venting their collective spleens via a completely different medium. The documentarian, who made his name with his pioneering reflexive filmmaking style (the often difficult movie production process is usually as big a part of his stories as the larger-than-life subjects), has since moved onto making docu-dramatic features with the award-winning Ghosts and The Battle For Haditha. But it’s for his probing and often controversial real-life accounts that he’s best known. The man who delved into the deaths of Biggie and Tupac, cried foul play in Kurt And Courtney and got up close and personal with a murderess in Aileen Wournos: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer is now a patron of Brighton’s SEE Documentary Film Festival, which takes place this week from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 February. We spoke to the Sussex-based auteur ahead of his appearance.
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Our new programme for thelatest.tv sees Juice FM presenter Guy Lloyd investigate all manner of things. He starts off with chart-topping band The Hoosiers who were mega-successful a couple of years ago, were dropped by their major label and have become fashionably independent. Their chart-topping album cost £1 million to record, their new album £100 and we reckon it's just as good. We have exclusive footage of this new record. Guy does crazy-golfing with them, checks out their sound-check and witnesses the fans' adoration of the band at Audio in Brighton. In future shows Guy will be doing waxing, Dot Cotton, air guitar and needs your suggestions for more crazy things (or people) to do. Send to bill@thelatest.co.uk
AOH Special: It’s Festival time in Brighton & Hove, which means the Artists Open Houses have opened their doors for another year! Maps of all the trails can be picked up across the city. We love nothing better than browsing and buying arts and crafts, and there is so much going on throughout May that we’ve made it easier by bringing the Artists Open Houses to you! We have 11 special programmes, featuring artists in their own houses. So here’s your chance to go ‘through the keyhole’ so to speak as we visit the artists in their own environment.
© 2011 Latest Homes Ltd. Latest 7 is a Latest magazine published by Latest Homes Ltd.
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