» Magic Marcus
Marcus Brigstocke talks to Andrew Kay about his busy comedy career and green politics
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.
Did you have any dissent from your family when you chose a job in the arts?
Well I wrote to my family when I was at University and they said you really have to get a proper job. I was losing money as a comedian traveling to gigs that I wasn’t being paid for. And I said please bear with me, because it’s going well, I really think that I am onto something here, and they were actually very cool and supported my for a year.
They must be delighted now: look at anything, and you are on or in it!
The thing is I am a big tart, I just love performing. Ask me to sing and dance and once upon a time I would even do that. I don’t now because I really can’t and I would lose dignity. People call me up and I say, what, me? Yeah, alright, brilliant.
But that can get you into real trouble.
Yes, I’ve made some right old shit. I don’t know what I am more ashamed of, Hole In The Wall or the six programmes I made with Anne Robinson.
Oh, Hole In The Wall surely, we should be ashamed as a nation for that.
Well yes, but to be honest we didn’t invent it, we bought it in.
Do you ever get to be at home with your family?
Yes. I shouldn’t be saying this as it’s really unglamorous but I am a real home bod. I’m not very rock ’n’ roll. After a gig I like to go home and wake up in my own bed. I like to drop off and pick up my kids from school, really mundane stuff, and I like to tend my garden and grow my own vegetables. You have no idea how much pleasure we got from just one aubergine that we grew or our single pear.
How do you find time for that?
Well I work very intensively on a project for a few months or on a tour say, and then I take two days off. I took a month off for Christmas, then I did a month in the West End, and now I have a week off. I’ve done a lot, it’s been great, what a ride.
On top of all that you have agreed to come to Brighton to do this gig in support of Caroline Lucas and the Green Party…
Yes, last year I did a National tour and managed to miss Brighton. Mad really, especially as a Brighton audience would have really understood the material I was doing – unlike Ilfracombe, which was a bit tricky. I had been down to Brighton to meet Caroline and help with the launch of her campaign. I really like her and what she is doing and I thought, here is a real opportunity to do something interesting. So, as I had missed it on the tour, I thought, great, I’ll book a theatre, call up a few mates and see who is up for doing this and put on a show. It has been great and the line-up is amazing: Russell Howard, Mark Steel, Alistair McGowan and a ton of others, plus some great musicians and surprises on the night.
Is the show a benefit?
Well I suppose it is but really it’s me putting on a great show with a load of my mates. Everybody has agreed that all the money from the gig will go towards Caroline’s campaign. Very few of the acts actually live in Brighton so in real terms it’s none of our f****** business, but the idea for me is to get a Green politician into Westminster amongst the current crop. One who is not answerable to a huge party machine but more to her own conscience has to be a good thing.
“I don’t know what I am more ashamed of, Hole In The Wall or the six programmes I made
with Anne Robinson”
Are you, like me, tired of party politics?
Well yes, but I can see that it’s great to have a party behind you, because you have support. But what interests me in politics are those independent voices who, even when in a party, will not just tow that party line. That is what I like about Caroline Lucas. I loved something she said at the launch of her campaign. She asked a pretty politically savvy audience how many Labour MPs there were in Westminster and how many Tories, and no one knew. She then pointed out that on that basis one fewer in each of those parties would make no difference, but one Green Party MP would make a huge difference. There is a real danger that the BNP and the grey suits that are UKIP will land a seat and I am damned if I will simply let that happen.
It’s clever timing to be here the same weekend as the Tory Winter conference.
Yes, what a surprise, let’s hope it is a ‘winter’ for them.
Do you think there will be some closet green Tories who will sneak out of conference to come and see your show?
Well they are all very keen to be green aren’t they – well, at least four of them. It’s so funny, on the Tory front bench you have Cameron and his people, and then one row back you have the same old Tories from thirty years ago going “These damned weirdos with their damned wind turbines and their civil partnerships!” Completely unchanged. I hope we get a few defectors coming across or, even better, some who think ‘ooh what a great gig, that will be fun’ and then find out later why we are doing this.
Do you think the audience will all be Green supporters?
I hope comedy supporters, really. It would be disappointing to have just Green supporters who already have the message. This is a comedy gig, not just a manifesto thing, and although a lot of the acts do very political material not all of them do. I want to make party politics a bit more sexy too. I am working on something with a great sexy voice-over, reading the manifesto over a really dirty sax solo for the finale. That should be really great. Every one I asked to do this said ‘yes, I’ve heard of Caroline Lucas, I’ll do that’. If they were free they said yes– no matter what their political allegiances have been in the past.
Have you given the acts a remit to put together a ‘green’ act?
No, they can do what they want, I haven’t told them yet though that all transport to and from the gig must be by bicycle or horse drawn carriage.
Marcus Brigstocke And Friends is at Theatre Royal Brighton on Saturday 27 February, £21, 08448 717650 www.theambassadors.com/theatreroyal
