Comedy: Alexei Sayle

Pioneer of alternative comedy, godfather of political stand-up, as well as author and broadcaster – Alexei Sayle talks to Victoria Nangle about returning to his stand-up roots

How has your day been?
“It’s been alright so far, I haven’t been up that long, I woke up about half seven.”

That’s quite early for a comic.
“Yeah well, it’s because I’m not working nights you know. I’ve not really been a comic for 16 years.”

How do you feel about becoming a comic again then?
“Well I wouldn’t like to think that was all there was to me, but to become 35% a comic I think is alright. Yeah no, I’m excited about the tour, looking forward to it – which never was the case before so that’s nice.”

Did you get a lot of stage fright before?
“Not stage fright really, but I just did not want to do it. It was always like a battle, but also I was doing… if anything, if the show got too cosy I’d always want to blow that apart. It was very post-punk what I was doing before. I was also doing like two hours, which is a long time. Physically it’s very, very demanding to do that long and so, you know, it was a challenge. It’s an ongoing thing. I’m gonna do about 50 minutes, so it’s more comfy and I won’t be screaming at people quite so much.”

What made you want to come back?
“Well it was a sort of surprise really, I did a show with Stewart Lee, which Stewart Lee ‘curated’ I think is the modern term, last year called At Last! The 1981 Show which was a bunch of people from 1981, it just went very well really so I saw the possibility of doing something different.”

Do you still consider yourself an angry performer in any way?
“Well despite my best efforts injustice and cruelty have not disappeared from the world so there’s still sh*t to get angry about, so I think, you know, I still will get angry but hopefully it will be more coherent.”

Do you consider the proper noun ‘Labour Party’ to still be accurate and if not, what name do you think would be more appropriate?
“(pauses) Um… well… um… no. I’d say no, but what party is really? The Labour Party in the sense of representing the industrial roots, the working man – no, it doesn’t really, not at all, it probably never really did.”

What would you rename it?
“(laughing) Well… the scaredy-cat party, I don’t know.”

You are considered hugely influential in shaping contemporary comedy. Who would you say is shaping comedy now?
“Who’s shaping comedy now? Whoever runs Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs. I mean I was in a fortunate position really, some of it is just simply timing. There was nobody, when I started having the ideas that I had, so it was easy in a sense. I mean, you had to have the vision but now there’s no one individual that can shape it because there’s so many people doing it, and there’s no-one really that can have as great an influence as I had, simply because of the timing and the landscape really. It was a much more disparate time. There’s one American comic who I really think is fantastic, and I mean I don’t know how much influence he’s had over here, he’s called Louis C.K, do you know of his work?”

Did you know your autograph is on Amazon for £10.32?
“No, no I didn’t! Well, to know what that means I need to really know what a person of similar or lesser rank’s is worth. What is Nigel Planer’s autograph going for?”

You need a league table of ’80s comedy icons?
“Yeah exactly, to see where I stand.”

It’s on a picture of you in Doctor Who. Would you do Doctor Who again if you were asked?
“Christ yeah, I’d jump at that but then I think I was – it wasn’t the worst Doctor by any means but it wasn’t the greatest period for Doctor Who when I did it, really, so I don’t know whether they think I’m tainted. But I knew David Tennant when he was a young actor. The first time he met me he was always shaking because I was in Doctor Who. How the tables have turned.”

Alexei Sayle, The Old Market, Fri 19 October, 7.30pm, £14/12