Comedy: Abandoman

Comedy rapper extraordinaire Abandoman brings his hit show Moonrock Boombox to town, and chats with Victoria Nangle

Yo, lovely rhyming man, how’s your day going?
Today so far, so good. Erm, I’m just up and sitting down to have this chat. I have had a banana smoothie with porridge, I’m trying to start a new healthkick before the tour.

Everyone wants to know – how do you prep and put together a show that’s themed and yet so based on improvising off the information you get from the audience?
I suppose the easiest way to do it is to have an idea of what a narrative arc might be, but no idea of what the actual content of all the bits that make up the narrative arc will be. Just like any Hollywood movie, you know there is going to be a quest. There is going to be a journey. At some point there is going to be sadness and despair; there might be, as is classic in a lot of Star Wars movies, a battle of some kind; a love interest. You know all those elements will be there, but what those elements will be filled in with and what those elements are going to be about every night are completely dependent on what the audience suggest.

So what makes this show different from your last one?
All our previous shows have consisted of songs that are about 3-5minutes long that are about a couple of people in the crowd, and when we finish, that’s that, we don’t go back to those people.

I mean, we might mention them again but the show is a collection of separate songs. This show is the first time of doing a ridiculous kind of 1980s action movie style narrative arc. It’s a show that is a whole journey as well as lots of individual ones. I think it is more complicated. Also, this is a tour with a band which often we don’t get to have.

You seem to be the only one truly doing complete rapping musicals. Any chance you’ll follow the way of the Minchin and team up with a West End production some day?
I would bloody well love that! That would be amazing. I adored Matilda – I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I love what Tim has done, its so funny and so ’Tim Minchin’. The idea of doing an Abandoman musical really appeals. I’m not sure what my subject matter would be. I know Tupac’s life is being turned into a musical at the moment and there have been a couple of other hip hop musicals. Maybe I need to just choose a good story and then start rapping it up. One thing I’d genuinely like to do is a rapping cookery book where I just freestyle recipes at you; I think that’d be quite good fun.

What keeps you grounded in the face of all of these awards, nominations and five star reviews?
Despite all the lovely awards and accolades we’ve had over the past few years, we do still feel a sense of nervousness everytime we go out to create a new show. I think that’s always there, we’re always thinking about what the next thing is. There is always the fear that when you sit down to create the next one there won’t be anything there.

What’s your biggest ambition you still have to fulfil?
To write an album. The reason I started freestyling is that I could never really focus long enough to write music, so I’ve recently started going to music gigs and getting up and doing some of my own songs that I’ve prepared. I feel really self conscious when I perform stuff that I’ve actually written. It’s a strange thing, it’s almost as though I should have thought about it more. Plus I really enjoy that state you get in when you’re freestyling- it’s very lucid, its very easy, and when I’m writing songs and having to remember lyrics, it definitely feels more difficult. But making an album is something I’d like to do in the next year or two.

What have you got planned for the next 12 months? Christmas DVDs? Learn to rap in French?
A live Twitter rap performance?
All of the above, and all good ideas! I have actually rapped in French before… I learnt it on a very basic level at school but I’ve just about retained enough words to occasionally drop a verse in French here or there, which can be fun. We’re writing a new show for Edinburgh – called Hot Desk- which should be quite exciting. I’d love to travel to the states in the later part of this year and in an ideal world I’d hang out with some rappers that I look up to. I’d love a freestyle session with some American rappers just to see how I’d fit in. I probably wouldn’t fit in at all but I’d still be curious to find out.

Abandoman: Moonrock Boombox, Komedia, Tues 10 June, 7.45pm, £6.50/5