Interview: Phill Jupitus

Annual comedy fundraiser Big Cheer! is back raising funds for local charity Amaze with Phill Jupitus headlining a cracking line-up. Victoria Nangle caught a quick word

How did you hear about Amaze?
“I know Annabel Giles, who is very closely associated with them, and her son is a young man with autism as well. So yes, she’s become involved with the charity and all the help that they give to families in that situation. I’ve known Annabel for bloody years really in the business – we did some telly, I think it must be about 20 years ago together and she was putting this night on, and when you’re putting a benefit together you reach for the address book and in a dusty corner she remembered that I was an old friend so yeah – you get the call!”
Thank you very much for answering it. You’ve recently returned to performance poetry. Are we likely to see some of that at the gig?
“The thing is, that’s the odd thing about these gigs, I tend to not think until the day before about what I’m gonna do. There’s a possibility I might do that but also by the same token I might not. Because I’ve also got a hefty back catalogue of stand-up as well. And now I also do music too. I also write songs. So there’s a lot of stuff to draw from. I had a chat with Annabel about it and to a certain extent she’ll be able to say ‘no, don’t do that’ [chuckles]. When you’re doing a benefit, you’re pretty much on their showing and so it’s a question of a compromise between what they would like and what you fancy doing on the night.

As I’ve got older, I get less anxious about what I’m going to do for that gig. I mean, we’re a month away from it [at time of the interview] and my mind is on what’s for dinner tonight. Am I gonna do the sea bass or am I gonna do the chicken and shallots? That’s the major decision really. Sea bass is so easy, and you’re in Brighton, it’s not like you can’t get good locally sourced seabass right out of the water, caught that morning. Two fillets, the ones that are like four or five quid, two fillets, have dinner for two. You marinade it in lemon juice for three minutes a side including the skin and then you grill it for three minutes a side on moderate to high heat. There’s your dinner. Come on.

That sounds lovely…
“That’s all you need, a bit of salt and pepper. Keep it simple.”

You’re also quite a keen improviser…
“Yeah, yeah, which I’ve been doing a lot more of in the past couple of years.”

What would you credit for the recent rise in inprov?
“I think that partially it’s the way that stand up has become a very dominant form. People are getting a very slick, very sculpted 20-minute set they can perform. And the same all the time, having that locked set has become the dominant form in how people consume comedy and I think performers are like, ‘Ah, really?’. Yeah?

Get a good 20 in, Schlep that around for a year, get another 20 and schlep that around for a year. No! Because the thing is that I did that. I did my schlepping the same 20 around in the ’90s. I’ve had my go at doing that. People who come to see you have seen Buzzcocks and QI, and the funny stuff that happened on those shows happened on the night. So I’ve tried to construct a way of doing stand up so that it all happens on the night and in the room. It’s much more audience-driven.”

You have been doing an awful lot of things – including cooking – but I would call you a ‘comedy adventurer’. How would you respond to that?
“You know what, I’ve never heard that before and I very much like it. I think it suits my age because now, being 50, it’s not like you’re a young gun trying to make a name for yourself. I was thinking the other day about how my audiences at Edinburgh – they hover, they don’t sell out.

Sometimes they do if I’m doing a little room, but I puddle along quite nicely. You know what, I’m like Squeeze. Everyone knows what they get with Squeeze. [chuckles] ‘Oh it’s Squeeze’. I reckon people think, ‘Oh, it’s Phill’. I’m like that. It’s like an old family acquaintance, it’s not like a Lee Evans or an Eddie Izzard where you’re like, ‘I’ve got to see that gig! Oh my god!’. It’s like, ‘Oh Phill’s on the night, oh yeah’.”

But don’t you prefer that uncle that’s great fun coming round rather than the one that you listen to and don’t actually feel like they belong to you?
[Laughs] “Vicky, I may have to actually commission you to write my next press release – ‘comedy adventurer and uncle, Phil Jupitus’. I’m loving this!

I think I’m going to have to buy a pith helmet and grow a handlebar moustache and start using Gentleman’s Relish. [Laughs] It’s not that I have a short attention span, it’s just once I’ve done something I’m like, ‘right I’ve done that, good’. It’s like the box is ticked and I know how to do it. I don’t want to wring the rag until it’s dry, I like having wet rags flying around, you know?”

You mentioned Buzzcocks which has been going for 16 years and become a bit of an institution but is known as an anarchic quiz show. How do those two ideas tally?
“I think the reason the show lasted is because the new people on the show every week outnumbered the regulars. Me and Noel are the regulars so there’s two anchors and five mavericks.

Do you think you’ll still be doing it in your bath chairs?
“I’d like to but I’d like to have one of those roboty ones, in fact no, I’d have the bottom half of a dalek. You know television is like a loaded gun. When they’ve had enough of you, you’re done. The thing that upsets me is with Buzzcocks is I’d like to know it’s my last one. I stopped filming it mid November and there’s every possibility it might not come back. If they don’t have enough money to play with, they might say ‘you know what? No more’. It’s entirely feasible, they might even say Phill, we don’t think you’re right anymore, we’re gonna get in someone younger’.

That is entirely feasible but I’d love to know when my last one was because what I wanted to do was the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ending with me and Noel, and actually pay for 50 extras to represent the Mexican army and have us running out of the television centre and dying in a hail of bullets.”

Going back to Amaze, what would be your best parenting tip?
“Don’t think that when you have a child you learn to be a parent and after about four years, you’re a parent. The first year, you’re the parent of a one year old. The second year, you’re the parent of a two year old, and this continues for the rest of their natural lives. At the moment I’m the parent of an 18 year old and a 22 year old. It’s fun, they change constantly. I thought you’d become a parent after two, three, four years and then there’s occasional things to deal with so you become a different parent on a month-by-month basis. It’s a constant learning curve and it never ends. That’s the one tip.”

Big Cheer For Amaze – featuring Phill Jupitus and others,
Theatre Royal Brighton, Thursday 7 February 2013, 7.45pm, £20.50, www.atgtickets.com/brighton
www.amazebrighton.org.uk