Adam Kay (Amateur Transplants) interview

Adam Kay, frontman of musical comedy act Amateur Transplant, is coming to town to tickle your ribs in a most un-medical fashion. Victoria Nangle asked him a few questions ahead of the show

Hello, how are you today?
“A bit sore, since you ask – I broke my arm about a month ago, and even though I’m out of plaster and back playing the piano it’s still slightly… oh, you were just being polite weren’t you?”

‘The London Underground Song’ song has been incredibly successful. Do you love it as it is, or do you ever add extra verses if something new annoys you getting across London?
“It’s sort of my ‘Creep’. Clearly it’s been responsible for catalysing my limited success, so I’m very grateful to it, but I must have played it at least four hundred million times, so I could quite happily never sing it again. But yes, I do update it fairly often – the tube is a never-ending fountain of ****.”

Do you have a writing process?
“It’s my special formula; so don’t tell too many people please. I hear a song where a word in the chorus rhymes with bum or c***, then I change that word to bum or c***. Finally I stretch the joke out until it lasts three minutes.”

You knocked Tim Minchin off the Christmas top spot in the iTunes chart in 2010. Might you be interested in doing a West End backed musical some day akin to Tim’s ‘Matilda’ (not that we have the cash to back it – sorry)?
“I would love to write a musical. Tim is a genius – and to make matters much much worse, an extremely lovely man. Also, he once said “I can’t say word the **** any more. Amateur Transplants have devalued the currency of swearing.”

You give a percentage of your sales to Macmillan Cancer Relief. Who would be your dream comedy line-up if you were asked to put on a gala fundraiser for the charity?
“Ooh. Let’s have Reg D Hunter, Denis Leary, Simon Evans, Stephen Lynch and Lee Mack please. Lee Mack on the box office – nowhere near the stage please.”

What is your favourite description of your show by someone else?
“‘Artistically bankrupt’ – Chortle.”

Which song do you wish you’d written?
“I think ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ would help with the gas bills quite a bit.”

Which song do you wish had never been written?
“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Load of pretentious bull – what do any of the lyrics even mean?”

What as the last thing/experience that really got your goat and started up your vitriol?
“My delightful energy provider made a clerical error and were trying to make me pay insane sums of money, despite protracted discussions. Even my ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ royalties would have struggled to pay it.”

Are you looking forward to playing in Brighton?
“I am – I always enjoy playing Brighton. Also, I was born at the Royal Sussex and I’m a homosexual, so it seems a good fit.”

Amateur Transplants: Adam Kay’s Bum Notes, The Old Market, 13 November 2013, £14/12, 01273 201800, www.theoldmarket.com