| Wool, Langford, Cook and Williams promote their Fringe shows... |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|10:09 am] |
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It's been a busy week for comedy interviews in the Metro. Promoting their Edinburgh Fringe shows for this year, here is the "Five Questions For..." feature as answered by Glenn Wool (July 13th 2008), Lloyd Langford (July 14th 2008), Jason Cook (July 15th 2008) and Steve Williams (July 17th 2008):
Five Questions For Glenn Wool:
"Comedians aren't always content, but at least they get to vent. Hairy Canadian Glenn Wool is turning his miserable year into an Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, Goodbye Scars, and the catharsis begins in Birmingham."
Has this show been difficult to write?
"They're always difficult. With most shows, the hard part is linking the bits together, but if you write like I do, it all fits together pretty easily. The connecting line for this show is my divorce papers."
Isn't it a bit painful to perform?
"You know, I think this might be my last show about personal stuff. I remember thinking: 'Do I really want to be talking about my divorce every night onstage?' My philosophy is that things are going to kick you, so if you talk about it, it'll get better. Or a lot worse. I don't know."
Is confessional comedy the in-thing after Brendon Burns won the if.comedy award last year?
"Hey, probably. I just did the commentary on his DVD actually. We've got a little group of comics and every time one of us cuts a DVD we all come in and talk over it, and this time we were particularly vicious. There's some turmoil going on in the group, and it all came out. Comedian group therapy."
Are you off the sauce at the moment?
"God, no. I've also got a weird addiction to those oriental noodle packets at the moment. They're what I've been replacing cigarettes with, and I still don't know what's worse. But then I have been freebasing them."
Aren't you in a play at this year's Fringe, too?
"It's called the Office Party, and all I can say about it is that I'm the CEO. It's interactive, which is good, because you don't need to learn any lines. The only thing is, there's a lot of drinking involved and I have to go straight from that show to my own show. At least I'll always be in a good mood.""
Five Questions For Lloyd Langford:
"In his forthcoming Edinburgh show, Lloyd Langford admits he's Not A Lover, Not A Fighter. Metro tries to discover what this tipped-for-the-top stand-up is made of before his weekend stint in Cardiff.
Where are you?
"I'm on a bench that has a very large plaque provided by Loire Valley Wines and a list of the wines they have. It's a bench! It should be sponsored by Special Brew. This is making me slightly annoyed. I was hoping the bench would have been provided for the family of someone who really loved sitting here. This is just a hideous marketing machine."
If you're neither a lover nor a fighter, what are you?
"The title is about not being particularly good at those activities. It's an examination of my insecurities and experiences that have happened to me over the past couple of years, where I haven't necessarily handled myself that well."
Did you do a lot of loving and fighting to reach your conclusion?
"I think I'm one of those people who's a wimp, but end up finding myself in these situations after gigs where people are asking me to dance with them and I'm trying to explain to them that I have a girlfriend. And I can't dance."
How is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe different from your usual working life?
"You're doing something you wouldn't normally do and you have a lot of people who can call you a tit and write about you."
Will you be faffing around with props or keeping it straight?
"It's stand-up. If I'm putting stuff like that into the show, then I'm doing fewer jokes. I was thinking about doing a show last year but I didn't think I was ready. I'm a better comedian now."
Five Questions For Jason Cook:
"Newcastle comic Jason Cook has recently returned from the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, where he won the award for Best International Act for his show, My Confessions.
Why do you think My Confessions has been so popular in the UK and in New Zealand?
"I wrote it to tell true stories. There is no embellishment and people like it because it is quite honest."
Are you going to Edinburgh this year?
"Yes. I am going with the follow-up show to My Confessions, which is called Joy. It is about finding the joy in everything that we do. I think our joy in life is being squashed because if you look at the news it says that asylum-seeking, bird flu-infected obese children are coming to kill us all."
Are you doing anything more with your German techno parody act Die Clatterschenkenfietermaus?
"We're filming some TV stuff at the minute, which we are really excited about as we originally saw it as a TV project. We are also planning to go on tour again next year."
You can be quite insulting when you are doing Die Clatter Has anyone ever got upset?
"Generally, they like it. Although in Liverpool we once got heckled. One guy said: 'Why don't you f**k off back to where you came from, you German scum?' I think he genuinely believed we were German and that we were real."
Who do you think are the up-and-coming names on the comedy scene?
"Chris Ramsey, a South Shields comic, is really good. He does anecdotes and also has some surreal stuff. There is also Barry Dodds. He is a legend - we worked out that there are 11 comedians who tell stories about him onstage.""
Five Questions For Steve Williams:
"Comedian Steve Williams seems a chirpy enough chap but is, in fact, The Ultimate Worrier. That's the title of his new Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, bits of which he'll be airing at The Glee this weekend.
Last year you did a show about quitting drinking. Have you kept it up?
"I drink less now. My plan was to stay off booze for eight months from Christmas to last year's [Edinburgh] festival, but I only lasted until June. The subject of this year's show is quite telling, really. I used to glide through life when I drank more."
Is this pre-Edinburgh period particularly nerve-wracking?
"There are only two times of year where comedians get edgy - just before the world's biggest arts festival and just before Christmas, when the circuit becomes absolute carnage. The Christmas crowds are so drunk, they're watching the ceiling and don't even realise there's comedy on."
So what do you worry about in particular?
"Gastropubs are doing my head in at the moment. They're the ugly face of the commercialisation of the old man's pubs that I used to love. Eating off square plates, it does my box."
You're not taking on the big topics?
"They get an airing as well. I think things are changing and it depends whether you like change or not. Everything happens in cycles. The dinosaurs were saying it just before they died out: 'The world's going to the dogs.'"
Speaking of dinosaurs, you've been described as an old-fashioned comic. Is that fair?
"I think it was meant as a compliment. Some people get onstage and use Jurassic Park-style DNA technology to reinvent old scenarios but, with me, it's just what's in my mind. I suppose it is a bit old-fashioned when you think that we've been talking since the dawn of civilisation. I'm not reinventing the wheel here."" |
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