Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Comedian & writer; founder of alt comedy, first MC at Comedy Store, household name, left comedy to write, back after 16 yrs.
On the island
Eight records
My best friend is Argentinian. And so he told me about Carlos Gardell. But my other thing is that I and it's a failing in me, but I've never really quite understood live music, that I don't understand what it's for. Really, that for me, music is either to listen to or to dance to. I thought, well, I chose Carlos Cardell because he's the king of tango and tango was also was developed in the brothels of Buenos Aires and it would be men who would dance with other men. Well, I'll have to make myself a kind of like in Castaway or something. I haven't asked for this, but if I could have a a basketball Wilson written on it, and then I'll make myself a woman or a man and I will on my desert island I will dance the tango to Carlos Gardell.
This was played at my mother's uh funeral. … And uh he sang it and uh you know it's a it's a kind of anthem of uh you know kind of revolutionary politics and uh he actually ch changed the words so he said I he put Molly Sale where Joe Hill was so he said I dreamed I saw Molly Sale last night alive as you
The Aviator's March (Battle Hymn of the Soviet Air Force)
If I'm alone on this desert island, then it will of essence be a socialist republic, see as I'm a socialist, and so it'll need an anthem. And so I have chosen for the anthem of the Tropical Socialist Republic of Alexei Sale, I have chosen the battle hymn of the Soviet Air Force.
I just love Brecht from a very early age. I particularly like the Threepenny Opera. And I also just think Pirate Jenny is also because it's this idea of a woman who's a waitress in a hotel, but she dreams that she's really a pirate … That's how I felt. When I worked in the civil service, I felt a bit like that.
Me and Bobby McGeeFavourite
This is Linda's favourite singer, which is Janice Joplin. And I, you know, when we were on the road, you know, we'd have long drives and we'd have a sing song, really. And this is one of the songs that I sing to my wife.
I think it's the greatest protest song of all time. It gets into talking about the Falklands War via a metaphor, which is about shipbuilding, you know, and just beautiful, beautiful lines, you know.
This just trying to make me, you know, seem like I'm vaguely in the twenty first century.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:55How central is your regional perspective to your comedy, do you think?
You know, Liverpool people have chosen to be funny, you know, and and you know, like in normal schools, you know, you go into class next day and they say, Oh, wasn't Monty Python, you know, great? It was like you know, in Liverpool they go, Yeah, well, I felt that the second act sagged and some of the sketches, you know, had an element of pathos, which I actually found uh, you know, technically it verged towards the dad artist rather than you know, Liverpool people have always been much more analytical, I think, about comedy.
Presenter asks
6:02How fundamental were [your parents' Communist] values to the childhood that you had?
Well, I think they were very fundamental, really. I mean, the Communist Party always said that, particularly if you were a job steward, or if you were that you had to be a good worker, the men had to see that if you were spouting this revolutionary kind of stuff or you're trying to get them to go on strike or whatever, that you had to show that you were the also the best, that you weren't a Skyver, you were an honourable, decent person. And I think some of that stayed with me. I mean, I had like five years of doing terrible jobs. That was I actually didn't really live up to that. That was pretty bad Skyver. But since I've been in comedy, I think by and large that I've tried to be, you know, not somebody who kinda messes around, you know, but somebody who's always reliable and and so on and so forth. And I think I think I got that from my dad really.
The keepsakes
The book
Evelyn Waugh
my favourite author has always been Evelyn Waugh, really. I think that he's an alcoholic, hated the working class. But on the other hand, I always think there's a tremendous humanity, I think, in his works. The only book that I really, really read is Sort of honour trilogy, which is also, I think, probably the best book about certainly Britain during the Second World War.
The luxury
I do Chinese martial arts, but I also do weapons and so I do staff and I do broadsword. ... Mostly I'll practice me patterns, honestly. I'll practice me swan young patterns.
Presenter asks
25:51Tell me about going to LA [in the late eighties to break America] – what were you thinking?
I thought it seemed like a good idea. And I had this American agent called Joan Scott at Wright as an artist who who thought I was great and she's a really powerful agent. So, yeah, I went to LA and when B. Arthur left the Golden Girls, I got cast as hair replacement, kind of thing. … Unconsciously, I didn't want to be there, and I thought, you know, I would act very odd, and my performances were very patchy. … Anyway, so yeah, I was in oh yeah, I got fired. They fired me on my 40th birthday, yeah. When I was in LA, I turned into LA Alexei, who was this like kind of really nice guy who wore like pastel coloured polo shirts and Chinos. And I don't know who the hell he was. I mean, if I was gonna break the States, I should have done stand up really. I should have gone you know, but I I couldn't be bothered.
Presenter asks
28:41By the early 90s … you were falling out of love with stand-up. Why was that?
I'd I think I'd reached the end of the road with that the guy in the tight suit really'cause he was a ki kind of comic character and so he couldn't really talk about my life that much really, or only in the broadest terms,'cause he wasn't me, he was some other kind of nutter and I didn't realize that at the time, but I I just knew the playing that the crowds were the same and all that, but I just knew that I wasn't, It wasn't working for me anymore really, you know
Presenter asks
29:57Having been there at the birth of alternative comedy, where do you see its DNA four decades later?
You know, up to a year ago, it was the giant industry that is stand-up comedy now, the Arena Acts, the Michael McIntyre's and Jack Whitehalls, and Sarah Millikans and so on, that they all spring from what we did in that strip club in Soho, you know. It all comes, the DNA, that little club in Soho was that one racehorse that sired all the other racehorses, you know, and it's that's partly just luck, that's just a question of time, and to be there then and to be instrumental in the birth of a an entire art form or subset of an art form and an entire industry. It's a a privilege that's granted to very, very few people. And I'm just I'm grateful to have been there, you know.
Presenter asks
31:04How will you be with just yourself for company [on the island]?
Can't imagine I'd be great really. I'm not that resilient. My main hobby is thinking.
“I wasn't trying to ingratiate myself with the audience. I want the victory for me was if they disliked me, but they still … They laughed, you know.”
“I kind of came to realize that there was a limit ultimately because like I was on this live comedy show on ICV in 1982 called OTT. So you know it's my chance of big time fame but at the same time my close to my act was singing a song about Albania which was then a you know Marxist-Leninist dictatorship and I think the song ended with a reference to Joseph Stalin. So I was like I wanted to be big but I also just wanted to do this mad stuff. You're never going to be like family friendly entertainer really doing that stuff.”
“I wanted to listen to voices that challenged my worldview, really. And so, my favourite author has always been Evelyn Waugh, really. I think that he's an alcoholic, hated the working class. But on the other hand, I always think there's a tremendous humanity, I think, in his works.”