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| Marcus Brigstocke: 'Making a serious subject stupid is what I aim to do' | Marcus Brigstocke: 'Making a serious subject stupid is what I aim to do' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Reading on mobile? Click here to view Brigstocke live | |
| There's a faintly ugly side to all standup – the lie that you're telling a joke to the audience for the first and final time. The reality is that you write a routine and do it the first 10 times thinking: this is great. When you reach a show, you're over it. It stops being interesting to you – until you come full circle and realise that every time it never plays the same way twice. You press different parts of this soft, squidgy thing and say to people: grab hold of this. | |
| My comedy changed after I voted for Blair in 1997. It felt exciting – I'd always known a Conservative government. And then nothing happened. Nothing felt like it was getting better. When Blair started lining up alongside Bush, I had strong political feelings for the first time in my life: about Iraq and Afghanistan, the build-up to war. And once I was engaged with subjects I felt really passionate about, it's all I wanted to do for a long time. | My comedy changed after I voted for Blair in 1997. It felt exciting – I'd always known a Conservative government. And then nothing happened. Nothing felt like it was getting better. When Blair started lining up alongside Bush, I had strong political feelings for the first time in my life: about Iraq and Afghanistan, the build-up to war. And once I was engaged with subjects I felt really passionate about, it's all I wanted to do for a long time. |
| This routine was particularly pleasing. I'd heard about Goldman Sachs and the Greek economy – how they hid all that sovereign debt from a whole nation. A story like that, well, obviously it's not funny – so that's where the beatboxing comes in. I was always good at voices and accents. Before I did standup, it was where I got my laughs. Back then, I had to keep the beatboxing secret though. I was a fat teenage goth and beatboxing is not what goths do. I'd be sitting there in my bedroom, all my hair sticking up on end, black nails, lots of eyeliner, pictures of Robert Smith on my wall, practising my beats to Biz Markie. | This routine was particularly pleasing. I'd heard about Goldman Sachs and the Greek economy – how they hid all that sovereign debt from a whole nation. A story like that, well, obviously it's not funny – so that's where the beatboxing comes in. I was always good at voices and accents. Before I did standup, it was where I got my laughs. Back then, I had to keep the beatboxing secret though. I was a fat teenage goth and beatboxing is not what goths do. I'd be sitting there in my bedroom, all my hair sticking up on end, black nails, lots of eyeliner, pictures of Robert Smith on my wall, practising my beats to Biz Markie. |
| Once I'd written a rough semblance of the EU debt routine, I previewed it at a pub. But first I asked if there were any bankers in the room. Silence. Someone nudged their friend so I said: "Who do you bank for?" When he said "Goldman Sachs", I was thinking: oh my god, this is so awesome. But I was trying to be cool. So I said: "Do I detect an accent? Where are you from?" And then he answered: "Greece". | Once I'd written a rough semblance of the EU debt routine, I previewed it at a pub. But first I asked if there were any bankers in the room. Silence. Someone nudged their friend so I said: "Who do you bank for?" When he said "Goldman Sachs", I was thinking: oh my god, this is so awesome. But I was trying to be cool. So I said: "Do I detect an accent? Where are you from?" And then he answered: "Greece". |
| A Greek banker who worked at Goldman Sachs! When I came out with this fully formed routine, everyone in the room thought either he was a plant or I was a demon. The stars aligned. Of all the times I've done the joke, it's never gone better. | A Greek banker who worked at Goldman Sachs! When I came out with this fully formed routine, everyone in the room thought either he was a plant or I was a demon. The stars aligned. Of all the times I've done the joke, it's never gone better. |
| Taking a serious subject – something outrageous like Goldman Sachs putting millions of people into extreme poverty – and making it stupid is what I aim to do. That, and fart jokes. I don't think I've ever not found farts funny. Even after the two-hour show I did on theology. You'd think aged 40, nearly 41, I'd have grown out of it. But having kids reconnects you to comedy's more puerile end. Thus the biltong fart joke in this clip. 100% true, incidentally. | Taking a serious subject – something outrageous like Goldman Sachs putting millions of people into extreme poverty – and making it stupid is what I aim to do. That, and fart jokes. I don't think I've ever not found farts funny. Even after the two-hour show I did on theology. You'd think aged 40, nearly 41, I'd have grown out of it. But having kids reconnects you to comedy's more puerile end. Thus the biltong fart joke in this clip. 100% true, incidentally. |
| I've never been convinced by the idea that once you've found your voice, that's it. I love a real mixture of comedy, from Stewart Lee's methodological pursuing of a single argument to the brilliant Gary Delaney and Milton Jones with their one-liners. I can't do that, so my take is: here's my box of tools – what different shapes can I make from them? Like in my austerity routine, where I did Osborne as the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. Basically I do a fantastically accurate Cowardly Lion. So that's where that one came from. | I've never been convinced by the idea that once you've found your voice, that's it. I love a real mixture of comedy, from Stewart Lee's methodological pursuing of a single argument to the brilliant Gary Delaney and Milton Jones with their one-liners. I can't do that, so my take is: here's my box of tools – what different shapes can I make from them? Like in my austerity routine, where I did Osborne as the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. Basically I do a fantastically accurate Cowardly Lion. So that's where that one came from. |
| The biggest danger of political comedy is preaching to the converted. A producer for Radio 4's The Now Show said of one of my jokes: "This is only funny if you agree with the premise." If I made a joke about Ukip now, I'd like to think that even a number of the Ukip-supporting audience out there would laugh. I know Conservatives find me funny – though I played the party conference once and none of them turned up. It was just a room full of journalists. | The biggest danger of political comedy is preaching to the converted. A producer for Radio 4's The Now Show said of one of my jokes: "This is only funny if you agree with the premise." If I made a joke about Ukip now, I'd like to think that even a number of the Ukip-supporting audience out there would laugh. I know Conservatives find me funny – though I played the party conference once and none of them turned up. It was just a room full of journalists. |
| • Brigstocke's Je M'accuse runs 12-24 May. Box office: 020-7478 0100. Venue: Soho theatre, London. | • Brigstocke's Je M'accuse runs 12-24 May. Box office: 020-7478 0100. Venue: Soho theatre, London. |