Blending absurdist comedy with reflections of ambition, creativity and what comes next after a goal has finally been achieved, the show has been described as “demented, meticulous, oddly moving” and a comedy that feels like “a genuine work of art.”

Anastasia Tirca meets him to find out more about the origins of the show, the strange journey behind it and what audiences can expect when the curtain rises.

What is the main message you want audiences to take from the show?

Joz: “It’s such a stupid show. I’m a character comedian and the things that I most like are just really stupid.

“One of the big things we were trying to do was just make something that people would find very silly. But it’s also kind of about wishing your life away, I guess. Like the idea of it is that I play a character who has been working on his life’s work and throughout the show, it’s sort of vague, but he is promising to unveil it for the first time during this show. As it goes on, it becomes clear how much that’s cost him and how much he’s driven himself insane with the idea of doing this amazing thing.

“It is sort of talking about the way in which we put so much of our lives off into the future – once I finish doing this thing or once I’ve got that ready, then I’ll finally be able to do everything else. So it’s sort of about that state – what will it take for us to actually start living our lives kind of thing?

“The show does all that under the surface of something that is just very, very much about chaos and about nonsense”.

Does the comedy reflect the reality of the story the way it should?

Joz: “I mean, for me, my favourite comedies are the ones that while laughing at it and while being in hysterics at something, it also managed to make you actually think about something in a new way. And I think comedy can make you do that in ways better than drama can.

“I really love making stuff that sits in that middle ground where you’re watching something very stupid and for some reason you’re being made to think about this bigger picture as well. I really like exploring those crossovers. When an audience is laughing, then I think in a way they are more receptive to the idea that when it turns out to be about something meaningful, it sneaks up on us more”.

What can you share about the process of writing and creating the show?

Joz: “It is a solo fringe show and the myth of those things is always that they’re very driven by one person. When you go to the Fringe, it’s all posters with one person’s face and one person’s name on it. So the show is like, Joz Norris. I did write and perform it, but this gets in the way of the fact that it’s still a product of such a collaborative process, because I had a director, and I had a consultant on it, who did a lot of story input and design input. So, I did write the material, but even then, that becomes part of a conversation with the team where we talk about other people chucking ideas for jokes or they’ll go, this bit should be streamlined or it would be funny if this bit went more in this direction.

“It’s technically written by me, but I always think the fringe in particular is quite bad at reminding people that there’s a whole team of people around things”.

Do you think taking it to the fringe has altered the show in any way, and did you modify it for the tour and the Lowry performance?

Joz: “It’s the model that I know, I started doing the Fringe years ago, I’m most comfortable with making shows that fit that format and I’m most comfortable knowing how to position something with that audience. But I think the more you do it, the better you get at learning how to make something that could speak outside of that as well, because the Fringe is amazing, but it’s a bit of a weird bubble. It has so much importance for the comedy industry.  So with this show, I think the fact that we’re now touring theatres with it and it had a nice enough run in Edinburgh to kind of to create that momentum to take it on tour. In Edinburgh, everyone’s already primed for something very chaotic and absurdist and stupid. The way in which it unfolds sort of plays out differently with different audiences. You can give a show a whole other life after the Fringe, because normally I do the Fringe and then I chuck the show in the bin and then that’s it. So taking it out to other cities around the place has been really cool, really fun.

“It wasn’t its first ever performance at the Fringe, but it was its first kind of launch.
It is my 1st time performing at the Lowry. I directed a show that launched there a couple of years ago. Eddie Hearst, who is an amazing comedian based in Manchester did a show, which was developed with the Lowry and premiered there at the end of 2024. I’ve worked with the Lowry before and was up there quite a lot helping develop that. But I’ve never actually performed there. So I’m really looking forward to it”.

What inspired you to write this?

Joz: “All of my shows end up being character comedy shows where I play a character with my name who is quite similar to me and in some ways it could be a stand-up show. The stuff that’s happening in the show is so stupid that it’s obviously fictional. So the things that happen to my character in this show are very much imaginative, absurdist, stupid things. But it was based on the feeling of once I’ve managed to complete this thing, then my life will carry on.

“I made a show in a literalising way, to try and tell myself to stop having that feeling. It is sort of a way of reminding myself how pointless it is to get stuck in thinking that way. Any stand-up is basically comics playing a version of themselves, so the character also has my name.

“It’s a one-man show, although there’s sort of offstage voices and things that we don’t see. It’s more of a narrative than a stand-up show.

“My background is mostly stand-up. I started doing it in University and then it just became what I did. I was like: I’m going to London and work it all out. I hopped from temp job to temp job for a while, until I had enough of a stable career in comedy that was what I did”.

How do you find doing this show with no ensemble? How is that different?

Joz: “It takes a while getting used to it because particularly the stuff I grew up with loving the most was TV comedies, which obviously are lots of characters interacting with each other. So the way my brain automatically goes towards finding things funny is that I very often make characters have phone calls in shows or talk to somebody off stage or trying to put them into dialogue with things. I think I’ve also got better in the last few years with having a team around a show, so it feels a bit less isolated. I’ve got an amazing tech and a tour manager who goes around with me and it’s so good on the timings of everything. So it’s nice when there’s a family of people around a show in a way, and it slightly insulates against the fact of it’s just you on stage for an hour.  Part of the team was John Britton who was the director. Miranda Holms was the creative consultant and script consultant. James Hingley was the technician. Grace Gibson did movement direction on it, because there’s a little bit of dancing in it, she taught me just how to dance well enough to get away with it”.

What goal do you want to reach with the show?

Joz: “I think with this particular show, it already surpassed so many goals for it because it had such a lovely run in Edinburgh and this thing of being able to take it on the road and meet more audiences. I think that’s always the hope with a show is you just keep finding new ways to reach more people with it, which this one is in the process of doing.

“We would like to film it because once you’ve taken it to all the venues that want it, then comes the thing of how do you preserve it so that it’s not just something everyone remembers? So I think we might try and film one of the performances. There is also a bit of me that wants to try and explore the idea of it as a feature film as well. But obviously making a film is another mountain to climb. So I think it’s nice that there’s a blueprint for something.

“I think this is my best show yet. I always hope that every show I do feels like it’s an evolution from the last one. I think by the time you finish a show, you can always see what you couldn’t see while you were inside it, which then means the next one, you’re sort of deliberately going in the right direction. We’re doing about 12 dates in 12 places around the UK.  Which is great and I feel very happy with that and it’s my 1st tour around the UK. This is show number 7 that I have done overall, but 3 of them are probably in the comedy theatre space”.

Do you think the comedy  aspect of the show transmits the message that you want to the audience to gain in the correct way?

Joz: “I’m never precious about exactly how I want audiences to leave and it tends to be either because of the way in which the show is structured and because of what happens towards the end. People either leave at the end just very hysterical and giggly, because the ending is very stupid and dumb. Or it becomes so stupid by the end that there’s almost a glimmer of pathos in it or actually meaning something. So sometimes people leave, weirdly moved by it and they come up to me and say: thank you so much. I really don’t have a preference on those 2 things. I think both are really valid responses. When I see people just leaving very giggly and trying to calm down after losing it for a bit, then I find that really lovely. And when I see audience members who took something away from it I am a bit touched”.

Joz Norris: You Wait. Time Passes is at Lowry, Salford on 24 Aril 2026.

The post Joz Norris on getting silly and serious in You Wait. Time Passes appeared first on Quays Life.

There was a time when Manchester United losing was a shock and a surprise. There was a time when Manchester City winning was a similarly baffling phenomenon. I was a player when that time was the time that was now. Which is then if you’re reading this in the modern day. And here we are, with things all turned upside down and inside out. City winning barely registers. United losing is almost the new norm. How did we get here? And how do we find our way back to the old comfy sense of usualness?

Let me offer an example from my own life. I am now happily engaged as a football pundit and loving life, but it wasn’t all a bed of roses. That bed smells nice now (because of the roses) but it used to absolutely stink and here’s why. . .

I never wanted to retire from professional football. Like many before me, I thought I could play on forever, but the harsh reality is that the Grim Reaper catches up with all of us. Just to clarify – I’m not dead, so perhaps it wasn’t the Grim Reaper himself tapping me on the shoulder, maybe it was one of his minions. The Bleak Reaper, or whatever. Anyway, my knees went, my pace slowed and one afternoon at Bolton Wanderers my Achilles snapped and recoiled all the way up into my left bum cheek like an internal elastic band. No more playing at the highest level for me.

I’m not going to lie – why would I lie? Why would I write an article full of untruths? What earthly good would that be to anyone? Seriously, if you think I’m typing away here and just inventing stuff then you need your head examined. No, I’m not going to lie… the next few years were hard. Insanely difficult as I contemplated life post-playing career. I drifted into an unhealthy obsession with a games console, and console me it did. I became addicted to a certain football simulation game, one that allowed the me to develop avatars of myself and give myself player stats that rendered me a colossus on the pitch all over again.

In order to give my life meaning and bring joy to days otherwise spent eating Curly Wurlys in my pyjamas, I decided to take on the role of virtual player coach at the club that, in real life, had given me my start. Here I was at Dover Athletic, ready to take on the world of club football and win everything (obviously setting the difficulty levels to “really easy” to guarantee success).

I loved the onfield displays of ruthlessness. Crushing Swansea City 19-0 in a Carabao Cup game in which my avatar scored seven, breaking forward from defensive midfield like some kind of god king. I enjoyed the power that my role as Player Coach gave me. I could decide who to advance and who to trash – I dropped Rod Wallace like a hot egg and sold him to Wigan Athletic. I bought Steven Gerrard and played him in goal, just because I could. These were heady times. I advanced up the league pyramid and won everything going, taking Dover into Europe and winning the Champions’ League a record 15 seasons straight.

And then I caught myself in the reflection on my television screen one Tuesday afternoon. Bits of Curly Wurly in my wildly unkempt moustache. Me breathing heavily as I contemplated a 1-1-8 formation to defeat Boca Juniors in the Super Cup. There was no consequence here. There was no jeopardy, no excitement. In real life Rod Wallace had nutmegged me three times in three minutes when I played against Leeds in the mid-90s. Steven Gerrard had refused my request for a selfie on “An Evening With” and mistaken my then-wife Denise for Peter Beardsley. This virtual grandstanding with Dover Athletic was all pathetic – Pathetic Athletic – it was a temper-tantrum reaction to a world that I had barely clung to as a player and which had now spat me out and forgotten me.

Slowly I clawed my way back into respectability by being needlessly provocative to fill airtime as a pundit. I am relevant again, like a sporting John Cleese. And now I can see with crystal clear vision what is happening at the Manchester Clubs of this world.

There is an unseen hand playing on a console set to “really easy”. City have taken the place of my beloved Dover Athletic, and they are wreaking revenge on their neighbours United, pummeling their once-successful rivals into oblivion. It has to stop. The powers that be behind both clubs need to wake up and see the Curly Wurlys in their moustaches. Otherwise nothing makes sense in football anymore.

Ian Fiveankles is currently appearing in a show called “Colin From Portsmouth” where he attempts to do “An Evening With” and reminisce about his playing career, and his rivalry with Rod Wallace. He is at The Lowry on 6 October before continuing on tour.

The post Ian Fiveankles – United losing is almost the new norm appeared first on Quays Life.

Well, not according to their next-door-neighbours, Tom (Rufus Hound stepping into Richard Briers’s wellies) and Barbara Good (Sally Tatum taking on Felicity Kendal’s creation).

On Tom’s 40th birthday, they decide to give up the rat race and become self-sufficient smallholders (albeit whilst continuing to live in deepest suburbia, semi-attached to Gerry and Margo). COVID19 (and the rest) has us back there, wrestling with these matters, Sams argues. He has a point.

There are two big questions facing anyone intending to adapt a vintage sitcom for the stage:
(1) is there an audience out there?
(2) how are the cast to approach it?

Given that, at its peak, 16 million Britons tuned in weekly to watch the mishaps and adventures of these suburban self-sufficiency warriors, (1) must have seemed a safe bet. However, any fan who was Tom’s age when the show launched would now be 86 (sadly, neither of the male leads – Briers and the much-loved Paul Eddington – have made it this far). That said, there’s a respectable turnout for a Tuesday night at the Lowry (perhaps a third of the Lyric theatre’s 1200-seater capacity). How many of them are (as I am) children of the original devotees would make an interesting study. Nostalgia moving in mysterious ways?

The matter of how the cast should approach the roles is genuinely vexed. Revivals/adaptations of Steptoe and Son, Hancock’s Half Hour and the like have often (and wisely) chosen the ‘impersonation’ option. Tonight’s cast are one step removed from that. They are recognisably Tom, Barbara, Margo and Gerry – but not quite as we knew them. Nobody lets the side down, but there is a constant sense of watching Shakin’ Stevens trying to pull off Elvis Presley’s songbook – a shade too much disbelief to suspend. Rufus Hound’s Tom, in particular, has the feel of an artist in shackles.

Jeremy Sams’s adaptation is neatly done, weaving the first episode into one of the most memorable (the runt piglet) and on into a cosy, heart-warming finale. Interestingly, the sentimental aspects of this production often work better than the comic ones.

The direction – also by Sams – needs a reboot. The cast seems to lack confidence in the script’s quips. The occasional very funny moment comes off, but regular opportunities to raise a chuckle, or even a knowing smile, are rushed through. Sitcom is character-com, and our four principals don’t quite seem to trust their characters.

In support, Nigel Betts and Tessa Churchard have fun multitasking (especially in the poorly piglet episode).

Michael Taylor’s sets and costumes do a good job of evoking the originals (although Kalidas often carries off Margo’s look with a little too much style).

The crux for such ventures is: does this experience offer something you can’t get by staying home with a boxset of the original? The prime hope here lies with that special something performers and audiences can create together in a theatre. Whilst that may, in time, emerge, it’s not there yet with this production.

The Good Life is at TheLowry, Salford from 26 to 30 October 2021 and touring until December prior to a West End run.

The post The Good Life with Rufus Hound: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

For the first time ever, I have to begin a review with a health warning: please don’t try drinking white spirit, and don’t (for a joke) put it in anybody else’s drink, either. Government advice, in the event of (accidentally) imbibing white spirit, is to seek immediate medical attention. We move on…

Next, a bit of “housekeeping” – social distancing is gone, the wearing of masks is now optional, even in the auditorium (I wore mine). Please also be aware that The Play That Goes Wrong attracts a young audience (with all that might entail about mask-wearing and vaccination status).

As with the early life of Richard O’Brien’s musical phenomenon, The Rocky Horror Show, developed in the Royal Court (Upstairs) in 1973, it’s tempting to wonder if LAMDA buddies, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields had any inkling of what they were about to unleash, when they launched the premiere of The Play That Goes Wrong in the renowned 60-seater London Fringe venue that is the Old Red Lion.

As well as having set down roots in the West End since 2014, the play has had a Broadway run and been performed in 20 other countries. Mischief Productions, with Lewis, Sayer and Shields at the heart, have also turned the idea into a successful franchise. You might have seen seasonal spin-offs, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, and the Lowry will soon host Groan Ups (23-28 August) and their piece worked up in collaboration with Penn and Teller, Magic Goes Wrong.

The idea is simple, but brilliantly executed: a student production of a murder mystery in which everything imaginable (and some things barely imaginable) goes wrong.

As we take our seats, the curtain is already up on the set – a private study in an English country house. All is not well even before the play begins. Stage Manager, Annie Twilloil (Laura Kirkman) is searching for Winston, a French Bulldog, crucial to the action, who’s gone AWOL. Meanwhile, Techie Trevor (Gabriel Paul) is preoccupied trying to recover his missing Duran Duran CDs. Before either of these problems is resolved, Chris (Tom Bulpett) takes centre stage to welcome us to tonight’s performance. Not only will Chris be playing the key role of Inspector Carter, this evening is also his directorial “dayboo.” We wish him luck, knowing full well he isn’t going to have any.

Props and tech are already playing up (and falling down), and which idiot left that can of white spirit on stage? What if it ends up being drunk instead of stage prop “whisky”?

Enter the body, furtively, to stretch out and play dead on the chaise longue. Unfortunately, the victim, Charles Haversham (played by Sean Carey playing Jonathan Harris, if you follow me) selects a death pose with his arm outstretched and his hand on the floor – ideal for being stepped on by those who discover the body (not an easy discovery, given the study door is not just locked, but jammed shut). This is surely not the first ‘wincing corpse’ in theatre history, but it has to be one of the funniest.

From there on in, it’s all missed cues, bumbled lines and magnificently collapsing props for the next two hours (there is an interval to catch your breath). The slapstick is marvellous but the characterisations are also key to the comedy.

Butler Perkins (Benjamin McMahon) is played by Dennis, who lives with his parents, not in halls, joined the drama society to make friends and struggles to pronounce big words. The victim’s fiancée, Florence Collymore (April Hughes as local vamp, Sandra) is determined to sex it up (her emotional “episodes” performed like comic burlesque). Newcomer Max (Tom Babbage) who’s funding this production from his inheritance, cavorts, contorts and mugs in the manner of a young John Cleese. Later on, with Florence indisposed (laid out cold, after a door is slammed in her face), Annie is called on to understudy. At first shy and reluctant, she soon becomes dead set on not allowing the recovered Sandra back on stage (their increasingly violent feud is a highlight of the final scenes). Not to be left out, Florence’s controlling brother, Thomas (Leonard Cook playing the “Stanislavsky” student, Robert) engages in escalating warfare with props and set alike.

The fourth wall is regularly broken to good effect. I particularly liked Chris’s reprimand to the audience:

“I know you haven’t been to the theatre in a while, but there are rules: you shut up; I talk!”

As with all exceptional farces, there are moments bordering on the absurd (watch out for medication being offered to the grandfather clock). As for the plot, allow me to borrow an exchange from the script:

“Let me explain.”
“I don’t think you can.”

Indeed.

The humorous programme notes contain a nod to local colour, when we learn that Annie Twilloil “will begin an internship at the Bolton Octagon later this month.” How blessed we are.

The Play That Goes Wrong is a relentlessly inventive, immaculately choreographed farce. Several of the routines are so complex, yet so adroitly accomplished, they draw spontaneous rounds of applause. The young audience gives the entire cast a wild and joyful standing ovation.

Go see it. Just lay off the white spirit.

The Play That Goes Wrong UK Tour is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 17-22 August 2021 and touring until 27 November.

The post The Play That Goes Wrong: Theatre Review appeared first on Quays Life.

This tour has Janey wielding a variety of talents, as she delivers the kind of forthright stand-up which has earned her a strong reputation on the comedy circuit and a loyal band of followers. But she will also be displaying her skills at improv, as she stands by a screen and narrates ad-libbed voice-overs of people (many of whom are today’s crop of politicians), giving them a heavy Scottish accent and inventing a story, many of which involve making soup for the community.

“The soup pot is very universal: if you’re in Australia, America, Brazil, France Germany or Alaska, and someone dies or gets married, people will make soup. The soup pot is the hub of the community. When somebody died near us when I was a kid, somebody would make the big soup pot so all the visitors had something warm to drink and eat. It’s part of us all being in it together. Of course, that was before people discovered they were gluten free and worried about being allergic to lentils.”

Janey first discovered that she could develop this new strand of her career on the night of the Scottish Independence vote in 2014. “I first did the voice-overs live at the Wild Cabaret club in Glasgow where the big screens were up. When the news came through and it was all looking a bit bleak, we turned the volume down and I started talking over the top of people. The audience loved it and I realised this was something I could do really well.”

She then poked fun online at the likes of Theresa May, Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon, replacing their talk of policy and elections with chat about big Isa and her soup pots. A recent piece she did on Kim Kardashian (largely mocking her for walking backwards) also went down spectacularly well, while clips of supermodels, Pathé newsreels and Fanny Craddock (the original celebrity chef) are given the Godley treatment. “I started off doing it for me, really. I liked the fact that I could give those politicians a whole new background persona and the idea that they might have these ordinary conversations; I love the idea of that normalcy which cuts through all that bulls**t. The ones that are the hardest to do are of Katie Hopkins, because the audience just boo like they’re at a pantomime.”

Since the voice-overs took off, an unusual trend started which reminded Janey of the halcyon days of Spitting Image when politicians would tune in avidly on a Sunday night, desperate to see if they had been captured in wax and caricatured in song. “MPs will say, ‘Are you going to do me?’ I’d like to do some international ones; I do Trump but I want to do Australian and Canadian politicians. There’s a lot of fodder to go on.”

When she started performing comedy in the mid-90s, there were very few female acts kicking about, but Janey Godley has now become a standard bearer in Scotland for young women who might fancy a career in stand-up. “I did Have I Got News For You and I was the first working-class Scottish female comic to do that: the first and last. There are girls from Glasgow who saw comedy and it would be Kevin Bridges and Frankie Boyle, so they all thought – that’s not our job, that’s for Scottish men. But when they see me and they see someone like Fern Brady, they think – yeah, that’s also a woman’s job.”

Recently, Janey has ramped up her acting CV, appearing in Wild Rose (staring Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo) about a young woman trying to make her way in the world of Country music, and has written and directed a short film entitled The Last Mermaid. She’s also had a one-woman play run off-Broadway, and will be on TV screens soon playing the lawyer of Martin Compston’s character in Traces, a crime drama from an original idea by Val McDermid.

But for now, she’s enjoying making people laugh all over the country with both her no-holds barred stand-up and the unique nature of these new voice-overs. “The most important thing is that this has never been done before, no other comic in the world is doing this. I’ve been doing stand-up for over 20 years but it took a Tory called Theresa to make me famous.” Mrs May might now be virtually out of the public eye, but the moment has surely arrived for Janey Godley to take centre stage.

Janey Godley brings her Soup Pot Tour to Manchester Comedy Store on 26 February 2020. See website for full details.

The post Janey Godley – it’s not all about just hating the Tories appeared first on Quays Life.

How has life been since the final of Britain’s Got Talent back in June?

Kojo: “Life is great – it’s all kicking off since the show, I mean… I’m going on a UK tour! I went up to the last week of the Edinburgh Festival, to do some shows, spread the word and mingle, which was brilliant, and I’ve had a sold-out try-out show in London too. So it’s all coming together ready for the tour.”

You grew up in foster care – how was that?
Kojo: “I was raised in Hackney, East London. My parents are from Ghana, and they got into a bit of trouble, so, from the age of five I was in foster care until about 16.
“I had an amazing experience of foster care. My foster family were from Guyana and Grenada, and I was with them the whole time. I was never moved around, which is brilliant, and a big part of what I want to share about having been a foster child – it’s important for both foster carers and the children to hear that message; foster care is not always a temporary thing.
“Some children don’t need to be in care forever, some do need long term. But consistency is what’s important, if that’s possible. And if they can get an injection of their culture, then it’s also OK for them to be with foster parents of another race, if they’re getting that background and input too. It helps ground you.”

It’s great to hear a positive experience of foster care. Are you still close to your foster family?

Kojo: “My foster mother, Aunty Sandra, she’s the main person in my life that I had a strong relationship with, and I still see her regularly now. She’s the first person I tell anything. My parents are in and out; we have good times and bad, but that’s all in a good place at the moment too. We’re all happy.
“With being a dad now, it’s important for me that those things are ironed out, for Roman’s sake. I’m big on energy, and I don’t want negative energy in his life. He is my priority, for him to be a happy boy – and he is.”

When did you realise you were funny?
Kojo: “I’d always been entertaining my family and friends. I was witty and quick with a response; in school, if I got in trouble, it was what I said not what I had done. I had an answer for everything.
“Comedy happened almost by accident. My first love was always football, but I had terrible discipline as a footballer. I was selected for a school of excellence with some of the best young players in England, on a course to study and play football. I was selected, but I had a terrible attitude about being on time, etc., and relied on being very talented. But it didn’t work out.
“I learned a big lesson in hindsight, and it turned out to be a blessing. Missing that opportunity to change my life, the pain I felt when it ended, that kept me disciplined when I found comedy. I would never let an opportunity ever slip through my hands again. I have so much respect for every opportunity that comes my way now.
“I realised I was a natural with comedy, but that I was going to work hard, find solutions and make no excuses.”

You were ‘discovered’ on BGT but you’d already been working on the comedy circuit for 20 years. How did you turn that natural ability into a career?
Kojo: “So, yes, I’ve been doing comedy 20 years, and now I’m the newcomer – thanks to BGT. 20 years in a nutshell…
“I was doing talent shows at university, and had the chance to go to comedy school, so borrowed £150 from my Aunty Sandra – I’ve more than paid her back now. After that I did a lot of university comedy gigs and built up a fan base.
“From that, I was able to set up Kojo’s Comedy Fun House, which ran every Sunday for eight years, with 300 people queuing up outside each week, packing it to the rafters and coming along week after week. I came from a partying background, so would invite celebrities to the comedy shows, as well as hosting exciting new comedians and DJs, so it became somewhere people wanted to be.
“What really made it big though was when David Chapelle was in town and heard about the club. I called someone who had seen him and got them to put him on the phone. He just came down and performed. ‘Going viral’ wasn’t even a thing at the time, but that’s kind of what happened. It was the first show he’d done after going away following his big success so everyone was talking about it, it was huge on YouTube and was a real international moment to see him back on stage.
“People started talking about the Fun House and I was hearing from American comedians over in the UK who wanted to come down. I was just a young comedian wanting to express myself there, and all this came from that small place.”

Alongside stand-up you’ve worked in TV, made a film and done radio. Tell us about that…
Kojo: “On the back of the Fun House, MTV Base got in touch, wanting to film the Fresh Prince Of Hackney, a take on the Will Smith show – when he was kind of fostered by his relatives in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. That was my first national exposure, and led to radio bookings – I did the Choice FM Breakfast Show, which is now Capital Xtra.
“I started writing too, I just didn’t know which was comedy was going to take me, so wanted to cover all the bases.
“I made a film called The Weekend on an absolute shoe-string budget and with a lot of new talents involved. And it got picked up by Netflix.”

And before BGT you were almost better known in America than here in the UK. How was that?
Kojo: “I’d met Nick Cannon through friends, who at the time was still married to Mariah Carey – how crazy is that?, and he was bringing a big improv[isation] show Wild N Out back to American TV and wanted to include some UK talent. I leapt at the chance; I’d watched the show as a kid, and it was a ridiculous opportunity to go and work with all these famous and amazingly funny people in America. Everyone I grew up with used to watch it, and there I was being invited to be the first British comedian on it.”

So, what made you audition for BGT?
Kojo: “I had been going through a bad period financially and in opportunities. I’d had my son, and that made it so much more pressurised to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life… I was feeling like I’d been placed in the ‘has-been’ box so far as a comedy career was concerned.
“I was approached by BGT, they’d seen some videos online – although I didn’t actually know it was BGT at the time. I was told the producers had loved the videos and they were dying to get me on the show, so I decided ‘Why not?’
“I’d always said it wasn’t for me, I didn’t think it was credible. But, when I discussed it with my fiancée, she said the fact they’d had to find me as an ‘unknown’ meant they didn’t know me – so I had nothing to lose.”

What was it like, preparing for that first audition?

Kojo: “I didn’t just plan for the first audition, I planned my acts for every round from the first audition to the final. I had 20 years of material, so why not? I just had to decide which way round to use it, and to get my head straight about what was to come.
“As I gradually went through each phase, I realised what the opportunity was actually going to mean to me. OK, it’s ‘Britain’s’ Got Talent – but I didn’t realise the world would be watching online, ‘Got Talent’ is a global thing. “I know people in the comedy industry were saying ‘Why is he doing it?’, but people across the country didn’t know me. I had to be able to look at my son and know I had taken the chance, taken that massive leap of faith.”

Simon Cowell famously hates comedians on BGT, but he gave you his golden buzzer. How did that feel?

Kojo: “I was so nervous. The judges genuinely do not know what’s coming next as you walk out; it’s a conveyor belt of talent.
“Simon had given two comedians on before me absolute hell that day. My plan was that I wanted Amanda Holden and David Walliams’ approval. Alesha Dixon had seen me at gigs, so I hoped she’d be on side. I’d actually written Simon Cowell off, as I knew I only needed three of them to back me.
“It was the very first day of filming, and – to add to the madness – Simon had never pressed his golden buzzer on day one. So when it happened, everyone was so shocked; day one and a comedian! “The reaction was so gratifying. It told me ‘I can do this’. I had proven myself and removed the doubt about myself. After that, I knew I was good enough.”

How has it been since the show?
Kojo: “Absolutely life-changing. My dad was in Ghana and it came up on the news. I didn’t leave the house for four days after the golden buzzer audition was on TV; I had so many messages on my phone and everywhere I went, people we giving me their love and support. All the work during those 20 years had been gearing up to it, and that’s made it all a bit easier to cope with.
“It’s crazy, and has all been at the same time as adjusting to life as a first time dad. Roman’s oblivious to it, but we’re capturing it all on our phones and it’s amazing that he’s been on the journey with us.
“Roman’s also been life changing. He’s allowed me to be selfish, and people told me how much harder I’d want to work after becoming a parent… You’re making decisions for your child and not just for you.”

What was your aim with BGT and how do you feel ahead of the tour?
Kojo: “It wasn’t ever to win, it was to be in a better position – to hopefully get a call, to get management and to progress. I had opened for Kevin Hart and Chris Rock, I knew what you need to have around you with a good team. The older you get with comedy, the more experience you have to draw on.
“Touring nationally is a dream come true and the hard work is happening. We are working on the material, there’s definitely going to be a look at fatherhood – looking at what goes through a man’s mind as a new dad, as well as asking some kind of serious questions, like ‘Will I end up looking like my parents, will my child end up in the same situation as me?’
“I’m looking forward to touring, going to places I’ve never been to – like Swindon, Malvern, New Brighton, places in Wales I can’t even spell…
“In January, I was 40. I told my fiancée Tiff, I believe the best years of my life will be my 40s – and it’s definitely looking that way. Let’s have it!”

Kojo Anim Presents The Taxi Tour will take in 26 towns and cities across the country stopping at The Lowry, Salford Quays on 20 February 2020. Visit website for full tour details.

The post Kojo Anim: ‘I’ve been doing comedy 20 years, and now I’m the newcomer – thanks to BGT’ appeared first on Quays Life.

Can you tell us a bit about your play?

Jimmy: “’No More Fiffing and Faffing’ tells the story of comedy double act Joe Fiffen and Jerry Faffen on their last night in summer season at an end of pier show. Things haven’t gone well so they decide to jack it all in and make it their last night in showbusiness. They perform their favourite sketches to their loyal fans, then we follow the boys back to the dressing room where they settle old scores.

“The dramatic narrative of the play is the fact it’s a stormy night and the Health and safety man wants to close the show and their agent rings them in the dressing room and offers them a reality TV show if they change their minds about retiring, which Jerry wants to do but Joe has his heart set on a new career as an Entertainment’s Manager in a seaside holiday Hotel.

“I play Jerry the comical one. A singer friend of mine Jonathan Young, also from Belfast, plays Joe the straight man, so it gives the play an extra Irish dimension. The third member of the cast-Archie the stage manager is Colin Meredith, an actor from Rochdale whose been in all the leading soap dramas on television”.

How different did you find the process of writing a play to writing sketches?

Jimmy: “I’ve written a few plays over the years, but this is the first one that’s got anywhere. You can type out a sketch in 20 minutes once you’ve got the initial idea for it, however a play takes six-months because you’re doing a wee bit every day while you’re doing other things. In my case that means taking my live solo act around the country. The Godsend for me was, my eldest boy, Dale and my wife, May. They’re computer friendly so they can take my very rough drafts and turn them into a presentable script”.

What inspired you to write ‘No More Fiffing and Faffing’?

Jimmy: “I’ve worked with lots of comedy double acts over the years especially in pantomime and they’ve always held a fascination for me”.

How much, if any, is autobiographical?

Jimmy: “In the mid-sixties I worked as a Butlin Redcoat in a camp in Clacton. I teamed up with a fellow redcoat called Chas Elliot and we did a comedy double act when the season finished. We played up on the fact that Chas was Jewish and I was Irish. Even calling ourselves wait for this- ‘Cohen and Kelly’. Although it was short-lived we had a lot of fun. I’ve drawn on that for this production”.

Who was your favourite ever double act?

Jimmy: “I suppose like most people Laurel and Hardy and Morecambe and Wise. You didn’t just laugh at them, you developed a deep affection for them”.

You’ve seen many changes in comedy over the years. What for you is the biggest change?

Jimmy: “I’ve seen enormous changes in comedy over the years. Some of it has been good, but, and here’s where I get on my soapbox, I’ve also seen standards slip and a coarser type of comedy come into prominence which unfortunately has been embraced by television Chiefs with the result that most older people have lost their respect for television and rarely watch comedy on the tele these days for fear of getting upset”.

Why do you think your style of comedy has managed to survive so many years?
Jimmy: “I’ve always tried to keep my act fresh. Even routines like the letter from my Mammy which I’ve doing for yonks can be pepped up with subjects like Brexit, iPhone, and flat screen teles”.

Your daughter, Katie is now following in your footsteps. How does it feel to have another comedian in the family?

Jimmy: “Katie is carving out a career in writing and stand-up but with a four-year-old, Jim and another on the way it can be tough. I’m quite sure she’ll make that breakthrough in the next few years. Needless to say, her Mum and I are in the wings cheering her on”.

What has been the best thing for you about a life in comedy?
Jimmy: “Comedy has given me a chance to earn a living doing something that I love. I enjoy cheering people up and helping them forget their troubles. This play is a new challenge for me and trying to make it work is enormously exciting for me”.

‘Jimmy Cricket – No More Fiffing and Faffing’, comes to the Plaza, Stockport on Sunday 19 January 2020 at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced at £10.00 with tickets for children (Under 16) at £5.00. Visit stockportplaza.co.uk for details.

The post C’mere No More Fiffing and Faffing from Comedian Jimmy Cricket appeared first on Quays Life.

“As a word, ‘wallop’ just isn’t used enough but I use it quite a lot. I think it sums up me and my show. ‘Here it is, have a bit of that’, we’ll enjoy ourselves and then go home. I’m very much in it for the audience and to do whatever it takes to be as funny as possible for an hour and a half as opposed to delivering a message or narrative or life-changing view of the world. My show isn’t going to sort out Brexit, but it will take your mind off it for an hour and a half. Essentially, the show is all about the funniest things that have happened to me or I’ve thought of since the last tour.”

As a father now of two toddlers, the temptation for Beckett might have been to make Wallop! his ‘new-dad’ show. He’s more or less resisted that. “Though I have kids, it’s not my ‘I’m gonna talk about my kids for 90mins tour’. I love the kids and that’s going to be the hardest thing about going on tour. It’s not really about the things my kids have said, it’s more about my new relationship with my in-laws and my own parents. The show is about family. I’ve always wanted a whole family to sit down and laugh at my stuff; before it was more of a happy accident because my comedy is quite accessible, but now, all ages can get a lot from it.”

Coming from a very large family (“everyone’s my cousin in south-east London”), where Rob is the second youngest of five brothers, he’s noticed an over-compensating tendency for those siblings to stop him from getting ideas way above his station. “The level they go to in order to keep my feet on the ground is actually quite rude. It’s really odd how much they don’t talk about my job. If I worked at Sainsbury’s they’d ask me more about my work. They almost go out of their way to not turn me into some sort of showbusiness dick, and it’s not spoken about. They’re all proud, though, don’t get me wrong.”

His mum is also no doubt very proud of her lad’s achievements, but in Rob’s eyes has a funny way of showing it: “My mum always likes to have a go: ‘if you could get a degree in annoying . . . you’d have a degree in annoying.’ Thanks mum. If she could get a degree in analogies . . . I don’t think she’d get one.”

While his feet might be planted solidly on terra firma, that doesn’t mean that Rob Beckett won’t have ideas and nurture dreams about where his career might be headed in the future. “I want to do stand-up forever; I’d love to fill my local, the O2. It would be a dream of mine to have that many people in one place coming to see me. That would be amazing.”

His natural flair for shooting the breeze with anyone who comes into his orbit means that one day he can see himself fronting his own talk show. “I love hosting and presenting TV, and I’d really love to have a chat show later on in my career when I’ve calmed down a bit. I don’t think I’d get that much out of the guests at this point, but later on when I’m a bit more tired, I think I’d be a good chat-show host.”

In terms of the ideal TV show he’d loved to have appeared on, Rob mentions Game Of Thrones (“I saw Ed Sheeran and I think I would have ruined it as well”), and namechecks Match Of The Day (“to get on that, I would suddenly have to have a full career as a footballer”). While a big fan of football, he has recently got heavily into boxing. “It’s the comedy equivalent of sport, though obviously boxing is way harder. In performance terms, a singer has a band and an actor has a crew, but in stand-up comedy and boxing you’re out there on your own. To do all that and then get punched in the face? I’m in awe of them.”

It’s been 10 years since Rob Beckett first launched his career in the stand-up game, and 9 years since he took third spot (“I prefer to call it runner-up!”) in the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny competition which culminates each year at the Edinburgh Fringe. So, what would he say to his younger self, a decade on, now that he has a wealth of experience in stand-up comedy and the wider entertainment world in general?

“There are loads of things I would have told him not to do, but he wouldn’t have listened. I was just enjoying it and ploughing on, and obviously you make mistakes. But through throwing yourself into stuff and making mistakes you learn invaluable lessons. I had come from a working-class background and had no idea about the industry and I didn’t even know the Edinburgh Fringe existed, so I went in not giving a shit. Both parents were so supportive and there was no pressure, but maybe if you had been to Oxbridge or Durham and your parents had funded your education, they’d be saying ‘why are you going to the Edinburgh Fringe? You should be off being a barrister!’ So there was no expectation on me . . . But mainly I’d say to him, ‘cut your hair because it’s an absolute disgrace!’”

Rob Beckett’s Wallop! tour comes to O2 Apollo, Manchester on 13 and 14 December 2019. See website for full tour details.

The post Rob Beckett – ‘I had come from a working-class background and didn’t even know the Edinburgh Fringe existed’ appeared first on Quays Life.

Your latest show is called: ‘After Me Comes the Flood (But in French) drip splosh splash drip BLUBBP BLUBBP BLUBBPBLUBBPBLUBBP!!’ How would you describe it?

John-Luke: “I’m debating whether to describe it as “An hilarious stupid romp through too many daft characters and far too many silly ideas performed by me in a pink suit” or “just terrific”. I guess I’ll go with just terrific because I don’t want to undersell myself”.

Why do your shows have such long titles?

John-Luke: “I find them funny. But it’s also quite a good way of getting the right people in to see it – if you don’t find an awkward and ridiculous long title funny, then this probably isn’t the show for you”.

You are just over a month into your tour, do you change the material much as you go along?

John-Luke: ” It changes every show a bit – the performance changes with the audiences reaction to different bits. And the material changes over the tour, but not in any planned way – it’s a mixture of improvised bits and sudden thoughts of “oh it would be funny if this character did this thing”. Over the course of several shows I’ll find some sketches or routines have changed significantly, but I didn’t really notice it while it was happening.

How did training at the school of master clown, Philippe Gaulier influence your comedy?

John Luke: “I learnt some every useful lessons and got thoroughly irritated at the same time. I mean, the basic teaching method is you perform in front of the class and an old man hits a drum when you’re boring and you have to leave. So, the main lesson is don’t let an audience get bored. Another lesson was think about what the audience see, not just what they’re hearing. Why not have a costume that’s fun to look at? Why not use your body to make jokes land better? Another lesson (let’s call it lesson 3) was you don’t entirely get to choose the type of comedy you do – you need to listen to an audience and let them tell you the ways in which you’re funny. And lesson four, if everyone (you and the audience) are having fun, then that’s enough”.

Which clowns have inspired your comedy and how?

John-Luke: “It was a workshop with Doctor Brown that let me know I was missing something. He said something about how if you spend the first 15 minutes listening to the audience and giving them what they want, then they’ll go with you anywhere you want to take them. And watching Carlo Jacucci’s caterpillar routine was a thing of wonder. Oh and Spymonkey – they do the funniest naked scene I’ve ever watched. Although I’m keeping my clothes on in this show”.

Why did you choose stand-up comedy over circus clowning?

John-Luke: “I studied clowning quite far into my comedy writing and performing career, so I was already used to stand-up spaces. I wouldn’t know how to pursue circus clowning properly, and I guess there’s an anonymity to being a circus clown that doesn’t really suit my ego. To some extent, all these different art forms are the same thing anyway. It’s just a label to let the audience expect ‘something’.”

In this show you give away a lot of the punchlines before the joke. Where did that idea come from and how does it work for the audience?

John-Luke: “I was thinking about how I find surprises hard to deal with – I like it when everything goes to plan. That made me think about how a joke is a sentence with a surprise at the end: I thought “can you give away the punching and still have the joke work?” I’ve found when I tell the audience a punchline, then when it pops up in context, they sort of laugh harder to reward themselves for having remembered. And it’s fun to give the audience all the pieces, and still surprise them with how they come together”.

What is your favourite prop in the show and why?

John-Luke: “My ingenuity, because it makes me feel clever”.

Your last tour, ‘All I Wanna Do Is [FX: GUNSHOTS] With a [FX: GUN RELOADING] and a [FX: CASH REGISTER] and Perform Some Comedy!’ included 53 props. How many have you got this time?

John-Luke: “None! I’ve streamlined! Partly because I love having an audience imagine all the scenes and characters and the things they’re playing with, and partly because touring with a lot of props is tiresome”.

What is your favourite gag or sketch of all time?

John-Luke: “What’s ET short for? Because he’s got little legs”.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about the show?

John-Luke: “If you bring your friends, ask them if they like the title first”.

John-Luke Roberts brings his show, ‘After Me Comes the Flood (But in French) drip splosh splash drip BLUBBP BLUBBP BLUBBPBLUBBPBLUBBP!!’ to The Lowry, Salford Quays on 23 November 2019 and is touring the UK til March 2020. See website for full tour details.

The post John-Luke Roberts reveals his favourite gag of all time appeared first on Quays Life.

“You can take it in a variety of ways: is it every man for himself, as it appears to be around the world at the moment? Or is it that we should reconsider the fact that the whole of humanity will only survive and progress if every man pulls together? It really does depend on your point of view. I’m not a preachy sort of comic, I prefer to leave things up in the air and for the audience to make their own decisions.”

On an annual basis, Stephen takes a sparkling new show out to the nation, and each time fresh social and political challenges are there to be faced. This time around, Everyman may well be performed in a country which is now no longer part of the EU.

“What I’m trying to be more prepared for is how the audience will react because I did a show on the night of the Brexit vote, and that was the weirdest crowd I’d had for many years: there was a huge division in the room and people were in shock. The only other gig I could equate that to was one in East Anglia where there was a funny mood in the audience, and after about seven minutes I just said: ‘Hey guys, there’s about 800 of us in here: what’s happened?’ Someone shouted out, ‘They’ve closed the car park and we had to walk for 10 minutes!’ So they just sat there in a grumpy mood, and that was the exact same thing that happened on the night of Brexit.”

Stephen insists that he won’t cover Brexit if he finds he has nothing new to say about it, but he does have some broad areas he will definitely be confronting in Everyman. “I’m tackling things as simple as how we face our own mortality as we get older, and looking at things you can do to improve yourself when you’re trying to find answers to questions.”

This desire for answers has been partly sparked by a TV show he appeared on earlier in 2019. BBC’s Pilgrimage featured a number of celebrities (including Dana, Lesley Joseph and Les Dennis) who embarked on a journey (both physical and spiritual) to Rome. As an atheist and gay man, Stephen was initially taken aback when the group was offered a private audience with the Pope as part of their adventure.

“Never in my wildest dreams, at the dizziest heights of stand-up comedy when you’re meeting very famous people and on bills with Rihanna or Madonna, never did I think I’d be sitting down for a half-hour private audience with the Pope. Particularly for a man with no religious leanings; it was so surreal. I was very apprehensive because I said I would only be part of it if I could ask some questions; I didn’t want to be sitting there being talked at and not have the opportunity to address issues. I had a weight on my shoulders that if I didn’t do this, that I would be doing a disservice to a whole community of people. They did say it might spark an international incident depending on the question, but I said bring it on.”

The Pontiff’s response to Stephen’s question about not feeling accepted as a gay man by religion and religious groups surprised him by being so open and generous. “I said to a friend there beforehand that I was 100% prepared to walk out, not flounce which may have been great for TV, but just get up and leave if he had given me a stock response. But I was blindsided by how candid he was. He wasn’t that explicit in what he said but it was enough to make me realise that, you know what, you’re one of the good ‘uns.”

His experience during Pilgrimage left him altered and has bolstered one of the long-standing ideas he’s had for his own comedy. “I’ve always wanted to have people in the audience who don’t share the same views as me whether politically, socio-economically, and racially, and to see if we can have a common ground for laughing together. I don’t want to be that kind of comic who gets a big round of applause and everyone goes ‘yeah, I agree!’. I want you to laugh and to be blindsided in the way that the Pope blindsided me. I want you to be surprised, not to feel like you’re at a rally with like-minded people.”

Stephen is happy to be back on the road and delighted with the show he has put together. “The structure is in place, and I’m very fond and pleased with it. I think there’s a maturity to the show; I’ve got peace with myself in terms of not having to show off. It’s a departure for me.” But one thing that won’t be different is Stephen K Amos’ ability to make audiences laugh, wherever they are around the country. Especially if the venue car park is fully operational.

Stephen K Amos brings his Everyman tour to The Lowry on 15 January 2019. See website for full tour details.

The post Stephen K Amos talks Brexit, unity and being blindsided by the Pope. appeared first on Quays Life.