Some
facts:
The star of Radio 1’s The Milk Run
and Radio 4’s Banter is fast becoming a TV panel show
regular, he lives in Bristol and shares a flat with a couple of other
comedians, including the warm-up man for Deal or No Deal. He
recently had to drop out of the now traditional Comedians versus Stenhousemuir
charity football match in Edinburgh after he sustained a back injury
falling off his seat laughing at the Snakes on a Plane trailer.
Last year he came 2nd in Zoo magazine’s list of ‘Britain’s
Funniest Comics’, this year he was nominated for ‘Best Act’
in the if.commedies (formerly Perrier Awards) for his Edinburgh show
Wandering and won the Chortle Award for ‘Best Compere’
- you can see him hosting the Edinburgh and Beyond show.
He’s scared of people who can’t remember Thundercats
and he can do a very highly regarded impression of Schnarf. He avidly
devours Haribo.
In the frenetic post-fringe haze, magazine
sent him a few questions of varying quality, and like a lower-case trouper
he returned some answers.
Can
you remember when you first deliberately made people laugh?
i used to try and make girls laugh at school so they would like me,
some of them laughed some of them didn’t.
What’s
the worst heckle you’ve had?
i’ve had a 12 year old tell me I’m a “fucking cunt”,
it was a corporate gig when i hadn’t been going for that long,
i summoned my powers of wit and said “can you hire an 18 certificate
film? hmmmm?”
What’s
your token touring abroad anecdote?
i went to hong kong and got drunk and tried to steal a fish from a tank
from a pimp. pretty standard really.
What
animal would you quite like to be?
lion or a tiger, anything feline. i am obsessed with the big cat diary.
What’s
it like living with other comedians?
its pretty normal really. we all get in really late, play pro evo on
the x-box and shoot the breeze till we go to bed. The only time it’s
tricky is when i travel with my flat mate jon. i sleep on trains and
planes pretty easy, he doesn’t, so he covers my face in make-up
and i wake up totally oblivious to the fact that i look like some wierd
slaggy clown.
What
really makes you laugh? (Other than the Snakes on a Plane trailer!)
my family and friends make me laugh, that and cocky people. i love a
cocky young punk me.
When your career plummets, what game show would
you like to present?!
the only one i’d present would be ‘who lives who dies’
where each week oxygen thieves such as vernon kay and noel edmonds persuade
an audience why they shouldn’t be slaughtered.
If
you weren’t a comedian, what would you be?
i dunno, i’d like to be rufus wainwright. i’d far rather
be a singer-songwriter. music is the best thing in the world.
Do
you write funny stuff and ideas down; or is your brain an encyclopaedic
lexicon of self conceived wit?
i write loads of stuff down. drawings, arrows, scribbles and such. but
to be honest the best stuff just kind of tumbles out. so i tend to think
of an idea when i’m in the shower and then write it down later
and then end up doing a bit about ninja chefs or something random like
that.
Do
you giggle to yourself in public when you have a good idea for material?
very rarely but it’s a lot of fun. i giggle at my mum a lot, she
has no idea of how funny she is.
Are
you still intimidated by your younger brother’s wang?
always
Why
don’t you drink the booze?
never got into it really. i have a bit of red wine from time to time
(see hong kong) but generally i’m more of a milkshake man.
What
are your favourite sweets?
wham bars.
Knowing you’re a sweets fan, do any sweets
annoy you because they’ve changed over the years?
not really.
Do
you (or consequently others around you) suffer from a sugar based hyperactivity
problem?
i’m quite energetic, i have a touch of A.D.D. but that’s
because i love doing stand-up but when i’m not gigging i’m
a bit more relaxed. i couldn’t behave like i do on stage all the
time i’d drive people mental.
You’re
a pretty boy… do you get groupies?
no.
If
you were born a girl, do you know what your parents would have called
you?
dunno but i’d be a sexy bitch i’ll tell ya. i’d saunter
around wearing boots and touching my bits.
What’s
your favourite t-shirt?
one that says “this is my favourite t- shirt”. my friend
al has a t-shirt that says “this bloke loves cock” with
an arrow pointing to the right. he thought of it for his edinburgh show
and had to go into a t-shirt shop and ask an old lady to print “this
bloke loves cock”.
You’ve
been called “the future of British comedy”. When do you
think you’ll become the present of British comedy, in their (whatever
reviewer that was) eyes!!?
reviews are all quite wierd, i’ve had mostly nice ones but i’m
fully aware that i’m not a genius, very few people are. i’m
just a funny young man.
russell-howard.co.uk
