Sean Lock speaks ahead of Birmingham shows
Before we get too carried away, Sean Lock has a confession to make. He's not interested in being told he's a genius or that comedy is God's own work. Because it's not.
As Sean says: "When it comes down to it, comedy is rehearsed moaning."
It's an excellent view on something that has always been part of the British psyche but over the past 10 years has exploded into the mainstream with comedians selling out more and more arena shows and earning vast crusts via DVD sales.
Lock is on the road with his Keep It Light tour. He'll call in at Birmingham's Hippodrome on Monday and Tuesday.
The popular stand-up and TV panel veteran has given fans a vintage show, with The Guardian describing his present tour thus: 'he just lets the brilliance of his material dominate the room'.
The show covers all manner of topics, from jewellery heists and bucket lists to contemporary dancing.
"I watched a ballet on BBC Four and after about five minutes I really got into it," Lock admits.
"I'm not into contemporary dance, though: you can shove that back where it belongs in small marginal arts venues on the fringes of town."
Lock began his career as a stand-up more than 25 years ago and he won the British Comedy Award in 2000 for Best Live Comic. He has written for other comedians, including Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr, and is best known for his role as team captain on the Channel 4 panel show 8 Out Of Ten Cats, as well as its sister comedy/gameshow spin-off 8 Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown.
Before moving into comedy, he worked as a labourer on building sites. However, his breakthrough came when he supported Rob Newman and David Baddiel in their 1993 series Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. It was followed by a support tour and Lock soon found his comedy influenced by other big hitters, including Frank Skinner and Eddie Izzard.
His present show gives him the chance to let off steam. "I'm going to talk about jewellery heists, my bucket list and about some of my behaviour on the internet which I'm not especially proud of," he reveals. "But it's not what you might think, don't worry.
"And then I'll have material about how I've got to an age where everything I do is considered to be a mid-life crisis; so any activity and anything I buy or wear. If I get a pair of glasses, they're considered to be a desperate attempt at disguising my age.
"It's not my fault that all glasses are trendy these days; you can't buy boring glasses anymore, they've all got clear bits and a bit of lime around one of the eyes: I didn't want to wear these, but that's what they're selling.
"I also talk about James Bond: I find the very notion of him so ridiculous. This thought that one man can save the world is so childish; an inebriated nine-year-old would struggle to maintain plausibility in that idea.
"I'll talk about immigration, which is always fun because it's an easy topic to get wrong. But I keep it light. I talk about isolation of the elderly in our society and how they can live out forgotten and anguished lives with barely even the flicker of recognition from their neighbours.
"But I'll be keeping that light."
Should be interesting Sean.
Lock gave his show the name Keep It Light because he likes its neutrality. It's a title that won't wind people up or allow them to come to the theatre with preconceptions.
"I like the ambiguity of 'keep it light'. I like it as just a throwaway comment you can make to somebody when they're talking about a terrible mishap that has befallen someone. "It's a pinprick to any kind of heaviness, and ultimately I see that as my job. So I can go down a particular path but I can keep it light by doing some silly stuff.
"I have this weird feeling other comics have a much more effective and swifter, more skilled working policy where they'd say to me 'no, you don't have to do it like that, you don't have to take a year saying the wrong thing. You do it like this'.
"People I know who went to university have a working method where they sit down and get something done; they know how to start and get on with things.
"I will do anything to avoid getting on with stuff. I have one method and that's blind panic so I'll sit down in my kitchen and suddenly get on with it. Maybe I just imagine it's greener for other people."
Lock enjoys his life on the road, though admits it's a peculiar way to exist. He has his own routines designed to get him from the start of a tour to the end.
"I lay off the sauce and don't do too many dates in a row. Doing the show is enjoyable; the hard bit is being normal afterwards and trying not to be this twitching, demented clown.
"Last year I thought I might knock stand-up on the head and take a longer break from it. After a few months, I realised I didn't really like that idea because all the things that make me good at the job don't switch off and you just turn it on yourself."
