I did an interview
Posted by Lee Kyle on Tuesday, December 7, 2010
with Crystal Booth, this is it:
1) You're relatively new to the circuit, how long have you been doing clubs?
- I’ve been doing stand-up since November 2009, in terms of working at professional nights, since August on and off...I’m not yet at the stage where I no longer do new act nights though.
2) How did you get your first gig and where was it at?
- It was at Laughing Penguin’s new act night that they used to run at King’s Manor in Newcastle. Eric Scarboro, who used to run a wrestling company that I worked for, advised me to email them to get started. I actually had a gig booked at Long Live Comedy before that but I was too scared so I pretended that I had to go to work...
3) Why did you decide to go into comedy?
- I wanted to from about the age of twelve, it only took me eighteen years to build up to it. I think I just like showing off and mix this with a vague sort of pseudo-intellectualism.
4) Your act is about a person who loves geography, is this the real you or are you making a character for the act?
- I am genuinely interested in flags, although I have no idea why. When I was about eight years old, I used to get my Mam to describe flags to me and I had to tell her the country the flag was from. I think she would have preferred it if I had have left her alone really. I used to get annoyed when I was wrong, which I almost never was...
It is a partly a character though, I’m not THAT odd.
5) Where do you get ideas for your material?
- For the flags stuff, normally through flicking through my flag encyclopedia, which I already owned and didn’t buy specifically for the act by the way, in the hope that something will come to me. I have noticed that the flags that are most interesting in terms of their story tend not to be funny. This is annoying as I am missing out on teaching people about the Qatar flag because it isn’t funny enough to get into the set. I should point out that it doesn’t stop me sleeping at night or anything. I’m not strange.
For other material, it’s often a case of just sitting down and writing. Inspiration tends not to just strike me. Sometimes chatting to other comedians on car journeys can lead to good stuff though.
6) Is comedy your only source of income or do you have another job by day?
- Comedy is barely a source of income at all at this point sadly, although I am ahead of where I expected to be at this point. I do have another job, one that is too tedious to talk about.
7) Is there anyone who inspired you to get into comedy?
- I suppose the Mary Whitehouse Experience were the first comedians that felt like they were mine, although looking back, I think I only really liked Rob Newman. I used to love Sean Hughes old Sean’s Show but I watched one lately and it was pretty terrible. I also recently rewatched Vic Reeves Big Night Out which was much better. I love that Vic and Bob are happy to allow about three quarters of their stuff to fail because the rest will be worth it.
Lee and Herring were my absolute favourites though, I think I actually prefer Richard Herring to Stewart Lee though, the volume of stuff he puts out is incredible and he is ludicrously underated.
8) Do you want to do this forever or is it just something to do on the side?
- At the moment, forever sounds pretty good. I like that you can pretty much work the schedule you want and say whatever you want, guided only by what you feel is justified to say.
9) Is there any part of the country that you prefer to do gigs?
- There are many places that I haven’t been to yet, but I’ve loved Edinburgh and Glasgow so far. I don’t seem to do as well in Yorkshire, although that is starting to pick up.
10) Have you given up wrestling for good?
- At the moment yes! I have given away my boots but kept my singlets so that’s a bit non-committal. No wrestlers ever really retire though, it’s like comedy in that it is a difficult habit to break. I could see me doing a match or two in the future but in terms of the schedule I used to keep? No chance.
1) You're relatively new to the circuit, how long have you been doing clubs?
- I’ve been doing stand-up since November 2009, in terms of working at professional nights, since August on and off...I’m not yet at the stage where I no longer do new act nights though.
2) How did you get your first gig and where was it at?
- It was at Laughing Penguin’s new act night that they used to run at King’s Manor in Newcastle. Eric Scarboro, who used to run a wrestling company that I worked for, advised me to email them to get started. I actually had a gig booked at Long Live Comedy before that but I was too scared so I pretended that I had to go to work...
3) Why did you decide to go into comedy?
- I wanted to from about the age of twelve, it only took me eighteen years to build up to it. I think I just like showing off and mix this with a vague sort of pseudo-intellectualism.
4) Your act is about a person who loves geography, is this the real you or are you making a character for the act?
- I am genuinely interested in flags, although I have no idea why. When I was about eight years old, I used to get my Mam to describe flags to me and I had to tell her the country the flag was from. I think she would have preferred it if I had have left her alone really. I used to get annoyed when I was wrong, which I almost never was...
It is a partly a character though, I’m not THAT odd.
5) Where do you get ideas for your material?
- For the flags stuff, normally through flicking through my flag encyclopedia, which I already owned and didn’t buy specifically for the act by the way, in the hope that something will come to me. I have noticed that the flags that are most interesting in terms of their story tend not to be funny. This is annoying as I am missing out on teaching people about the Qatar flag because it isn’t funny enough to get into the set. I should point out that it doesn’t stop me sleeping at night or anything. I’m not strange.
For other material, it’s often a case of just sitting down and writing. Inspiration tends not to just strike me. Sometimes chatting to other comedians on car journeys can lead to good stuff though.
6) Is comedy your only source of income or do you have another job by day?
- Comedy is barely a source of income at all at this point sadly, although I am ahead of where I expected to be at this point. I do have another job, one that is too tedious to talk about.
7) Is there anyone who inspired you to get into comedy?
- I suppose the Mary Whitehouse Experience were the first comedians that felt like they were mine, although looking back, I think I only really liked Rob Newman. I used to love Sean Hughes old Sean’s Show but I watched one lately and it was pretty terrible. I also recently rewatched Vic Reeves Big Night Out which was much better. I love that Vic and Bob are happy to allow about three quarters of their stuff to fail because the rest will be worth it.
Lee and Herring were my absolute favourites though, I think I actually prefer Richard Herring to Stewart Lee though, the volume of stuff he puts out is incredible and he is ludicrously underated.
8) Do you want to do this forever or is it just something to do on the side?
- At the moment, forever sounds pretty good. I like that you can pretty much work the schedule you want and say whatever you want, guided only by what you feel is justified to say.
9) Is there any part of the country that you prefer to do gigs?
- There are many places that I haven’t been to yet, but I’ve loved Edinburgh and Glasgow so far. I don’t seem to do as well in Yorkshire, although that is starting to pick up.
10) Have you given up wrestling for good?
- At the moment yes! I have given away my boots but kept my singlets so that’s a bit non-committal. No wrestlers ever really retire though, it’s like comedy in that it is a difficult habit to break. I could see me doing a match or two in the future but in terms of the schedule I used to keep? No chance.