It's been interesting being an "older" comedian in recent weeks, partly because I feel I am possibly in the form of my life, in terms of the new show, the book I've written and the podcast and partly because younger comedians have been saying that once you're over 40 as a comic you're dead in the water. First of all Frankie Boyle said that there were very few effective comedians over 40 and then today I saw this interview with comedy actor Kevin Bishop who says, "I think thatâs why I think comedy is only successful for young people. You have to be fearless. Itâs like old professional footballers who have been injured once or twice and donât tackle as hard as they used to. Itâs the same for comedians. Look at Horne and Corden. Next time they may not go in as hard as they did after getting burned."
I don't have a problem with Kevin Bishop. I liked him (genuinely) in "Muppet Treasure Island" and have met him a few times. But whilst I am perhaps rising to the bait, and it's also possible that this is exactly the same kind of thing I would have said in my 20s (I remember me and Stew were always quite damning about Ben Elton in interviews), I think he's almost got what he has said exactly the wrong way round. It seems to me, judging by my own career and of those around me who I like, that comedians, if they stick to being comedians, often get much better when they are older. I was on in Bristol with Robin Ince tonight for example, who I first saw back in the mid-nineties when he was rubbish, but who is now assured and confident and fearless. Stewart Lee, another comedian in his forties is taking more risks now than he did when he was in a TV sketch show and the same age as Bishop.
If anything the knocks and the set backs are the things that make you a better comedian. I don't think it was until Stew and me were out of favour and having to cope with a change in our status and had to work out what we were going to do next that we really came into our own. I think we were probably as cocky and full of ourselves as Bishop is in this interview. And I am not saying that's a bad thing - but everything is going great for him and he clearly has the self-belief that comes with being young. Maybe a few knocks would be good for him and it's not like football - because being a great comedian is about understanding life better and acknowledging the sadness and tragedy at the centre of our existence. And when you're in your twenties and everything is going right for you, then you can't be truly funny. I'd certainly say that Robin Ince quoting Schopenhauer in front of 250 people in Bristol on a Friday night or Stewart Lee spending twenty minutes deconstructing a cider advertisement slogan is a lot more fearless and exciting than Kevin Bishop doing a Gok Wan impression (even though he is very good at doing that). It's hard to be fearless on TV and I don't really think he has a right to call himself (or Horne and Corden for that matter) a comedian.
One would hope that the knocks that Horne and Corden have rightly taken for their lazy and awful sketch show might spur them on to try and do better next time. They have not been fearless or even especially comedic. They have been self-indulgent and rubbish and if they are comedians then being knocked down should make them come back stronger. If they're prepared to admit that they aren't quite as naturally infallible and brilliant as they think they are. It's rather sweet that Bishop thinks they have been knocked for trying something fearless and exciting, whereas I think they have been almost universally derided for being rubbish and wasting a golden opportunity.
This isn't sour grapes either. I have been through all this and come out of the other side and I prefer where I am right now. And believe that even though I am over 40 my best work lies ahead of me and that it was only fighting my way through my thirties and not giving up that have allowed me to be closer to being fearless now I am older.
Robin and I talked a little about being old and being washed up and also about how more and more people seem to be craving intelligent comedy, which isn't just all punchlines and fluff and tedious observations about celebrities. Robin felt it was only a matter of time before some journalist spotted this trend of people seeking our something a bit more intellectual stimulating, with more depth to it. If either of us had gone and tried our sets out at Jongleurs tonight we would not have been able to talk for the two and a half hours that we did between us. But a sell out crowd were there to see us in the Tobacco Factory and I think they had a good time, even though they got little in the way of cock gags and were asked to think a bit and the men they were seeing were grey haired and battered by life.
My nephew, a young man in his early twenties was there, although he nearly missed the show because him and his friends went to the actual Tobacco Factory in Bristol, rather than the theatre. They asked the guy there if Richard Herring was there and he told them that he'd gone home for the weekend. I don't know if someone called Richard Herring actually works there and if so I wonder what would have happened if he'd still been at work. Would my nephew and his friends have been shown into the office and have assumed that what they were witnessing was my new show - you'd think he might have realised that the new Richard Herring was not me, but then he is stupid enough to go and try to see a comedy show in a factory, so who knows?
Maybe when he's in his forties he'll have more of a clue.
