Manchester Comedy Festival interviews: Frisky and Mannish

 

Laura: We've always been academic when it comes to the world of pop. But now, times are hard, and people don't need academia, they need a job. This is going to be much more hands on. We're identifying skill sets, looking at the audience as individuals, and we're going to find out the best career paths for everyone.

 

Matthew: We have a patented five-point system for deciding which is best for you, splitting everyone into five options named after people who have been most prominent in their field: you might be a Razorlight, a Britney, a Justin Bieber, or an Elvis. But you shouldn't choose one, you should let it be organic to see which you are.

 

M: There were some riots. They have their place in the pop world, and what we're doing in the show is showing how every career path is as valuable as each other. They actually combine in a very wonderful way. We don't want to give too much away about the finale but there is an amazing, common finale that really blows the roof.

 

L: It really varies. Some people nominate themselves to be Biebers by just not participating and thinking they're too good for everything. But very often people will try and be the very best they can be. We have badges that people take away very proudly to declare to the world they are a Razorlight or an Elvis. The Razorlights aren't all bad, they're normally quite happy.

M: You're saying that because you are a Razorlight.

 

L: No, but we have to be representative of the range.

 

L: Exactly, we thought we had to make some space for the guitar boys.

 

L: I really like the retro stuff. This morning on the radio they were playing a load of old-school Shania Twain and I thought, yes! That don't impress me much!

M: Rediscovery is a good thing. We do try to keep references current but it's amazing how surprised people are and how happy they are about something that happened in the nineties, and they just totally forgot about how much they loved it. I'm not sure how excited I am about pop at the moment. I read something somewhere where people were talking about everything being beige, because of Adele singing her ballads by a piano, almost counteracting Lady Gaga and her production values. I don't think there's that much exciting stuff.

 

L: We are actually doing weekly X Factor video blogs for Heatworld. And our opinion is important on pop, and X Factor is a part of that.

 

L: Early days, but I love Misha B.

M: I can't decide but I think I'm a big fan of Marcus Collins. Not that I necessarily want him to win, but out of all the people who are solo he's the one who annoys me the least.

 

L: We love a talent show and were joking that we could try and find the next Frisky and Mannish, call it Edinburgh's Next Frisky and Mannish. We'll see what we feel like doing. There's always the crazy idea of going on holiday in August. 

 

M: That's fine. I feel middle aged already after doing this for a few years. Whatever we do next year it'll definitely be a new direction, moving on from what people expect from Frisky and Mannish. Having done three shows that have moved along in content but centred around doing a pop song in a way you weren't expecting, but there's a lot of things we want to experiment with original things. Maybe writing original things with new people, or moving away from songs to sketches and scenes, or incorporating video. It'll hopefully be a year of expansion but we can't say how.

 

M: Yeah, maybe. We've always imagined it as cabaret, although we've always just wanted to do things that are funny and interesting instead of labelling it before we do it. We've been on the comedy circuit for a while and that's been great, but it'd be great to push the boundaries and not get stuck in a routine of thinking all shows are variations on a theme. That's why a talent show would be such a good thing because it would be so new, it might not even be just the two of us on stage but be a collaboration. We've only worked with each other – never had a director or a writer. The only other contributor has been our technical manager Barry but otherwise it's always just been us. But this definitely feels like the end of three things that signals something new for Frisky and Mannish in some way.

 

L: There's so many options and it's so nice to be in a position where we could do almost anything we feel like and people would be interested. But for the moment we're enjoying the ride of being Frisky and Mannish, and we would probably do a little bit more with that. Maybe also do some stuff on our own, or maybe as ourselves, or as new characters as well. 

M: There's so many things that might be happening with TV or radio but we're just waiting to see what might happen. We can't decide that – it's seeing what comes up and taking it as it comes. We're very keen to push it as far as we can get it.