A nice chat with Joe Lycett

 

Joe: It was glorious. I didn't do an hour so the pressure was off. Instead I did the Comedy Reserve with Luke Benson, Jim Campbell and Julian Dean. It was great – there was lots of 15 minutes here and there. I had a lovely time.

 

It was really interesting the first year I went up because I was looking at the board of what was on, particularly in the Gilded Balloon, and I was so excited seeing the names of people doing shows. This time I was occasionally on those boards, so it was really exciting - a high point, lifetime ambition achieved. I suppose I do feel like I've lost some of the new stuff because legitimately I'm not new. But I'm still very new that I've not done my first hour. I think you're an old hand when you're on your third hour in Edinburgh. 

 

I'm feeling the pressure from myself. Everybody has there own take on when you should do it – that might be next year but I won't know that until Christmas really.

 

When I started out I completely idolised Paul Foot; now I consider our relationship to be as friends. The first time I saw him at a show in the Gilded Balloon with Frisky and Mannish supporting. What a line-up! Alan Carr I love too so that's been exciting to meet him.

 

Russell Brand, I haven't met him. Aside from all what he would call the hoopla around him, he is a phenomenally good comedian, and a brilliant, intelligent man. But I'm also open to the idea of not meeting these people, though, because some should remain mysterious.

 

Yup, well I'm always trialling new material, but I'm doing more this year with an eye on doing an hour in future. It occurred to me this Edinburgh that I've progressed a lot as a performer and as a stand-up, but my writing isn't as good as it could be, so that's next. I want to explore gender and sexuality more – I've done quite a bit but would like to do more.

 

One of my concerns is that I got addicted to stand-up and I think that was always going to happen, so it's so perfect stand up as an art form that I got addicted too early and I have a lack of life experience that older stand-ups have. So my frame of reference is in danger of becoming, 'so you know what it's like in a comedy club...'. A lot of stand-ups you'll see two or three years into your career and they'll say, 'I said this thing at a gig once and this happened'. And that's fine, and funny things do happen at gigs because it's a heightened environment and people do say funny things, but you also want to be able to go, 'you know what it's like in this mundane situation...'. It's finding a middle ground really.

 

That's what I thought, maybe I should stop and get a job somewhere normal. But I have done those jobs as well and things have come out of that. But ultimately a stand-up is there to analyse the world around them. If I was to get a job in Tesco just to get stories that would be lazy, and not actually analysing the world that's happening to me in a proper way. I do talk about standup, but I also talk about shit. There are lots of avenues that everyone can relate to, as well as the stand-up. 

 

Who knows? I've helped myself in a lot of ways by starting early so I've got experience of stagecraft so that by the time I'm 50 I'll have more years under my belt than those who start at 30. But maybe I sacrifice some insight into the normality of life. One of the first things I did at uni was make a feature-length film. It's called the Luckiest People in the World, and it was very teenage and angsty. I had a drive to do that but that's not that relatable to most people. I guess that part of what makes me funny is that I'm a bit different. I talk about being bisexual on stage and that's unusual to a lot of people. 

 

Well, the show [Epic Win, the early Saturday evening show that Joe appears on] is interesting from a career point of view because it doesn't really fit with my career so far.

 

Yes, because the audience for that slot is very different to what I see ultimately as my stand-up audience. But it's very hard to turn down that work – not from a money point of view but from an experience point of view, and I really thought about it loads. But it was just such a wonderful opportunity.

 

It's been fascinating as I didn't know what to expect. I feel like I know who I am and what I'm about and that it doesn't necessarily fit with the show. But I'm playing a character, essentially. If I'm entirely honest, it's been fascinating but it's created a level of anxiety I've not been familiar with before. It's been difficult at times to get used to the idea that people hate you. The reviews have been mixed but largely positive. The Guardian didn't like it but a few other places sort of took it as what it is. And it is what it is, it's not going to win a Bafta...

 

Yes, exactly.

Back to Joe. I knew what it was and essentially it's entertaining kids. It's a difficult slot and it's been a baptism of fire. It's been hard to absorb all that when you've come from the naivety of the world of stand-up. But it's been a good experience and it's opened a hell of a lot of doors. And I've enjoyed when they've gone out as well. All the response has been great to me, and there's been lots of lovely things said.

 

No-one was really. The one I was most embarrassed about was Alex Jones from the One Show, who was absolutely lovely, but because she's so beautiful and ethereal, you feel that she's delicate and might break her. When she was leaving I went to say goodbye and accidentally headbutted her. And she didn't really acknowledge it and so I didn't either, and just said, 'nice to meet you', so we didn't even have that awkward thing where I said, 'I've headbutted you'. So her lasting memory will be, that's the guy that headbutted me. 

 

A couple of people have asked me but I don't do work in that voice as I'm not going to take work away from Peter Dickson. The reason I did the show was because the role was a lot more involved that just doing the voice. And he knew about the show, I made sure he knew about it. If you're making anything like TV with a budget, Peter Dickson is flexible with his rates.

 

No, I don't think I would, because it's the same voice. I don't want to take away from him. But other doors, yes: the BBC are really interested in developing stuff further, Channel 4 have got me on their radar, people know who I am from a telly point of view. I'm 23, I've got many years to be known as that comedian Joe Lycett.

 

I think I have to be careful about what I do now. It's a conversation I need to have with other people about the next best step. People always judge you on the last thing you did. The one thing I worry about is because it's not art it's harder to invest yourself in it. I'm really attached and precious about my stand-up and find it very important to produce good things, and it's hard when you're not doing that as that's what I want to do. The future I know I want to do things that I'm proud of. But I'm keen not to come across as ungrateful because it's been a great thing. It's mental I've been on a BBC One show after three years in stand-up.

 

It's good. Well, I'm saying that, but I've not seen it in edit. It was lovely, really relaxed, with great audiences. It was just a joy. As I said you're at the mercy of the edit to make me look like a goon. But I'm proud of what I did during the records.

 

I've been doing run throughs for 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Mock the Week I'm not sure I would fit well with. It's gag heavy and I'm more anecdotal. Otherwise, I'll just be working on new material this year. The last year I've had a lot of projects on the go so I'm looking forward to narrowing down to one thing for a bit.