Suitable comic

FRANK Skinner reveals that his aim of seeking an amusing rapport with his audiences can get him into trouble. “I love interacting with the audience,”

says the proud father of a one-year-old son Buzz. “When it goes well, suddenly I feel like I’m part of the audience as well. That’s very exhilarating. Last week a woman in the front row had an American accent, and I asked if she was from the US. She replied, ‘No, I’m from Iraq’. I’d made the wrong-est guess anyone’s ever made and my life flashed in front my eyes – but the audience laughed about it for at least a minute.

“Those moments are very precious because they’re not repeatable. They happen so quickly that you’re not even aware of the process.

I don’t know how you could rehearse those exchanges – unless you practised with your partner. But she doesn’t always appreciate my comebacks. Anyway, those moments on stage are very pleasurable indeed.”

His first major UK tour in seven years – which is heading to York and Middlesbrough this winter – follows a broadcasting career ranging from The Frank Skinner Show and Fantasy Football League in the 1990s to today’s Room 101(which is currently in its third series for BBC1), and his Sony Award-winning Absolute Radio show.

But Skinner feels that a live arena gives full rein to hiss spontaneous wit, allowing him two hours to demonstrate how he cannot help but be funny.

The comedian, who won the Perrier Award in 1991, says of returning to the stage: “It’s so different from other stuff. I like the sense that it’s not being recorded. Even when you come to record your DVD, no matter how much you fight it, you feel that you’re wearing a slightly smaller suit. It feels a lot more restrained.

“So much stuff is recorded these days. Small stand-up clubs will often have a camera at the back of the room, and you never know where the footage will end up. In the end, memories will be completely closed down. YouTube has already totally killed the anecdote. It provides anecdotes for the illiterate: ‘Here’s a funny thing – look at this’.”

He ranges over relationships, religion, rows with your partner, filth, salty popcorn, Prince Charles, long black leather coats, the yard of ale, giving to the homeless, the Tube and taste.

All delivered with an admirable sense of honesty.

This makes sense from a comedian whose first autobiography was simply entitled Frank.

“Honesty is vital,” reflects Skinner, whose Absolute Radio show was downloaded 2.8 million times last year.

“Everything I do is autobiographical. When I’ve strayed from that and tried to write a novel in the third person or sitcoms, they have not been great. I’m essentially an autobiographical writer. I once read a biography of Jack London. It revealed that he wrote by buying a story from someone and then developing that into a novel. His justification was that his gift lay in expression, not invention. I suspect I’m the same.”

So just how much of Skinner’s material in Man in a Suit is lifted directly from his own life? “You’d be amazed! I embroider very little.

I never completely invent anything. I think it would lack conviction if I did. It feels more real when it is true.”

One thing that has changed about his act is that it now features far less blue material than it did in the past. The comedian explains that his Man in a Suit tour is merely an account of who he now is. “There’s a bit of filth, but not much. When I do Room 101 or my radio show, I’m very me. I don’t feel phoney. I’m very clean because it’s eight in the morning. David Baddiel said to me recently, ‘When I think of ‘your funny’ off stage, I don’t think of you doing knob jokes. I think of you talking about John Updike.’ That’s more who I am off stage these days.

“I’ve done a lot of knob jokes in my time, but maybe I’ve emptied my supply of them now.

Your comedy should be a reflection of what’s in your head, and I just don’t think of sex as much as I used to. When you get into a long relationship, sex is no longer the dominant thing.”

All the same, 57-year-old Frank adds, “I still have to do a bit of filth on stage. If I didn’t, that would be like Bernie Clifton not performing with his ostrich. So I go through a process of negotiation with my audience – ‘Let me read you some haikus, and I’ll trade you that for some knob gags later on.’ I think that’s a fair deal. I’ll talk about Plato, and I’ll then give you a knob gag. It’s like training a dog: you have to sit while I say my bit, but then I’ll reward you with a chocolate biscuit afterwards.”

Skinner, who had three number one hits alongside David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds with their football anthem, Three Lions, continues that his current cleaner act mirrors the present state of comedy. “In the past, people would always laugh at the rude stuff because they were getting something they couldn’t get elsewhere. When I did my first tour in 1991, that was certainly true.

“But now 8 out of 10 Cats is much ruder than my stuff was in 1991. So people don’t have to go to live comedy to get that anymore. That means I’m able to do more stuff that I like.

It’s great because it keeps my show fresh.

When I’ve done the live show 40 times, I don’t feel, ‘Oh God, here we go again’. Maybe that’s because I’m doing stuff that is not so much on the button anymore.”

Skinner closes by returning to the subject of how much is looking forward to performing live once more with Man in a Suit. “I’ve always had the showing off gene. I see it now in my son. The other day he did an impression of me doing the impression of Louis Armstrong, and I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder. So on stage I want to show off. If the audience are laughing, I want to make them laugh even more. Above all, I really care about the audience having a very good time indeed.”

• Frank Skinner tours to York’s Grand Opera House on Wednesday, November 19 and Middlesbrough Town Hall on Thursday, December 11. Tickets are available from frankskinnerlive.com