‘I need talent’

12:47pm Thursday 13th March 2008

Stand-up Paddy McGuinness is offering North-East acts a chance to appear in his sell-out shows. He reveals to Viv Hardwick why a cautious approach to comedy paid off

PADDY McGuinness was once a leisure centre lifeguard who wouldn't take the plunge into fulltime comedy until he was sure he could make a living. Now, following the fame and fortune generated by Channel 4's Phoenix Nights, the stand-up is offering a first step on the ladder to North-East wannabes plus a £2,000 prize and appearance on his Christmas live tour DVD.

The stand-up is inviting regional acts to send in DVDs to him so he can select co-stars for his Paddy McGuinness Live! Plus You tour, which visits Durham's Gala Theatre and Billingham Forum in September.

"All I'm saying is if you've got an act and if you fancy playing to big theatres and you want to put yourself out there, then now's your chance'. I can quite easily phone up any warmup act," he explains.

He's not worried about a newcomer outshining him on stage and adds: "If someone is on before you and the audience is having a good time it makes your job a mile easier. You don't want to go on yourself and start warming them up that's what the support act is all about."

McGuinness has never been in a support slot in his career, despite having shot to success thanks to his Bolton mate Peter Kay, who famously started out as the warm-up man for TV shows such as Parkinson.

"I came up with this idea because I thought there are a lot of great acts out there and I'm not bothered if they're singers, comedians, jugglers or magicians. We'll look at anybody.

They'll do four or five nights around the area they live so it's not the case you've got one shot and if you're too nervous then tough. We're going to give them all a chance and then we'll pick the best ones to film a live DVD and all the rest will get the chance to sell their own merchandise and publicise themselves," he says.

"Basically we just want a DVD of their act and they'll be no auditions or anything like that. In the X-Factor you get people who are clearly mentally unstable, so I don't want to go down that route. It doesn't matter what the act is. Even if you think he won't to be interested in that', send it in you'll be surprised because the idea of the show is variety," McGuinness says.

"I was given a leg-up at the beginning of my career and I think if you get that chance you've got to take it. You can't just sit around waiting for the phone to ring and things like this don't come around that often. So I thought let's give it a go'. It doesn't matter who sends the stuff in, as long as it's entertaining."

His tour follows the tongue-in-cheek look at football DVD, All Star Balls Up, where the comic recruited some of the game's legendary names to feature as his servants while he introduces clips posing as a country-style lord of the manor.

"A few nights went by where I thought these are hours I'm never going to get this time back in my life," McGuinness admits about spending hours selecting the football worth featuring.

"I drafted in all the ex-footballers because I wanted to give people value for money. Mark Lawrenson, Ian Rush and Paul Merson, who are all around as football pundits, are footballers I used to idolise on the telly, and I couldn't believe I was telling them to do things," he says, revealing that between takes there was a kickabout and a giggle.

"I basically phoned them up and said I wasn't going to take the mickey out of them in a nasty way, I'm not a caustic comedian and I'll leave that to those who do it. If you're honest with people they go with it.

"I told Graham Taylor that I was a bit uncomfortable with it, when he's an ex-England manager, but I was going to treat him as if he was senile. If you tell them, they're all right with it, but if I'd just gone up to him he'd have said what's this all about?'," McGuinness adds.

The Bolton Wanderers-supporting comic feels that he doesn't have to keep touring constantly.

"You could go on the road every year and make money hand over fist, but I like to tour when I feel I want to do it. I just going to get out there and have a laugh. As we speak I'm still writing the script. I'm not a big fan of the shows where you sit there stroking your chin and going I'm not laughing, but it's very clever'. Comedy is taken a bit too seriously sometimes and all I want people to do is come, have a drink, have a good laugh and go home."

In spite of telling BBC2's Something For The Weekend show that he and Peter Kay were considering another TV project, McGuinness is wary of saying more. "I'm touring now, which takes my year out of the window and Peter is doing his stuff. We will do, eventually, but it's a funny one because we don't want to rush into anything," he replies.

The two's relationship, which blossomed into Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere, saw McGuinness join the world of work after they were at school together while Kay opted for showbiz.

"I didn't have any ambitions to do comedy as a job, it just sort of happened by accident.

Phoenix Nights gave everyone a chance. Dave Spikey had been on the stand-up circuit for something like 12 years and never got a break until then.

"I was still working at a leisure centre as a lifeguard. I used to finish my shift, go and film and go back and do another shift. I knew it was time that I didn't have to leap in a swimming pool again when I paid off all the loans I had with my Phoenix Nights money. That's when I realised."

He confesses he's never had a clue why some people make it in comedy and others fail.

"I know loads of really funny lads who will have you crying with laughter but you stick them on stage with a mike in their hands and they just can't do it. People email in and ask me about this and I say try it out on your friends, but don't let them know you're trying it out and then do some open spots at comedy nights'.

Who knows, when you come off stage if you'll ever do it again.

"You think of some bloke reading this and hearing that it's hard under the spotlight and has just finished tarmacing a road and saying tough job!'. But it's not physically demanding, it's mentally tough."

■ Paddy McGuinness Live! Plus You, Durham Gala Theatre, September 3. Box Office: 0191-332- 4041

September 13, Billingham Forum. 01642-552663 ■ Send recordings of your act on DVD plus a brief synopsis, along with your contact details to: No Third Entertainments PO Box 1121 Preston PR4 5UY

Further info: www.patrickmcguinness.co.uk

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