The other side of the stage

10:24am Monday 7th April 2008

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ALAN Francis describes himself as a comedian who does acting.

He trained as an actor, then first attracting the attention of comedy audiences by winning C4's So You Think You're Funny Award in 1991.

Since then he's pursued a dual career in comedy, both as a standup and a writer, and in acting.

"You do get comedians who act.

Not all can. If you're trying to act you have to realise it's two different jobs. Being a comedian is an extension of yourself, whereas acting is a different process. It takes some comedians a while to get there."

His first stand-up came while he was studying drama in Manchester, and MC-ed a couple of cabaret nights at the Student Union. "I learnt I could do it," he recalls.

"I wasn't trying to be hilariously funny, but I was quite relaxed and chilled out with the mike, and knew I could do it. When I left university I did get a few acting jobs but found myself unemployed for quite a time.

Stand-up was a way of earning money. Then I didn't do any acting for a long time."

The C4 award opened up comedy doors to him but an acting role brings him to York Theatre Royal in a stage adaptation of Jerome K Jerome's novel, Three Men In A Boat. That should be roles in the plural. While he doesn't play any of the three men, he does play lots of other different characters.

He was at the same theatre last year in the National Theatre of Scotland's production of The Wonderful World Of Dissocia by Anthony Neilson. Francis worked with him at London's Royal Court Theatre in Penetrator, the stage show that got him back into acting after a spell doing stand-up.

He's amazed how comtemporary JKJ's humour is in the Victorian-set story of friends who embark on a holiday trip on the Thames with humorous consequences.

"It becomes more of the obsessional humour I associate with modern comedians about lower middle class aspirations - people who want to pretend to be toffs and do the kind of things they do, but without the resources to do it properly," he says.

On TV, he's worked on Alistair McGowan's show, Alas Smith And Jones, Fist Of Fun and The Alexei Sayle Show. On radio, he costarred in The Alan Davies Show on Radio Four and in two series of Slices Of Life With Phil Jupitus for Radio One.

He's recording a new series for Radio Four in the autumn. "A radio series in itself is almost like a balance because it's a mixture of stand-up and characters," says Francis. "So it's like me doing a stand-up monologue in my house, where the sketches come out of memories or fantasies.

"A radio series is milking comedy and acting. It's what I want to do more and more. I really, really enjoy stand-up and love it, but like anything, if you just do the same thing it's boring.

Probably all comedians get jaded because it's like a treadmill."

What he loves about writing stand-up comedy above anything else is "how you can have an idea in the afternoon and perform it to an audience in the evening".

"There's nothing more pleasurable when it works and gets a response."

* Three Men In A Boat continues at York Theatre Royal until April 26. Tickets 01904- 623568 or online at www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk