Dave Spikey

February 2012

My Weekend

I’M working tonight so I’ll be taking it easy today. I would normally go to the gym on a Saturday morning but I won’t because I’m injured. I broke a few ribs falling on the ice.

I hate the gym but I’m trying to lose weight. I always end up sat opposite the bloke on the thigh-buster with the perished shorts.

If the weather’s OK I’ll go biking, which I’ve got into in the past couple of years.

We live in a lovely part of Lancashire, so if it’s a nice day we’ll bike out for breakfast or lunch and do a few miles along the canal or over the moors.

Then to get me in the mood for the show tonight I’ll probably be watching Sky Sports to see how Bolton Wanderers have gone on against Chelsea.

On Sunday mornings I’ll get a paper, then we’ll have a walk to one of the local pubs. We have some lovely local pubs around here that do real ale.

We have three grown-up children between us but none together, even though we’ve been together for 30 or so years.

I’m not a grandad yet. None of them have shown any interest. My son’s a musician, my daughter is a deputy head teacher and my step-daughter is the head of cardiology at the Royal Albert Infirmary in Wigan.

I’m no good in the cinema because I get irritated and it gives the wife a headache. Something ridiculous will happen and I’ll lose my temper. Like George Clooney in Ocean’s 11 when he said he won’t go on the heist. Of course he’ll go. At the end he takes his mask off to reveal it’s him and I’m standing up in the cinema: ‘You see, I told you!’ I’m a nightmare.

I’ll go on Sky Movies now and again usually to watch the old films, with Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Cagney and Cary Grant.

I prefer to read. Which is good because I present The TV Book Club (on More4) and I’ll have ten books to read. I love crime thrillers. Harlan Coben is my favourite. Lee Childs is another. The hero in his books is a guy called Jack Reacher and he’s a mountain of a man but they’ve just cast Tom Cruise in the film.

Because of The TV Book Club I get all types of books to read, some I’d never normally pick up. In the last series I had one called Scared Hearts, set in 16th Century post-renaissance Italy where a girl has been imprisoned in a convent. Will she get out? I don’t really care.

But I had to read it for the show and I couldn’t put it down. A brilliant book, like The Shawshank Redemption in a convent.

I’ve lived in my village since before I started doing comedy and I’m still mates with the same people. They’re builders and painters and decorators and they go in the pub early doors for a couple of pints after work. Me and the missus will meet up with them and have a couple of drinks, then come home about eight o’clock and read.

There’s nothing much on the telly. Although we do watch Holby (City) and Casualty because we like shouting out at all the medical inconsistencies. The missus worked in blood transfusion while I was in haematology.

We have a bit of a quiz and guess what is going to happen to the people at the beginning. There are some easy ones like the bloke in the long scarf mending the combine harvester. Then there’s the bloke trying to get rid of a wasp nest with a firework. But there’s always an old woman with a sponge and we never know what’s going to happen there.

I like all sorts of music but contemporary jazz sounds like a one man band who has fallen over and he’s trying to get up again. I do like swing jazz, reggae, ska, classical, Cee-Lo Green, Adele, Gladys Knight and the Pips... I always wanted to be a Pip.

A perfect weekend? I’d take all my mates down to Bolton Wanderers in one of the suites and we’d have a slap up meal watching them beat Arsenal three-nil.

Dave Spikey appears at Just The Tonic at The Forum in The Cornerhouse on Thursday April 19. Tickets are £13 and £16.50, call 0115 910 0009 or www.justthetonic.com.

The TV Book Club is on More4 tomorrow at 7.10pm.

Bill Bailey

November 2011

LANDING a role in the next Doctor Who Christmas special is not such much a career high as a personal one for Bill Bailey who describes it as: “like getting knighthood.” It’s fair to assume he’s always been a big fan of the show.

“Well, I was small for many years,” he quips then admits: “I was terrified by the Cybermen. For a long time I had an irrational fear of being in a lift in case the door opened and there was a Cyberman standing there. I’ve just about got over that now.”

So how did he get the gig?

“It was just one of those things. They phoned up and said do you want to do it. And I said ‘oh yes I do.’”

Any storyline for a Doctor Who episode is a closely guarded secret so one assumes he was given the third degree about no revealing any details?

“No they didn’t although I subsequently found out that that’s the prevailing culture. I did tweet about it saying that I was going to do it and there was this tsunami of tweets of people saying: “You going to be in it?” “Have the BBC said you’re going to be in it” - it went absolutely mental.

“I didn’t really realise how obsessive and fanatical people are about it. But I can see why.”

Prior to that Bailey is finishing off the remaining few dates on his Dandelion Mind tour that started 18 months ago and has since been across Europe, Australia and the US.

It includes a date at the Capital FM Arena on Thursday.

“I’ve played Nottingham many times,” says Bailey, whose debut at the Edinburgh Fringe 15 years ago earned him a Perrier Award nomination.

“I used to do Just The Tonic quite a bit and it was great fun,” says the West Country musical comedian and actor.

“I had some great gigs there. And I played the university a few times. I remember that for one of the university gigs my car broke down. And the accommodation I was supposed to be staying in was overbooked, so it was all going a disastrously wrong.

“We all ended up in some student digs drinking cherry brandy at three in the morning. So, you know, rock n roll! That’s what I say.”

Since those days he’s gone from Never Mind The Buzzcocks to Black Books to the Top 10 in Channel 4’s greatest stand-up of all time poll to a British Comedy Award. Along with his own shows for Channel 4 and BBC2 he’s appeared in Spaced, Jonathan Creek and Skins, been a regular on Have I Got News for You and QI and even presented wildlife programmes Wild Thing I Love You (Channel 4) and Bill Bailey’s Birdwatching Bonanza (Sky1).

On the big screen you may have seen appearances in Saving Grace, Hot Fuzz, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Chalet Girl and Burke and Hare.

“It’s another world now,” he says of his current standards of lodging when on the road.

“I’ve got a swan carved out of ice; I demand that everywhere I go. I get a Toblerone, I’m carried to the gig in a sedan chair... it’s all changed.”

Bailey was one of the first UK comedians to play arenas and he admits it was initially a daunting prospect making the leap from the comedy club to the big stage.

“I learnt an awful lot about what to do and what not to do,” he says.

“I’d built it up in my head so much about what a big deal it was... and it was a big deal but now I’m a lot more relaxed about it. I just see them as gigs. It’s like doing a gig in a club except there are a few more people there.

“Initially I spent hours thinking how it had to be a spectacle and I was fretting for months about the number of pixels on the screen and where people would be able to see it, was the sound right?... I drove myself mad over it.

“I started from the point of it being for arenas and that coloured my judgment in a way. I was writing songs and material thinking I’M GOING TO HAVE TO SPEAK A BIT LOUDER! and punch the air at the end of each joke.”

He adds: “I wrote this show completely the other way. I started in the tiny venues in the Highlands of Scotland, in community centres and little halls and let it expand into arenas.

“Obviously there are bigger screens and more sound equipment now I’m playing arenas but nothing really that significantly different.”

He’s also taken it to Australia, the US, Canada and Europe.

But isn’t playing an arena a wholly different experience?

Peter Kay, John Bishop and Lee Evans have all introduced songs and dance numbers for their shows this year, as if conscious that they have to fill the space. And their shows lacked that interaction with the audience that can make each gig unique.

“Practically that is more difficult because if you ask: ‘Has anyone here swam with a dolphin? And there’s someone towards the back of the arena in another postcode going: ‘Yes, I’ve dad did a doldin’ you spend ten minutes asking: ‘What did he say?’ So it can turn in to a session of Chinese whispers.

“But you are close to the people in the front rows, so you can talk to them. You just have to be quite clear about what’s been said and relay the conversation to everyone.

“In fact, it was in Birmingham where I was playing this alpine horn and the end fell off. I picked up the end of the horn and there was the manufacturer’s number inside with a number to ring in Switzerland, so I phoned them up and put the phone to the microphone.

“I got the audience to shout: ‘the horn’s broken!’ You have to allow things like that to happen so it’s less formal, so the audience don’t feel so much that they aren’t involved and they’re just observing a spectacle.”

The same kind of ad-libbing found its way into the show the last time he was in Nottingham at the arena.

“I was on just before the Dalai Lama,” says Bailey, who played the venue four years ago on his Tinselworm tour.

“We ended up with a routine about the songs the Dalai Lama might end his show with, which was good fun.”

Aside from the ad-libs, this show will be significantly different from the live DVD of the same name that was released last Christmas.

“If you think up new ideas you’re almost compelled to put it in the show to see what the reaction will be. I can’t help myself. So it’s always changing.

“I’d say most of the material is different to when I started out in Scotland.”

Aside from the filming of the Doctor Who episode, which will be set during World War II and also star Alexander Armstrong, Outnumbered’s Claire Skinner and The Fast Show's Arabella Weir, the tour is Bailey’s only focus. That’s how he has to work.

“Sometimes I’ve got in to states where I’m doing a TV show, writing something, doing a tour... you just drive yourself mad.”

Bill Bailey brings his Dandelion Mind tour to the Capital FM Arena on Thursday starting at 8pm. Tickets are £29.50 from the venue, call 08444 124624 or visit www.billbailey.co.uk

Alan Carr

WHEN Alan Carr returns to Nottingham he’s always reminded of one of the worst gigs of his career. It was a New Year’s Eve show at Just The Tonic, then housed at what was the Old Vic (now Escucha) in Fletcher Gate.
“It was me, Ed Byrne and Justin Moorhouse – and it was just awful,” he says, sat in the lounge at Birmingham’s Malmaison, a hotel for “pleasure seekers and total exhibitionists” according to the glossy brochure I pick up from reception.
Alan Carr is both, although today he’s more of a distracted celebrity. Throughout our chat he often looks away and waves as members of the public recognise him and demand an acknowledgement. At one point he beckons a trio of ladies over for a photograph.
Carr isn’t being rude, just loving his job.
Once his attention is back on the task in hand, he gives me a broad grin and insists: “Right love, hit me with it!”
Nottingham? That appalling gig?
“Well everyone was paralytic. Darrell (Martin, the club’s boss) told me to give out some party poppers.
“But I gave them out too early and they were all popping them while Ed Byrne was on stage trying to do his set.
“So I got in trouble for that,” he adds, admitting that he ended up in tears after his own set bombed and the crowd chanted “you throw like a girl!”
It’s such a significant incident in his early career that Carr included it in his autobiography, Look Who It Is! My Story.
The book recalled his childhood in Northampton (although he was born in Dorset), where his family were obsessed with football. His dad was the manager of Northampton Town, while his grandfather played for West Brom and Newcastle.
After legging it to London to study drama, Carr made his stand-up debut in a pub in 1997 but it was after relocating to Manchester that he was spotted by Johnny Vegas’ agent coming second to Justin Moorhouse in the city’s annual Citylife stand-up competition.
Since then he’s become one of Britain’s biggest comedy talents but has been unable to tour for the past few years due to other commitments.
There’s been the Channel 4 chat show, Chatty Man, now in its sixth series, and his Saturday afternoon radio show for Radio 2 that he co-hosts with Melanie Sykes.
“I think me and Mel just really click,” he says.
“And she’s got the dirtiest sense of humour. I thought I was bad with double entendres but she sees stuff when they’re not even single entendres and she’s killing herself laughing.
“She comes out the studio after the show looking like Carrie, because her eyes are red with laughing so much.”
Added to that is his first arena tour that includes two dates at the Capital FM arena next month.
And he’s nervous about it.
“I definitely still get nervous,” he says.
“Even when I’m doing Chatty Man I spend the day swallowing sick, but I need that nervousness.”
Many comedians who’ve been to the arena this year, including Peter Kay, Lee Evans and John Bishop, have incorporated musical numbers, as if they are aware of the big space they have to fill.
Carr has no such plans.
“I’m quite a physical comedian anyway. I’ll probably be knackered by the end of the show anyway so I won’t have the energy for a song and dance routine.
“I’ll be eating a barley sugar off a St John’s Ambulance person.”
It’s his first tour in four years, since Tooth Fairy.
“I just needed to tour because Tooth Fairy is on every night on Channel 4... well, it feels like it... and I thought if I leave it any longer it’ll become a comeback tour.
“But I’ve never been away. I’m always on the telly.
“I suppose I’ve been a victim of my success really. They asked me to do The Friday Night Project but I didn’t realise we were going to do nine series of it.
“Then Chatty Man keeps getting recommissioned, which I love but it stopped me touring.”
And he wants to remind people that stand-up comedy is how he started.
“It’s what made me. My Edinburgh shows were critically acclaimed.
“I got chosen to go to Montreal to represent England and I’ve held my own against Daniel Kitson, Johnny Vegas and Lee Mack. I don’t want people to think I’m this gay, squawking stereotype.”
He’s in Birmingham when we meet up because he’s on a short tour of warm-up shows.
“You have to do them,” he says.
“I’d rather die on my (bottom) in Barrow-in-Furness than in front of 16,000 people in Nottingham.
“And people who don’t like arena gigs can see me at one of the warm-up shows. There are only 200 people in there.
“It’s ideal if you want to see me sweating, mumbling and getting jokes wrong.”
The 35-year-old, who now lives in London with his red setter Bev, has ambitions to write a sitcom and even act – whenever he can find the time.
The arena tour is 35 dates and his publishers are badgering him for another book.
“I don’t want it to be a bitter book,” he says.
“I’ve read a few of those second autobiographies and a lot of the time it’s them saying ‘that didn’t happen’, ‘so and so’s an (armpit)’, ‘BBC One are like this’... it’s like airing your dirty washing.
“I think the first book was so upbeat and optimistic that I don’t want the next one to be miserable.
“And unless I break America or get a terrible disease, it’ll all be about work, work, work.”
Again he is approached by a fan wanting his autograph and he obliges.
Once she’s out of earshot he admits: “My fans are lovely. They knit me jumpers and make me jam – oh and I get kisses in the street.
“Most of them are mingers but you get the odd good-looking one!”
 
Alan Carr brings his Spexy Beast UK Tour to the Capital FM Arena on October 4 and 5. Tickets are £30 from the venue, call 08444 124624 or go to www.capitalfmarena.com
 

Jerry Sadowitz

February 2011

FOR much of the interview, Jerry Sadowitz is obstructive, answering questions with as few words as he can.

There are only two topics on which he talks at length. One is John Barry, the Bond film composer who died recently. Sadowitz was a huge fan.

The other is Just The Tonic, Nottingham’s longest running comedy club. Even though he’s only played there once. As far as he can recalls it’s the only time he’s been to the city.

Everything else I ask is given short shrift.

How are you?

“So-so.”

I’m told you’re busy at the moment, doing what?

“Various things.”

Tell me about your show.

“Stand-up... and maybe some magic.”

Will it be your take on current affairs?

“I’m not really sure. Whatever comes out of my mouth I suppose.”

You have a set though, surely?

“Yeah, I’ve got a set, you know.”

Comedy is huge these days, how do he feel about that?

“I don’t really give it too much thought, really.”

And so on...

It’s no surprise. Sadowitz, whose comedy has been described as “????”, doesn’t like talking to the media.

Prior to the interview his manager tells me not put it on the internet as Sadowitz doesn’t like the internet.

“I’ve yet to find a good reason for its existence,” says the 49-year-old, by way of an explanation.

And yet he does have his own website, albeit unfinished.

“It took a lot of persuasion to put a website up and then I thought you know what?”. He swears, indicating that he couldn’t be bothered to do it properly. 

Although Sadowitz has a strong Glaswegian accent, he was born in New Jersey. When his parents split he moved with his mother to her native Scotland. Although he was performing on the circuit at the time of the alternative comedy boom of the early eighties, his material was largely in contrast to the right-on ideologies of the likes of The Young Ones, The Comic Strip and co. Jokes about Nelson Mandela and  Terry Waite “I dunno, you lend some people a fiver, you never see them again” kept him outside the rising scene and he’s pretty much stayed underground ever since.

Despite that the likes of Stewart Lee acknowledge his influence. And he’s often listen high in the annual Channel 4  poll  of 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, last year at No. 33.

Is he annoyed that fellow controversial Glasgow comic Frankie Boyle is making a fortune these days? 

“Look, the guy is now incredibly rich, which doesn’t make him right but he could easily sue us both in to the ground, so...” 

Like Boyle he’s had his own TV shows, with a few series on Channel 5 but his last appearance on the small screen was on Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle for BBC 2 in 2009.

Does he get asked to do reality TV shows?

“I’ve been asked to do Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here,” says Sadowitz.

And how long did it take for him to say no?

“It didn’t take too long.”

The first time he breaks in to a conversational sprint is when I ask him about John Barry.

“I guess the only good consistent thing in my life was his music,” he admits.

“I was nine and my sister was 11 and we were baby-sitting my cousin’s kid. The TV wasn’t working and there was a Dansette record player. We went through these singles and there was this piece of music that I thought was really brilliant. It was the b-side of a single. That’s all I can remember. I decided that I was going to listen to everything this guy had ever done.”

Sadowitz met Barry on one occasion.

He says: “I can be very depressed and I was even worse at the time, when I got a call saying he was going to be at a studio in Wembley. I thought I’d go and see if I could get an autograph. It’s great to meet someone you admire who turns out to be a nice person. Which he was. So out of this incredible depression I suddenly meet this guy. It was a strange situation.”

Was he star struck?

“I was an absolute moron, yeah. I was completely gaga. I was like a kid on Jim’ll Fix It or something. I made an absolute idiot of myself.”

Barry, the Oscar-winning composer best known for his Bond themes, died last month aged 77.

“It’s very strange. Maybe I’ve got some psychic vibe or something but I sent him a birthday card in November, saying thanks for the music.”

Although Sadowitz loves music he’s never managed to learn an instrument and never goes to gigs.

“I don’t go anywhere,” he deadpans.

What do you do when you’re not working?

“I spend most of my time looking after my mum.”

That’s at his home in London. So when did she move there from Scotland?

“That sort of stuff, I think, is of absolutely no interest to anybody.”

And it was going so well...

Future plans work wise?

“I’ve learnt not to have any future plans.”

Sensing he’s growing tired of the interview process, I prepare to sign off  when he breaks in to another sprint, this time about Just The Tonic.

“I always have a bit of respect for people who book me. Darrell (Martin, Just The Tonic boss) genuinely likes what I do. And he feels there are a lot of people in Nottingham who would like what I do. To show that there’s other comedy out there that is not necessarily mainstream or on telly. I give him a lot of credit for that.

Jerry Sadowitz is at Just The Tonic, The Forum, The Cornerhouse on Sunday February 20. Tickets are £20, call 0115 910 0009 or go to www.justthetonic.com

Milton Jones

December 2010

THE more successful a comedian becomes, the harder it gets. So says Milton Jones.

The 46-year-old has just started making a name for himself with regular appearances on Mock The Week and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. But with a radio comedy and a TV sitcom, plus the set for his biggest UK tour next year, the Welsh-born stand-up is under pressure to write more new material than ever before.

“Especially when you do one-liners because you can work ages on it and end up with 15 seconds of material,” says Jones, whose style is just that.

“It’s all right if you’re a musician because people want to hear the old songs but they don’t particularly want to hear old jokes. But having said that, you always get some bloke up to you afterwards saying ‘oh you didn’t do the one about the thing that I brought my friend to hear.’”

He adds: “You Tube can be deadly because everyone has got a camera on their phone now and it’s really hard to stop people using them. How can you police that? And what goes on You Tube is often terrible quality and it actually makes you look quite bad.”

It doesn’t help that comedy promoters such as Darrell Martin pull in favours and get him to do additional live shows for Just The Tonic.

“He’s always bullying me,” laughs Jones, who will be back for the Just The Tonic Christmas Special next week, when he was only in the city three months ago. That was for the opening of the club’s new home at The Cornerhouse.

“A very nice it was too.”

So much better than the last one?

“Well the last one I did was the Queen Vic (he means The Old Vic, which was in Fletcher Gate) which was odd because the room was wider than it was long. You had to keep turning from side to side. And there was no dressing room. You had to stand by the bar in a tiny cupboard.”

More room in the new venue with, perhaps, a handsome rider full of snacks and alcohol?

“No. The only way to get anything out of him is to bully him back. I don’t think he does it maliciously, he’s just not thought it through. I’ll be surprised if he’s booked the theatre to be honest.”

Of course he has. For next Friday when Jones will be joined by Sarah Millican, Rob Rouse and Seann Walsh for the annual festive bash at the Royal Concert Hall.

Will his set be completely different to the one he did in September?

“I’ve not thought about it yet,” he admits.

“There will be an overlap but I’m not sure how much. I’m going on tour in January so I’m busy writing material for that. So there will be new stuff. I can’t even remember what I did in September. That’s the trouble, you go along from gig to gig, people ask if you’ll be doing new stuff and you can’t actually remember what you did last time.”

He is in the process of writing a pilot for a sitcom, which will be filmed next summer. There’s also a panel show in the works for the channel Dave called Milton’s College of Knowledge.

“It’s not like your typical competitive panel game but with experts telling you about stuff,” he says, rather vaguely.

“We’re doing that before Christmas and they’ll decide in January whether they want it as a series.

“And there’s another radio series for next year as well, so for the first time in my creative life I know exactly what I’m doing for the next 12 months.”

Why hasn’t he joined in the annual stand-up DVD release?

“There is one but it’s the one I did last year that they’ve put a new cover on to trick people in to buying it, thinking it’s new. That will be next year at the end of the tour.”

The Just The Tonic Christmas Special is at the Royal Concert Hall next Friday December 17. Tickets are £17.50 from the venue, by calling 0115 989 5555

Just The Tonic relaunches with Johnny Vegas

September 2010

THERE’S the one about the wheelie bin...

“I was in a wheelie bin being passed around the room doing pass the parcel. When I stopped singing, the table I stopped at won a round of drinks.”

The other one about the wheelie bin...

“I was running late and I turned up just as last orders were being called, so we went out the back and had a bad fashion bonfire, I auctioned off my toiletries and we did the gig with me on a bin.”

And the one about the Santa suit.

“I’d packed up a van in London with all my Christmas presents to bring them home and as I left London the van caught fire. I pulled up at the services and the van was just burning until the fire brigade turned up. So I phoned Darrell (Martin, Just The Tonic promoter) and said I probably wouldn’t be able to do the gig that night but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I tried to explain that all my clothes had gone up in the fire or were smoke damaged but he came and fetched me and put me on stage in a Santa costume. So Christmas was cancelled for my family but not as far as Just The Tonic was concerned. You know when people say ‘a funny thing happened to me on the way to the gig’ and people think it’s a cleverly constructed bit of stand-up material? As the tears welled in my eyes...”

And there are plenty more where that came from. Johnny Vegas has an abundance of stories from his visits to Nottingham’s Just The Tonic Comedy Club.

Always having a good time (we’ll ignore that appearance at the JTT special at the Royal Concert Hall when he was too drunk to do anything but rant) is one of the reasons Vegas will compere two shows at the club’s re-opening this weekend - even though he’s busy on working on a number of other projects for his TV and radio production company, Woolyback, including a comedy series for Radio 4 and a TV drama about Les Dawson.

“It’s a send up, with a heart, of when he first took over hosting Blankety Blank,” says Vegas.

“I’m also finishing writing a couple of scripts that are in development. It’s sounds lame but I’m not allowed to talk about them.”

The 39-year-old who has appeared in Benidorm, Happiness, Ideal, Black Books, Shooting Stars and the movies The Sex Lives Of The Potato Men and The Libertine (which starred Johnny Depp), rarely does stand-up any more.

“One of the last times I did was at Just The Tonic,” he says, referring to the Christmas special at the Royal Concert Hall last December.

“He’s a dangerously persuasive man,” he says of Just The Tonic’s Darrell Martin.

“I think he’s got me presenting the weather this time as well.”

‘Tis true. Switch on BBC1’s East Midlands Today on Monday evening and you’ll see Vegas attempting to make sense of isobars and the like.

“Darrell said ‘just have fun with it’ and I thought, I’m sure there are some guidelines.”

The other reason he’s happy to break his schedule to help launch Just The Tonic’s new club is because he believes it to be the best in the country.

“It’s the kind of club where you are supported trying out something new. It’s not a conveyor belt of comedy where you’re expected to do your bit just to shift ale or overpriced food. It’s about the comedy first and foremost.

“Clubs like that were vital for me when I was starting out... to develop my mental illness in to something I can present to people as a show.” he laughs.

“It’s a starting point for new acts. Darrell is always on the look-out for them. And a lot of them have gone on to bigger things.”

Among those who have been tried and tested at Just The Tonic’s free Big Value Show auditions, then taken to the Edinburgh Fringe, are Jason Manford, Sarah Millican, Jon Richardson, Josie Long and Jim Jefferies.

Others to have played the club, which was opened 16 years ago at The Old Vic in Fletcher Gate (now Kudos), are Peter Kay, Bill Bailey, Lee Mack, Matt Lucas and Al Murray.

None have had more worldwide success though than Ricky Gervais, who did his first ever stand-up show at Just The Tonic in the mid-nineties.

Which is why, when in 2006 when the venue, then called Cabaret, was due to close, Darrell called on Gervais to perform at two fundraising shows in London. Stewart Lee, Russell Brand and Jimmy Carr also joined in.

Called on to say a few words about the new Just The Tonic, Gervais wrote:

“The first time I met Darrell he invited me to play his club in Nottingham. The second time I met him I didn't recognize him from the first time I met him. I thought he was a homeless drunk who'd just started talking to me at the bar.

“The third time I met him he asked me to do a 1700 seater venue in the West End and let him keep the box office money to start a new club. I said yes, of course. (Why wouldn't I? He's a man I'd met twice). Tickets sold out in a few hours and he immediately called me to say we could put the next night on sale too. Yeh, sure.

“The first night, the car he'd said he'd sent for me didn't turn up. I just jumped in a black cab. Only eight quid. The two nights were a huge success and I think he made about 80 grand.

I hear the club is going well.

He occasionally texts me to invite me to play there. I usually say I'm busy but the truth is I'm worried it will cost me too much money.

“The last text I got he asked me to do some press or write a little article about him. I said no. Yes he gave me my first gig. Yes he's got a nice friendly hobo face. And yes he's a funny guy and a great promoter. But enough is enough.”

The new 400-seater capacity venue (if you can’t work out where it is then think Jumpin’ Jaks/EQ) is a big leap for Just The Tonic, with four nights of comedy every week.

Says Darrell: “Fridays and Saturdays will offer four top names in comedy, the acts performing on Sundays will perform slightly alternative and experimental comedy and on Tuesdays from October we’ll be holding auditions for the Big Value Show.”

He adds: “I’m confident it’ll quickly become one of the best comedy clubs outside of London and will certainly offer the best comedy for miles around”.

Since 2007 Just The Tonic has been running a second club in London at the Leicester Square Theatre. And every summer it’s an integral part of the Edinburgh Fringe.

The Nottingham club launch starts Sunday with Johnny Vegas, who returns for a second show on Monday.

“It’s the spirit of what a comedy club should be,” says Vegas, offering his final thought.

On Tuesday, Mock The Week regular Milton Jones, the Just The Tonic and TV regular Ed Byrne on Wednesday.

Coming up are Rufus Hound, Stewart Lee, Lee Nelson, Sarah Millican, Brendon Burns, Jim Jeffries, Josie Long and Jack Whitehall.

Tickets for shows can be booked online at www.justthetonic.com or by calling 0115 9100009.

You can follow Just the Tonic on Twitter @justthetonic.

Rufus Hound

2010

My weekend

The weekend begins with my son waking me up at an hour -- and in such a way -- that makes it clear he has no idea what hours daddy works.

He could happily stay on a swing for about 80 hours straight so we’ll be down the park at some point as well. Mind you, find me a park that isn't full of heroin addicts, homeless ghost fighters, 14-year-old master criminals or gang-bangers and I'll be impressed.

Saturday is one of the two big nights of the week for performing stand-up, so all I can manage is a trip to the supermarket in the morning and then the crushing disappointment of knowing all my friends are out having a good time, drinks, a new cinematic experience, a pub carpark scrap while I’m going to work.

I don't work Sundays. Not because I'm a Christian or anything, just because I think it's important you have one day a week that you actually see the people who refer to themselves as 'your family'.

As for television shows, I love The Office: An American Workplace. It's well known that a remake is never as good as the original but that is absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly, amazingly brilliant. Better than the original? That's a toughie.

Because I work nights, I don't get to go to the cinema as much as I would like. The last thing I went to see was Avatar in 3D, which was a big stupid Hollywood romp, but one which I loved.

I buy lots of stuff on DVD and Blu-Ray. My favourite films of the last twelve months are probably District 9, Watchmen and Zac And Miri Make A Porno. I don't know if they were all released in the last 12 months, but that's when I watched them.

I read loads of articles online. Huffington Post, The Daily Mash and Wikipedia. In terms of novels, I rarely get the time, but I do love reading comic books. I recently read The Wormwood Chronicles by Garth Ennis, which were enjoyable, but less satisfying than his magnum opus, Preacher. If you like metaphysical angst and hyper-violence, I urge you to read it.

I’ll listen to Jonathan Ross on Saturday morning, then Dermot O'Leary often in the afternoons. If I'm in the car then it's podcasts (The Bugle, SmodCast, The Pod Delusion, The Greenroom Podcast) or Radio 4.

We listen to absolutely every kind of music in our house. It’s as Duke Ellington said: “There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” That's how I feel about it. Regularly blasting out of the stereo are Take That (my wife's choice), the theme from Timmy Time (my son's choice) or if I have my way, Plan B, Marina and The Diamonds or Eels.

I see more comedy shows than gigs or plays but this summer is a summer of festivals for me: Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, Camp Bestival, Plymouth Volksfest, Reading, Leeds... and others that I don't remember immediately. So I’ll be seeing a lot of bands.

Theatre-wise I just went to see Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth which was the most rewarding theatrical experience of my life.

I don’t need to order takeaways as there’s a Papa Johns a three minute walk from my front door.

I'm a member of a gym. I go through little spurts of wanting to be fitter, but inevitably I'm more of a sofa bunny than I am a gym bunny.

My perfect weekend would involve my lady and my boy in a field, in our campervan, miles from anywhere and anyone. Fire up the barbecue!

Rufus Hound joins Rich Hall, Dave Spikey, Ivan Brackenbury and Kevin Bridges at Just The Tonic’s Summer Special on June 19 at the Royal Concert Hall. Tickets are £18, call 0115 989 5555.

Rob Rouse

May 2010

AFTER appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Friday Night Project and Sean Lock’s 15 Storeys High, Rob Rouse is heading out on a major UK tour with his show My Family.... and the Dog That Scared Jesus to Edinburgh.

It’s a journey through his adult life, as a father, comic and troubled owner of a permanently aroused mongrel named Ronnie.

Do you have any superstitions?

Not really, but I think I have a mild touch of OCD. It generally involves turning the gas off and the lights and pulling out plugs, then simply encasing the entire house in concrete just to be sure.

 What’s the most expensive item you’ve ever bought, not including property?

A trail of ridiculously impractical ‘seemed like a bargain at the time’ cars I've travelled around in during my career, that either break down, go bang, or fall to bits.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

My girlfriend said ‘If you buy another **** car I'll leave and take the boy with me.’

 When was the last time you cried?

I got stuck in the Middle East because of the volcano. I'd been away too long and I missed my family. Call me a softie, but that's the truth.

What’s your indulgence?

Buying instruments that I never learn to play properly. I especially enjoy drumming in my shed with my headphones on. My neighbours hate me but it keeps me sane. One day I will release an album, probably on my own label, it will sell one copy. I will buy it.

Who is the most famous name in your mobile phonebook?

I was watching a show the other week where the contestants all had to send a text to a famous person in their phone book and whoever got a call back first won a point. The audience were all losing their minds and screeching with excitement. It made me want to vomit up a lung. Woo-hoo! Look who I know! It's horrible, this obsession with celebs pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with us as a species I think. Or maybe I'm just bitter because there's no one famous in my phone. Or is there...? I bet you guys haven't got Ian's number, or Maureen from the shoe shop.

What item could you not live without?

Without my glasses or contact lenses I'm utterly useless. I'm currently away from home for a few days and woke up this morning to find I hadn't packed them. I had a massive panic then eventually found two lenses at the bottom of my bag covered in bag gunk. I rinsed them off and popped them in, relief! However, they only last a day so I've no idea what I'll do tomorrow. I'll just have to leave trails of wool around London I suppose.

 If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would like to be able to run at 500mph without bumping into people or getting tired. It would make my life so much easier and I'd be really environmentally friendly.

Where are you going on holiday?

Once you've had kids there's no point going on fancy holidays, because toddlers couldn't give a monkeys where they are as long as they've got a few toy cars and a stick to poke things with. There’s just no point going anywhere swish because it'll just get trashed. For that reason we'll go camping. I like camping, I think it feels most like a holiday for me because it's about getting away from stuff. We have a great time, take off in the van, all of us and the dog (minus his cushion), get washed on the sea, fall asleep as the sun goes down, have a fire, burn a few tyres and some plastic... you know, just get back to nature. It's great.

 What were you doing this time yesterday?

I was fast asleep on a train, drooling.

What will you be doing this time tomorrow?

Walking somewhere, maybe eating something, possibly on the loo, who knows, my life’s so rock ‘n’ roll it's hard to say really.