upfront
ALL ABOUT ALAN
Last year loveable comedian and actor Alan Davies
made his triumphant return to stand-up after a
decade long break. Now he tells Heather Arnold
how he’s back for another round. pic: TONY BRIGGS
A
t the moment it feels a bit like Alan
Davies is leading a triple life: he
is all over our televisions screens
either busting illusions as Jonathan
Creek or attempting to answer the incessant
questionings of Stephen Fry on QI. Now he is
also hitting venues around the country with his
new stand-up show.
Though these presentations of Davies are very
different there is one notable similarity that
they all share: the fact that he is lovely.
This is further confirmed when he phones
me and apologises for being just a few
minutes late for our interview: “You don’t
want to say to other people ‘go away – I
have to talk to Heather!’”.
The endearing Alan Davies is back
on the circuit again with his new act
Little Victories. This is his second
show since returning to the world of
stand-up last year, after a decade
avoiding it.
“I really went off it [stand-up],”
says Davies as he explains his 10year absence, “I’d become so well known
for television that it became difficult to do bits at a
“I’m not the best
joke writer in
the world and I
find I’m better at
storytelling”
comedy club without the audience wanting to ask me
about Caroline Quentin or Jonathan Creek. So I got
it into my head that I couldn’t do that and I think I
let negative thoughts about that get to me, and that
was a shame because that was the thing I loved the
most.”
Always a fan of funny, Davies turned his attention to
stand-up after an epiphany filled trip to Edinburgh:
“I hadn’t considered stand-up until my 20s, then I
realised that it existed.
“I didn’t know any stand-ups until I went up to the
Edinburgh festival, when I was a 20-year old student
BUZZ 14
in university, and saw Rory Bremner.
“I’d always wanted to do comedy but I always
imagined collaborating with other people, but doing
it myself was the only way to get going. The problem
with collaborating with other people is that other
people aren’t very reliable!”
Alan’s return to stand-up came about after his
restaurant-based sitcom Whites got cancelled: “I
thought it was the best sitcom script I’d ever read.
It was a really funny series that showed a lot of
potential, I really liked the other actors and the
writers were brilliant, and the BBC canned it and I
had no idea why.
“I think it was the worst thing to happen to my
career,” Alan sighs, “but it was a big push toward
doing stand-up again, in that sense it was a case of
‘every cloud’.”
When creating his new show Alan was certain he
didn’t want to just tell jokes, but create anecdotal
stories from the little victories in his own life: “I
wanted material that would last, material that will
evolve the longer it gets.
“I’m not the best joke writer in the world and I find
I’m better at storytelling,” Alan explains. “I was away
for about 10 years then I came up with a new show
and a lot of it was everyday things, being a dad. My
children still provided me with material.”
But funny tales of family resemblance and the battle
with his children’s refusal to sleep isn’t all Alan will
be talking about: “There’s stuff about my own family
life and childhood, like the first time I got drunk as a
kid. It’s totally autobiographical and anecdotal. It’s
really funny from the first minute till the last.”
With his new show hitting Cardiff at the start of May,
Davies is yet again proving he is more than Stephen
Fry’s dim but cheery sidekick, and there is a hint
that there may be more to come: “Whether I’ll get to
the end of this and think ‘I’ll have a lie down now’, or
I get ideas for a new show, which is what happened
last time, I don’t know.”
Alan Davies: Little Victories, St
David’s Hall, Cardiff, Thurs 1 May.
Tickets: £20-£25. Info: 029 2087 8500 /
www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk;
Princess Royal Theatre, Port Talbot, Fri
2 May. Tickets: £25. Info: 01639 763214
www.nptartsandents.co.uk