20
INTERVIEW
JS Do you use different material
according to whether you are
primarily talking to Christians or
others? I guess what I’m getting at is
if you tone things down for church
people.
I don’t really. I may go a bit
harder and pick on people more in a
secular venue. Its suicidal really, but
the biggest, meanest-looking guy I
tend to pick on. I try to get them on
side. You can see if it’s going badly
and you change your tack. I don’t
tell jokes, I do observational stuff –
very gentle and inclusive. We’re all
having a laugh together. I’m very
passionate about sharing my faith,
so it’s secular venues that get me
going. I do enjoy the variety. I did
something in Gloucestershire in a
pub recently, organised by a local
church. They were selling tickets
over the bar. I had a couple of big
muscular lads come in, mean looking
guys with tattoos, talking about
how ******* brilliant Roy Chubby
Brown had ******* been last week,
and all these other really blue comics
and I thought, ‘Oh great’. Of course
these guys sat right at the front.
I’m introduced and I sort of went
for them. Do you know what? They
absolutely loved it. They came up at
the end and said, ‘You didn’t swear,
there’s nothing rude, and it was
brilliant.’ One of them got saved that
next weekend. I met him at Spring
Harvest. He came and shook my
hand. It was so lovely, but so scary.
These guys had an expectation of
what comedy is.
JS And laughter is disarming isn’t
it? I’m sure you get your message
through to people more effectively
because they’ve dropped their guard
when you’ve made them laugh.
Laugher is wonderful medicine.
I’ve seen people healed at gigs. Healed
of depression. I was in Sheffield a
couple of weeks ago. I was picking on
this old girl Margaret. She couldn’t
stop laughing. I thought she was
going to give herself a heart attack.
Her son-in-law came up and said
she’d just finished her final course
of radiotherapy that day. She’d not
laughed for ages.
JS Have you been attacked for the
faith portion of what you do?
Never. At the end of the day, the
gospel is good news. I thread it all the
way through. I hate it when there is a
big clunk – uh oh! Here’s the serious
bit. You need to be creative. I used to
do escapology on the street. You’d get
a huge crowd, be in a straitjacket.
Find out how to book Steve for your event at www.stevelegg.com
CHRISTIANS NEED
PERMISSION TO LAUGH. I’VE
SEEN PEOPLE LOOKING AT
THE MINISTER, ALMOST AS IF
THEY ARE CHECKING IT IS OK
TO FIND SOMETHING FUNNY.
THAT’S REALLY SAD.