The Interview: Sue Perkins
Making a spectacle of herself
Sue Perkins is best known for being one half of double act Mel and Sue. In 2008 she won the BBC
show Maestro culminating in her conducting at The Last Night of the Proms. She has collaborated
with food-critic Giles Coren on the Supersizers series, created the acclaimed travel documentary
The Mekong River with Sue Perkins and is a regular contributor to Have I Got News For You, Just a
Minute, Qi and The News Quiz. Oh, and apparently she does some cake show on BBC1. She brings
her new stand-up show Spectacles to Reading’s Hexagon on Tuesday September 20.
What prompted you to hit the road with your new tour,
“LIVE! in Spectacles”?
It’s a good time to look back on my life so far. I fully
intend to live to the age of 92, so this is half-time.
Essentially this tour is handing out the orange segments.
Tell us more.
Writing a memoir begins a process that doesn’t
necessarily end with publication. You begin to think
about family life and stories and relationships, and those
are ongoing. Once the book was published, I thought,
“There is so much more still to say without necessarily
writing another book. Why not animate the book with
a live tour?” It’s like a companion volume, I guess. A big,
technicolour puke of thoughts. Perhaps I should put that
on the poster…
You have always relished live performance, haven’t you?
Yes, I love live. I really enjoy playing with an audience.
At book events, I do Q&As, and it’s often then that the
madness starts. It often feels like an anarchic version of
Question Time.
What do you particularly like about interacting with the
audience?
It enriches me. Performing live challenges you to be
more engaged. And the great thing is, each venue is
completely different. What I have done lately has been
TV-based, so I haven’t had the same feedback as I get
live, and that’s what I love. I adore the raw surprise
someone of asking a question you would never have
expected. I love the spontaneity of it. I don’t encourage
hecklers, but sometimes a heckler is the funniest person in
the room - why not embrace that? The audience is a big
pool of fun you can swim around in. But remember - no
petting.
You will be giving each ticket-holder a copy of your
book, “Spectacles”. What’s the thinking behind that?
It gives me the opportunity to meet the whole audience
one by one afterwards during the signings. A gig is a
two-way street. It’s not about me broadcasting. It’s not,
“This is what I’ve got to say about this.” It’s as much
about how people respond to the material. My memoir
is a story of family and childhood, and everyone has
had one of those. Mine is not the definitive version of
childhood, but it’s a great way to start a conversation.
I love it when someone says, “It’s weird. I lived next to
an electricity substation for 20 years as well.” Or, “We
had a cat that dragged our turkey across the room at
Christmas and we had to eat boiled eggs for our lunch
instead.” The book is a recorded history of my life so far,
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