Big red balls, Hobbit auditions and hecklers: an interview with Jarred Christmas

Big red balls, Hobbit auditions and hecklers: an interview with Jarred Christmas

by: Emma

Emma McAlpine chats to New Zealand's funniest export, Jarred Christmas.

Since moving to England 12 years ago, New Zealander Jarred Christmas has made a name for himself as one of the most naturally funny, charismatic stand-ups on the circuit. His relentless energy, easy charm and sharp mind make him one of the best comperes out there and an obvious choice for fast-paced comedy panel shows like Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Argumental. Currently performing new show Let's Go Mofo! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the entertaining comic chatted to me about his time on Celebrity Total Wipeout, the best way to deal with hecklers and making a tit of himself in front of Steve Martin.

We last caught up with you at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe. What have you been up to since then?

I did Celebrity Total Wipeout in Argentina.

Did you get over the red balls?

I got to the third red ball, only because it got in my way as I fell from the second. I broke the course as well. I rugby-tackled a platform and they had to shut production down for 45 minutes to get it fixed. It was a really fun experience and I can now start an anecdote by saying, “So I was in McDonalds at 3am in Buenos Aires sharing chicken nuggets with Eddie the Eagle...”

You’ve done some really fun TV shows – Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Let’s Dance for Comic Relief...

Yeah I really enjoyed those. NMTB has been going for so long that it’s an easy format to be funny in and people on it like Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding are really generous and chilled out. That said, when I was on 8 out of 10 Cats, I was on Sean Lock’s team and one of the best moments of my life was bantering with Sean and supporting each other’s jokes until the final outcome, which got a huge laugh and made it to TV. 

What's your new show about?

It’s called Let’s Go Mofo! It’s about attitudes and my lack of manliness. I don’t think I’m doing a manly occupation. Basically I’m not manly enough.

You’ve got some pretty manly sideburns.

Being hairy does not make a man. It’s just part of the look.

Have you ever been in a fight?

Yeah, when I was a kid. Before I realised I could make people laugh, I used to think I had to fight my way out of trouble. So if someone insulted me, I would punch them. Most of the time the guy would punch back much harder so I learned pretty quickly it looked better if I turned the insult back on him. Words are my fists now! 

Is that why you’re so good at dealing with hecklers?

I think that comes more from compering. I used to be REALLY scared of hecklers. But I learned very early on in my career to deal with them in the moment. Not just chuck out a hack put-down line like “Where did you learn to whisper? In a helicopter?” Stock lines do work and they are tempting to use because of that but I find the payoff for dealing with it in the moment is more satisfying. 

You’ve lived in the UK for 12 years now, have you acquired any distinctly British character traits in that time?

I now say crisps instead of chips. I am now forced to say, when asking for a pen, "a writing implement," because I’m so sick of people asking if I want a pin. 

You haven’t picked up an English accent yet then?

No, I’m shit at accents and it’s not for lack of trying. Last year I auditioned for The Hobbit, to play one of the dwarves. I thought I could do it in my Kiwi accent but the casting guy wanted me to do it in a British accent. I started off West Country, went a little bit Welsh and ended in Cockney. I didn’t get the part. I don’t think they were after an accent-schizophrenic dwarf.

You worked with Russell Tovey on a short film recently. How was that? 

It was great fun – that guy is awesome and he’s such an effottless actor. I kept doing scenes with him thinking – it’s Russell Tovey!  That guy’s meant to be a werewolf.

Do you still get starstruck?

Not as much as I used to. It gets in the way. I met Steve Martin in 2010 at the Montreal Comedy Festival and made a complete dick of myself. After the show we were doing a curtain call and I was at one of the wings on the same side as Steve Martin. He came up to us and said “Great show guys, well done,” and I just said: “Yep....well done to you too......you did really....really well out there.” This very funny Canadian comic called Steve Patterson came up to me afterwards and said “So, were you happy with how that went? How long have you known you were going to be gigging with Steve Martin? Just thought you’d wing it did you?”

I also met Eddie Izzard at Laughs in the Park last year and got to meet him properly. He’s been a huge comic influence and hero of mine so talking to him was incredible. He’s a really inspiring guy who’s always challenging himself. I was talking to him about doing gigs in other languages and he asked me if there were any languages I was interested in. I said Japanese, because I studied it at school. He said: “Move to Japan for a year, immerse yourself in it, learn the language and then do a gig in Japanese. I guarantee you people will come. So I asked my wife if we could move to Japan. We ended up going out for sushi instead.”

Jarred Christmas: Let's Go Mofo! is at the Gilded Balloon Teviot in Edinburgh, at 2:55pm from Wednesday 1st-Sunday 26th August.

Return to the Edinburgh Fringe homepage 

Emma