Canadian crusader: an interview with Glenn Wool

Canadian crusader: an interview with Glenn Wool

24 January, 2012
by: Emma

Ahead of his London tour dates, Glenn Wool chats to Emma McAlpine about life on the road, the state of the comedy industry and the ice hockey red mist...

Renowned for his rock 'n' roll lifestyle, Canadian comic Glenn Wool may have toned down his wild ways in recent years but he’s still on one heck of a ride. Having left his UK home a few years ago, now he gigs all around the world, with no fixed address. Started 2012 on home turf, touring the ski resorts of British Columbia with fellow Canadian comics Pete Johansson, Craig Campbell and Dan Quinn, he's currently back in the UK performing his smash-hit 2011 show No Lands Man across the country. Next week he’s off to LA for pilot season, before heading to Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival; then "maybe China, America for a month or two and the UK in July and August." Ahead of his London gigs this weekend, I spoke with the gallivanting comic, who turned out to be every bit as candid and amusing as he is on stage...

Happy New Year! It’s definitely too late to say that now.

Yeah man well, I'm so discombobulated from jetlag I may be closer to New Year than you think, after all the time zone changes!

Did you have a good one?

Yeah – I was up on my parents farm and didn’t even realise it was New Year’s until someone changed the channel over. I know I'm getting older and happier in my skin because I didn’t think: “Oh no, I've missed the party!” I thought: “Thank god!”

It can be horrendous, especially if you’re in a big city like London.

Yeah it's kind of amateur night for drunks. The last wild one I had was in London and we ended up having to walk a really long way to get to um....actually I just realised that half of that story is really illegal. Trust me I was having fun!

Oh come on you can tell me, it’s not like I’m a journalist.

Did I say illegal? I meant to say we went to the zoo. 

So how's the clean living going?

Great apart from today, I woke up at 4am with jetlag. The only thing that can get you out of it is a good crowd. I landed and gigged in Leeds on the same night and the audience really pulled me through. 

Is it similar to performing drunk?

Well now how would I know that?! It is a bit and adrenalin can have the same effect. Going on stage on anything was never really my thing. It happened but that was generally because I was still up from the night before. I'd have shows sneak up on me. I'd be like "what? I have to be where?!" but I never really enjoyed being on anything apart from sobriety because being on stage and making a room full of people laugh is the best drug in the world. Anything you do to get in the way of that just makes it harder. 

You’ve done a lot of travelling recently. Are you still effectively homeless?

Yes and with no home in sight. There are good things and bad things about it. I just got off Facebook with Doug Stanhope's girlfriend Bingo because I was checking to see if they were in England, which they weren’t  but she asked me to the super bowl party in Arizona in a week's time. I'm going to be in LA for a month, so I’ll land there next week, rent a car and drive to Arizona. That's the kind of thing you can do. If something takes my interest I’ll just reroute. 

What are the pitfalls ? I bet you’ve stayed in some crappy hotels in your time.

Yeah man, I've been bitten by bed bugs on two separate occasions. When you start travelling you have a romantic idea of vermin, like you’re some kind of tortured artist, then you get bed bug lice and you realise "No, this is just horrible." In New York we stayed in a hotel slash halfway house that was full of Norwegian tourists and people who'd just got out of prison. It also had rat traps everywhere, so every so often we'd hear the trap snap and listen to a rat slowly suffering to death!

You took a break from the Fringe for a few years, then came back and smashed it last year – do you think it helps to take a break every now and then?

Yes I do and my new rule is to do it every two years now. I can write a show every year if I want to but I think it's better to have two years of stories lined up.

You’ve been performing for 18 years; do you think the comedy industry's in a better state now than when you started?

It's in a much better, more global state. It used to be run by a few people who owned comedy club chains across different countries and I don't think that's a good thing – they had too much power and tried to tell comics what to talk about. There's a real surge going on across the world right now where young guys and girls are starting up their own gigs and comedy festivals in small towns and it's wonderful to see. 

How was the Snowed In tour? It’s a cunning way to fit skiing in with work.

Actually I don't ski any more, I find it very tedious! 

So what do you do when everyone else is out skiing?

I get over my hangover. Actually I’ve been teaching my girlfriend Carol how to ice skate. It's a lot cheaper and you don't have to do it all day. 

I can't picture you ice skating but I guess you are Canadian...

Yeah, I still play ice hockey. I was in LA last year and it was a bit of a mind fuck. I'd been going to loads of auditions and it was a really stressful time. Hockey was a great release and I was in this one game with a guy who was playing really rough. I went to get the puck and this dickhead came along and cross-checked me. I thanked my lucky stars because now I had a reason to hit somebody and I turned around and cross-checked this guy so hard he apologised afterwards. He was a lightning rod for every piece of bullshit that I had encountered in LA and that is a lot of bullshit. BOOM! It felt wonderful. I hope he had healthcare.


Glenn Wool: No Lands Man is at the Leicester Square Theatre from Friday 27th-Saturday 28th January.

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Emma