Comic books, heroes and Norman from Leeds: an interview with Colin Hoult

Comic books, heroes and Norman from Leeds: an interview with Colin Hoult

15 June, 2011
by: Emma

Top character comedian Colin Hoult speaks to Emma McAlpine about his new Edinburgh show Inferno, the last in a trilogy.

I’m in Gosh Comics, in Bloomsbury, watching Colin Hoult posing for pictures with his nose in a copy of The Mighty Thor. I’m interviewing him about his new Edinburgh show Inferno, based on heroes, so Gosh seems like as good a place as any for a photoshoot to accompany it (although we do seem to be getting in the way of some serious comic book geeks. “Fans,” Hoult corrects me; it appears he’s one too). 

“Excuse me, but what are you doing this for?,” asks an inquisitive young boy.

“I’m the new Thor,” replies Hoult, at which point the boy looks like he’s going to explode with excitement until he’s corrected: “Not the modern superhero film Thor. I’m playing the Norse mythological character in a comedy show.” The eyebrows reassume position.

Thor is just one of the characters Hoult plays in his new show, the last of a trilogy of sorts which have previously included monsters and villains as themes. “When I was a kid I had this Encyclopaedia of Monsters and there were two other books in the series – Villains and Heroes – which I never got the chance to read so I guess this is a sort of homage. I love that whole noir, Brechtian thing, as well as comics, superheroes and greek mythology. It's my show so I may as well make it about stuff I like!”

I tell Hoult I think I’ve seen a couple of his new characters at preview nights, including Thor and a St Germain-obsessed man who I shed several tears of laughter over. “Oh you saw Thor in his early days, when he was just a shallow man with an Arnold Swarzenegger accent. Now he’s from Leeds and his real name is Norman. There’s also a character named Kay based on someone I actually knew who insisted on calling everyone Billy.”

I’ve always wondered if he bases any of his characters on people he's met, as part of their brilliance is that they all have very real, human traits. They tend to be overbearing personalities who are also vulnerable and insecure, creating the perfect blend of tragedy and comedy.

“When you see a character in a comedy show you only see them in that moment; you don't see their entire life. When it's very one-dimensional, it’s a lot weaker. I try and think 'Why are these characters behaving like that?' and the result doesn't always fit in with people's ideas of how they should be. It is mimicry to a degree but I've never done a character based purely on one person. I try to make them more complex.”

Hoult’s last two shows have had a different set and feel to them, from the Victoriana of Carnival of Monsters to the dark, Weimar Republic cabaret setting of Enemy of the World. Inferno will have a brighter, more idealistic aesthetic, suitably befitting the birth of the superhero during the 1950s. “I'm trying to make the heroes show less creepy. I like all that stuff but I don't want to start doing horror parodies. To me it's real life, so I did want to try and give some of these characters hope. That said, some of the stuff in this is darker than anything!”

A talented actor as well as a comedian, it doesn’t surprise me to learn that Hoult made plenty of home 'productions' as a kid (“Really weird ones too, about serpents and Hercules”), or that he attended drama school. Having studied at Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre with fellow comedian Fergus Craig, the pair then moved to London and formed a double act on the comedy circuit, taking three shows to Edinburgh and winning a Writer’s Guild Award in the process. Since 2009, Hoult has had equal success with his own solo productions, the last two of which have since transferred to the West End.

Confessing to being something of a workaholic (“Yesterday I had a day off and it felt weird, I just did loads of writing in the end”), he’s also developing several ideas for TV sitcoms on top of his live shows. “I've always been focused on writing lots of different characters into a show in the past, so it's been quite interesting coming up with just one character. I've never really been much of a fan of the generic sketch show format but I would like to do something along the lines of Summer Heights High, where the stories meet and the characters are quite complex."

One thing’s for sure, the epic trilogy may be drawing to a close but there’s still a long way to go for Colin Hoult. Watch this space!

Colin Hoult's Inferno is at the Pleasance Two, Pleasance Courtyard at 7:05pm.

Photo credit: Alex Brenner

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Emma