Miles Jupp returns to Edinburgh with his seventh solo show about attempting to become a cricket journalist. Emma McAlpine speaks to the actor and stand-up comic about meeting your heroes, David Bowie's recycling and his best TV work to date.
What’s Fibber in the Heat about?
A few years ago I attempted to abandon this comedy business. I wasn't really into my 2005 Fringe show and I gave up gigging for about nine months after that, it was quite a low point. I thought there might be another career trajectory out there for me, so I attempted to become a cricket journalist and ended up going to India with the England cricket team.
Everything fell through within a surprisingly small number of days but I thought if I kept busy I would be able to bluff it. It was like being on a runaway horse. I would keep getting myself into awkward positions where I wasn’t up to speed with what everyone was discussing or I couldn’t remember certain facts I should have known.
Didn’t you meet Stephen Fry on the tour? I saw a picture of him on your cricket blog.
Yes I did, it’s not in the show but I saw him on the last game in Mumbai. He was just sitting there so I introduced myself and was about to wander off when I thought: "No I can’t leave it here, I want to come away from this with something." I went back and introduced myself and said: “Hey, would it be alright if we talked for a little bit?”, and he said: “What about?” and I said: “I don’t know, I’d just like to have a conversation.” We ended up talking about cricket funnily enough but it was a very awkward way of dealing with it on my behalf!
It was interesting meeting him because one of the themes of the show is about confronting your heroes and your relationship with them. I was hanging out with my heroes a lot who were all cricketers and they were all really nice. They were there just being normal people but then I started to think “Oh no, I’ve got too close, they need to remain on a pedestal.”
I mean, who are your heroes?
I guess David Bowie would be one.
Right, well imagine if you were suddenly living in the flat next to David Bowie and you saw him taking his recycling out or you overheard him talking about getting the exterior of the building repointed. He’s not come across in a negative light but you's probably rather he remained a superstar in your head. That’s what I felt with David Gower.
I've always thought meeting your heroes was a bit of a let-down.
I’ve only had that once.
Who with?
With an actor I greatly admired who I worked with once and he just...could have been nicer.
You've had quite a varied acting career to date. What work have you done that you've been most proud of?
Last night I watched the final episode of Rev in the series and I did think "I'm glad I was in that." Also the three days I spent filming The Thick of It were professionally three of the most exciting days I’ve ever had. I was very sad when I heard the words “That’s a rap on Miles.”
You started performing comedy at 20 – which is pretty young. Did you get into it while at uni in Edinburgh? Were you inspired by the Fringe?
Actually, I did a few casual jobs in London when I was about 18 or 19 and used to go and watch stand-up in the comedy clubs there with my brother. I suppose that’s when I started to have an understanding of live comedy and then came to Edinburgh with the idea of at least starting stand-up amongst other things. Obviously The Stand is here and operates all year round. I’d go to comedy workshops there every Thursday and then soon after that I started doing gigs.
Were you terrified to start with?
Yes, I still am. I can’t begin to describe how frightening gigs can be but then you just think "I shouldn’t be so nervous about this because I love what I do". I’m glad I started at 20 for that reason, I was a lot more confident then and I think if I started now at 30, I don’t know if I’d have had the balls to do it.
Do you create a bit of a persona to help with nerves?
I was originally deep in a character thing but I’ve slowly come out of that now. There's always going to be bit of a persona, you can’t bring your baggage on stage with you. If you’re sat in a lay-by 15 minutes before a gig shouting at your Sat Nav raving: “where is this fucking theatre, I hate this fucking job”, you’re not going to come on stage 15 minutes later saying: “Well to be quite honest you’re lucky I’m here at all because the people who run this theatre sent me the wrong fucking postcode!”
Miles Jupp: Fibber in the Heat (a cricket tale) will be at the Edinburgh Gilded Balloon until the 29th August and the London Soho Theatre from 17th-18th September.
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