"In Klang I played an idiot, partly because when you work with someone who's 6”8 you have to play low status." Marek Larwood talks to Emma McAlpine about his first solo show Typecast.
Known as 'the stupid one' in brilliantly anarchic sketch group We Are Klang, this year, Marek Larwood leaves his Klang persona behind to take his first solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe. I caught up with him ahead of the festival to talk about returning to stand-up (sort of), being typecast and his time with Greg Davies and Steve Hall in Klang.
So this is your first solo show...
Yeah who'd have thought, aged 53, I'd be doing my first solo show!
Have you enjoyed getting back into stand-up?
Yeah, I have, although it's not really a stand-up show. I don't play myself on stage and I don't stand in front of a microphone. I wanted to get into acting originally; I didn't go to drama school so I thought I thought comedy might be the best way forward. I did one of those courses that everyone does and then I started doing stand-up. I never really wanted to do stand-up, but I did it for six years. I was never a crowd-pleaser, more of a crowd-splitter.
The show title Typecast is quite self-explanatory isn’t it?
Yes. In Klang I played an idiot, partly because when you work with someone who's 6”8 you have to play low status. We mixed it up but I’m not sure low status is in the wide range of things Greg can do! Inevitably I played low status and once you do that you just get cast as the village idiot. I've been to four or five auditions for characters called Malcolm. One was called Nigel. Never anything like Zane. Then everyone thinks that's all you can do, which is terrifying. It's a bit of a poke at the industry and me trying to reinvent myself, doing panel shows, improv, stand-up. It's hard to stand there for 50 minutes and talk solidly, I'd be sick of the sound of my own voice, so there's got to be lots going on.
In the press release for your show it says that you typed your name into Google and the top search was ‘Marek Larwood retarded’ - is that true?!
Yeah! It was a godsend in a way though as it gave me the idea for the show. I also remember coming out of a Klang gig and someone spoke to me like I was mentally ill.
How did you get involved in Klang?
I met Greg on the stand-up circuit and thought he was brilliant, and then he introduced me to Steve Hall and I suggested we started doing a sketch show. We used to go round universities and do our sketches at stand-up nights, which was a good learning curve. Some of the sketch acts around now that don’t even have a joke in there would have been crucified at the kind of gigs we used to do!
How do you think the circuit has changed since you started out?
Since comedy has become cool it's become a meritocracy. Why someone like Tony Law or Ed Aczel aren't huge I don't know. These are the people who may not be teenage girls pin ups but they are doing interesting things. That’s how comedy became one of our biggest exports in the first place. We championed the weirdos and now it’s gone the other way.
What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
I'd say start making films earlier, follow your gut instinct and stand up to people in the industry. So many times you back down to people and it’s your face on television. Klang was a missed opportunity if I'm honest. We did it live for seven years and by the time we got a series we'd run out of steam. When I was 23 or 24 I just wanted to be famous but now if I do get recognised, I find it really awkward. Doing something I'm proud of is the most important thing to me now. And something that I can get really rich off of course!
Do you have a favourite Fringe story you can share with us?
In 1997 when I was at uni, I took a sketch show up called The Triumphant Sausage. It was rubbish. We got a one star review on the first day. We didn't know how bleak Edinburgh could be and we found out almost immediately. I remember putting our posters up outside The Gilded Balloon and seeing Hugh Laurie, Dylan Moran and Mark Lamarr at a party inside. We were getting rained on outside; we couldn't even stick our flyers up it was so wet. I just remember looking in thinking: "It feels so far away" and they were probably thinking it was so far away from their dream too!
Marek Larwood: Typecast is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 6:20pm until 26th August.
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