"I’d much rather be the funny man who doesn't tell jokes." Emma McAlpine talks to storytelling stand-up and down-to-earth Yorkshireman Alun Cochrane.
Comedy has been dubbed ‘the new rock and roll’ since the early '90s, and yet, even with comedians selling out arenas and releasing albums, the comedian’s touring experience can still remain remarkably low-key. Take Alun Cochrane. He’s currently on tour, with 50 gigs booked across the country until December. But there will be no riders full of groupies, Jim Beam and blue M&Ms for him. “It’s just me in my car on my own. I don’t have a support act or a tour manager. It’s totally pure and by that I mean stingy. As cheaply as can be done.” So what’s in his er, ride?
“I’m addicted to the complete Roald Dahl CD collection. My aunt in Australia sent it over for my little boy. He’s too young for it but I’m addicted! I wish I could recommend a single cool band but as it is I’ll have to recommend The Twits read by Simon Callow.”
Although he has to leave his wife and three year old son behind, Cochrane is fairly content to be touring as he points out: “The level I’m at, if I wasn’t touring, I’d still be travelling the country doing club gigs. Plus, there’s something really enjoyable about even a small number of people coming to see you do what you do.”
Having got his first taste for stand-up at the age of 11 performing impressions in a school talent show, Cochrane dabbled with acting for a while before moving to London in 1999 to focus fully on stand-up. In 2004, he took his first solo show to Edinburgh and got nominated for the 'Best Newcomer' award. He’s since appeared on numerous TV panel shows and last year he claimed a coveted spot on the first series of Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, watched by 4.9 million viewers. Yet, even though one Independent review predicted he wouid be "filling arenas soon”, Cochrane is more than comfortable sticking to theatres.
“I take it as a compliment to my comedy potential in the spirit it was intended, but for me, arenas and comedy don’t mix. I try and do comedy the way I would like to see it and that means both artistically and financially. I’m not being too humble or downbeat on my own potential but if I could just fill big theatres, I’d be happy. I’m not too greedy.”
Known for his laid-back, observational approach to stand-up, this year Cochrane decided to introduce some proper gags into his show and get the audience to vote on them. “I found it very difficult writing jokes, I didn’t have any sense of trust in them because they’re not me. The ones I thought would be rubbish went great and the ones I thought would be great were just ...odd.” He is at his best he tells me, talking about “the lunacy of how we live rather than writing clever sentences that make people laugh." He would hate to be "a guy telling corny jokes, like an uncle at a wedding. I’d much rather be the funny man who doesn't tell jokes."
Cochrane has a knack for singling out the small details in life that thrill and amuse him, weaving them into his sets as stories and musings, with none of the irritating stage acrobatics of some of his observational counterparts. Last week for example, he got the beginnings of a routine from just sitting around watching crap telly.
“I was watching Under the Hammer with my wife and this bloke on it was literally blown away by a bungalow with a loft conversion. He was walking around it saying ‘Oh my god you can go upstairs!’ Me and my wife were looking at each other thinking ‘It’s a fucking house mate.’ We’re served up this kind of thing and no one puts their hand up to say ‘This is idiotic, are we really living like this?’ For me, that’s where the beginning of a stand-up routine will start to develop.”
So what’s next for Cochrane after this mammoth tour? What you’d proabably expect from a comedian who loves their job and isn’t soley motivated by financial gain. “I’ll probably have a fairly quiet December and then start writing the next show because in the absence of something else I just keep doing stand-up. I absolutely love it. There’s no fall back plan for me.”
Alun Cochrane will be at the Soho Theatre from Thursday 30th September-Tuesday 5th October
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