Interview: Carl Donnelly

Interview: Carl Donnelly

07 May, 2010
by: Emma

Emma McAlpine chats to the 2009 Edinburgh Award nominee about films, finding his comic voice and why being a comedian is a bit like being retired.

Carl Donnelly is thinking of starting a monthly film blog. “I’m thinking of doing it with a friend of mine – he’s the most opinionated person I know. I rang him up yesterday and he said ‘Mate I’ve just watched Up and you know you said it made you cry...yeah – you’re gay.’ He rang me up once to tell me how shit Avatar was and I said ‘when did you watch it?’ and he said ‘I’ve just seen the trailer.’” Donnelly has a knack for spotting comedy gold in seemingly ordinary subject matter and it is his skilful handling of ‘21st century slacker’ material that saw him receive a Best Newcomer nomination at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

I meet him in a stylish member’s club in Holborn, something he’s been able to wangle free membership for as a result of gigging there once or twice.  Needless to say, my bar order for tap water goes down like a lead balloon. Having just returned from a tour round the Far East, his life is sounding pretty sweet at the moment. “Thailand was definitely a huge perk. As a comic you always moan about the travel but it makes up for it when you get a trip.”

Undoubtedly now content in his career, he hasn’t always been this happy: “I had no ambition 'til comedy. I dropped out of uni and did office jobs doing accounts. I was going to train to be a chartered surveyor because I had no idea what I wanted to do. For three years I lived the 9-5 thing and hated it; then I started going to watch comedy. Within a year I thought I’m going to give this a go. This is so much better.”

One of the first things that strikes me about Donnelly is his reserve. I’m used to seeing him host gigs and banter with audiences so already I’ve made the same mistake most nutters do when they assume soap characters are real people. “Most of us comics are really different on stage to how we are in life,” he says. “I’m really chatty and friendly on stage and in real life I’m quite moody! I can’t be Mr Confident all the time. Most comics who are really in-yer-face are the opposite off-stage.”

That said, he’s so easy to chat to, it’s clear why he made the natural progression to compering.  After winning a several new act competitions within two years of getting behind the mic, he was quickly noticed and started to get booked for 20 minute sets, even though he only had 10 minutes of material. “I had to start chatting with the crowds and that’s how I learned to compere. After I’d done it a few times and I seemed quite good at it, I started to get approached to host.”

His debut solo show Relax Everyone it’s Carl Donnelly is a fairly accurate description of the more light-hearted style he’s settled into. After several years cultivating an ‘edgy’ persona, he started to phase it out during a tour with the notoriously hard-hitting stand-up Jim Jeffries: “I saw him do it really well and got sick of it. I thought it would be funny to talk about things like racism which then sounded ironically racist! Then I realised you could just do what you wanted and I eventually found my voice. Laid-back stories work better for me.”

Although Donnelly refers to himself as laid-back several times, he’s got tired of the reference being used in reviews. “It doesn’t describe my comedy. You can’t say what comedians are like in real life - ‘He’s a really punctual guy – easy to work with.’” He pauses, before adding: “I am laid-back on stage though. I yawned the other day which is really bad form. I wasn’t bored – just relaxed!”

The show is full of anecdotes about equally weird and amusing situations he gets himself into, from accidently stumbling across a dogging session to temporarily assuming the name of Kyle Bubbly. But considering his favourite pastimes are baking (“I can cook the shit out of desserts”) and playing golf (“Being a comedian is like being retired”) you might wonder how he manages to come up with any funny material at all. “I think a lot of comics have to put themselves into unusual scenarios," he tells me. "When I had a day job I was part of normal society so I had something people could relate to. Now my day consists of getting up, watching telly and performing to audiences. You have to hope something funny happens to you. You accept any invitation no matter how bad it is because you need a new 10 minutes.”

Currently touring the country alongside Pete Johansson with their respective 2009 shows, Donnelly admits he might have taken a bit too much on, as he’s also in the process of writing his follow-up piece for Edinburgh 2010. But rather typically, he’s remaining, um, calm: “The last one was a build-up of two years of material and this one will be a few months preparation, but I’ve got more experience now so I know what to expect. I used to panic after three minutes but now an hour flies by.” 

You can see Carl performing his 2009 show at the Soho Theatre from 21st-22nd May and in the Southbank's Udderbelly tent alongside Pete Johansson on 2nd June.

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