"In reality I should be an accountant". Edward Aczel speaks to Emma McAlpine about his unlikely foray into comedy, being championed by Jimmy Carr and his double life.
Rather like Withnail and I going on holiday by mistake, Edward Aczel's journey up the comedy ladder has also been something of an accident, albeit a much happier one. At the age of 38, working as a marketing manger by day, he enrolled on a comedy course in 2005, simply because he was “looking for something to do during the evenings.” At the end of it, he had to perform a stand-up routine and while conventional stand-up was something he knew he “absolutely could not do”, he got behind the mic and had a go anyway.
Now, he is something of an anti-comic hero on the comedy circuit and has won plenty of glowing reviews for his innovative act; a mishmash of random topics for discussion, flip charts and audience surveys, delivered in typically shambolic and downbeat style and lacking in obvious jokes. But Aczel (who still has a day job in marketing and is speaking to me on his lunchbreak) insists he had no intention of becoming a comic.
In 2005, he got a break almost immediately, when he entered Jimmy Carr’s Comedy Idol competition for a laugh and impressed the TV star with just a few bullet points scribbled on his hand.
“At that stage I had no intention of being a stand-up, I was just mucking about. The fact I came across someone as famous as Jimmy Carr at that point and was a success was completely unexpected. In reality, I should be an accountant. My grandfather was an accountant; my father is a recruitment consultant. That really is the world I should live in.”
With encouragement from Carr and a new-found desire to see if he could make audiences laugh, Aczel started performing on the circuit, at first with no preparation whatsoever, which inevitably helped shape his act into the seemingly shambolic farce it is today.
“My act came together over a period of years without me thinking too deeply about it; most of the time, I didn't know what I was going to say. It just kind of developed from there. There was a certain attitude I had which was, it actually doesn’t matter. You can just stand there and see what happens. From a practical perspective, I had nothing to lose.”
While Aczel admits he is socially awkward, he isn’t afraid to exploit the more gauche side of his character and peppering his performance with uncomfortable silences, sighs and lengthy pauses only adds to the humour. His unique approach to stand-up came along at just the right time. This bumbling, weary man was a breath of fresh air compared to all the polished observational routines doing the rounds. I ask him whether this was an intentional move, to try something different and shake things up.
“Not at all. I hadn't been to a comedy club for years and I was quite shocked at how conventional comedy had become in 2005, and how the most successful comedians tended to be the most conventional ones. I assumed the circuit would be still be quite alternative and weird.”
His uncompromising style and devil-may-care attitude has certainly paid off. In 2005, he was a runner-up in the BBC New Comedy Awards and in 2008, won the Malcolm Hardee award for Comic Originality. Jimmy Carr described his 2007 show as ‘the funniest thing on the Fringe’ and writer Zadie Smith even praised his work in the New Yorker magazine. Last year, his Edinburgh show enjoyed a brief, sell-out run in the West End and will again return to the Soho Theatre next week for several nights. All this and a full-time job in marketing. How does he juggle this double life?
“I do get knackered from time to time, especially if I have meetings at work and then gigs in the evening - but I like being busy. My colleagues have always been extremely supportive and even paid for my flyers for the Edinburgh show. I think they love the idea that I live this dual life!”
Well, Aczel had better soak it up. If he carries on being this funny, the world of daytime TV, obsessive Twittering and late nights will surely beckon.
Edward Aczel: Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. is at the Soho Theatre from Wednesday 12th-Saturday 15th January.
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