A household name in British comedy, Lee Mack is resident team captain on Would I Lie To You?, stars in the award-winning sitcom Not Going Out and is currently touring the UK with his fast-paced stand-up show Going Out. Emma McAlpine grabs a moment with the busy comic.
Generally speaking, the bigger the comedian, the trickier the interview. Not because they’re egotistical or intimidating, but because they have zero time to talk to you. The most you can usually hope for is a brief chat on the phone while they drive to the studio/BBC headquarters/next tour destination. So I’m not too surprised when my interview with Lee Mack doesn’t happen on Thursday. This is someone who is simultaneously filming a sitcom and touring the UK after all. But then rather out of the blue, I get a call from him the following Tuesday. “I can’t talk for long, I’m due in the studio in five minutes.” Oh god. I scrabble around my bombsite of a desk for the questions I wrote down last week and after a lot of 'umming' and 'erring', I fire away.
You must be exceptionally busy Lee, so thanks for chatting to me.
Yeah, it’s a bit full on. I’m doing a sitcom that was initially cancelled and I’ve booked in a big tour. The sitcom got recommissioned so now I’m trying to do both at the same time.
Why did Not Going Out get cancelled – the ratings were good weren’t they?
We thought they were. My theory is that it’s a studio-based sitcom so you get compared to the other things in your genre like My Family, which gets millions of viewers. My management did a research survey when we got cancelled and found out that the audience watching had more in common with Peep Show and that kind of demographic will always have a smaller audience.
You’ve been performing your current tour since last November. Are you happy that it’s been extended?
Absolutely. I’ve done quite a few tours now and initially the main problem was getting people in! I’ve been at both ends of the spectrum and this is definitely preferable. Also, once the DVD is out you never want to tell the jokes again because you feel like you’re ripping the audience off, so you try and do as many gigs as you can before it comes out.
You don’t have to film Would I Lie to You as well do you?
No we finished it three months ago and we film that very quickly, within about two weeks. Me, Rob Brydon and Dave Mitchell all love it because it’s is not our main project, so it’s a bit like a holiday. Or school. You know when you used to have the afternoon off on Wednesday for PE? It’s a bit like that.
You must be running out of unlikely truths. Surely you have to make some up now?
No we genuinely don’t make them up. The thing is, you have these meetings where you tell the researchers what you think are great stories but the ones that tend to get used are actually quite mundane. I remember David Mitchell had one this year where the door in his bedroom is a bit sticky and he has to open it with his fingers rather than use the door handle. That’s not particularly showbiz.
Going back to your stand-up, when did you first realise you wanted to get into live comedy?
Probably when I was 14, but I didn’t really know what being a stand-up meant then. In the mid '80s if you were from the north west, it was an alien concept. I used to see people like Ben Elton and the Young Ones and I thought that was a world away from what people did in London.
So when did you actually start performing?
About five years later I’d moved to London and I was in the audience at the Comedy Store watching Steve Coogan and Eddie Izzard. I’d never heard of either of them but I knew this was definitely what I wanted to do. I didn’t pluck up the courage to have a go myself until another five years later.
Your style is very gag-heavy now - was it different in the '90s to fit the alternative scene?
Not really, I think that’s why I struggled to begin with! You have to wait for the fashion to change sometimes. Studio-based sitcom was dead in the water a while ago but it seems to be turning towards it again.
You produce a hell of a lot of jokes. How much time do you spend writing?
I do a ridiculous amount of writing – particularly for the sitcom. I spend eight months of my life sat in front of a computer from 9-5. It’s quite dull really. When you start off you only need 20 minutes and it’s easy to come up with 20 minutes of funny things in a year. When you start doing tours and sitcoms, you can’t rely on hoping to see a nun fall over so you have to start making stuff up and forcing yourself to come up with ideas, even when you’re not in the mood.
Can you switch off from comedy quite easily?
Very much so. I have a very separate life to comedy at home and I don’t like doing gigs in my home town. Stephen Merchant said recently that when he’s on stage he worries that he doesn’t love it as much as other people. It’s more like an experiment for him. If the jokes work great, if they don’t – never mind. For me, the idea that stand-up is better than sex – well, I think I must be missing out!
Lee Mack is a guest on Scott Capurro's Position on Thursday 14th October.
His tour - Lee Mack: Going Out will be at the Hammrsmith Apollo on Thursday 18th November.
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