Emma McAlpine chats to 2009 Edinburgh Award winner Tim Key ahead of his Soho Theatre run.
I first saw Tim Key at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe when he was performing in a tiny room in the Pleasance Courtyard with his sketch group Cowards. Although all four of the group were good, it was Key that stood out for me, making me giggle instantly with a silly expression here; a nervous, wavery voice there. Fast forward three years to the 2009 Fringe and his ability to throw on a funny persona is intact. He’s still standing out from the crowd, but this time it’s out of thousands, as his solo show has won the Edinburgh Comedy Award – the top prize most comedians covet over any other and one which gives the winner an instant career boost with invitations to perform internationally.
Like many comedians at the Fringe, Key was still perfecting the show while it was running but had no idea it was going to do so well: “I only really ‘finished’ it about ten days in. I was constantly tinkering with it for the first half of the festival. I guess by the time I’d hammered it into shape I knew I had a show that I at least liked. And by then people were saying some very nice things about it. But really it’s best not to start ruminating how likely it is that you’re going to win the award. You’d go mad.”
The show in question (The Slutcracker) is an amalgamation of short poems, prose and films arranged somewhat haphazardly, with a sublime element of the banal and ridiculous. Or as he puts it: “It’s a poetry recital. It is abject/inspired depending on your viewpoint. Objectively speaking there is definitely some achingly beautiful stuff in there. Other pieces are more lightweight.” Occasionally issuing instructions to his technician Fletch and bantering with the audience, Key’s deadpan, hesitant stage persona really makes the show, although this is something he says he has toned down over the years: “There’s always going to be a slight difference between what you bring onto stage and what you take into, say, a bank. Otherwise people might be a bit underwhelmed by you on stage, and cashiers might get a bit pissed off with you when you paid in cheques. But I think my onstage persona nowadays is less extreme than it was two or three years ago.”
Tim performing at the Invisible Dot Club in Camden last year
One of Key’s first forays into comedy was while he was working as a temp in Cambridge and although he wasn’t studying at university there, he managed to get into the Footlights: “I was living in Cambridge and auditioned for a pantomime. I wouldn’t say I lied per se, it's just that I didn’t shout my mouth off that I was a temp in an office near the station. I kept it quiet for a few months and then got into the tour show – where I met Mark Watson. We took that to Edinburgh and I got an agent out of it.”
Apart from his stage work, Key has also written two books and appeared on both radio and TV, including a spot on Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe as the resident poet. Including Newswipe, he has been in three of the few comedy shows to be commissioned by BBC4, joining the likes of Flight of the Concords and The Thick of It (before it moved to BBC2). How did that come about? “We Need Answers started in a tiny London pub and then became a booze-fuelled late-night quiz-orgy in Edinburgh. We did two years up there in The Pleasance just for fun really, as an antidote to doing our shows. Then some bods from telly saw something in it. They decided it would sustain when stripped of alcohol and made 28 minutes long. I think they were half right. Cowards was a longer process. We did two Edinburghs and then got asked to write pilots and author a website. Then they gave us something called a 'pilot series'. We made three episodes but there’s now a hiatus. We sometimes email each other and use phrases like ‘I wonder if they’ll commission some more’. We were proud of the first three.”
Currently, Key has just returned from Australia, where he has been performing The Slutcracker and Party, sketch partner Tom Basden’s award-winning play. “Australia was excellent. In Sydney they actually have beaches that you can go to during the daytime. The waves were big. I went snorkelling and my snorkel sank. The shows were brilliant. The Australians ‘got’ both shows. You worry before you go to a different country and do your offbeat poetry show”. Key will be performing The Slutcracker (and Party) in London over the next few weeks and if you've already seen the show - good news! He has just started writing a new one: “A new stage show’s on the list. I want to write another book, too. I need to go through my shitty notepads and remind myself what I thought were good ideas over the past few months.”
The Slutcracker will be at the Soho Theatre from 9-20th February
Party will be at the Arts Theatre from 1-13th March
Photo credit: It's Luke
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