Holly Williams interviews the acerbic Irish stand-up ahead of his new Edinburgh show and gets a grilling in the process...
How time passes. It’s 20 years since Sean Hughes took his first show to Edinburgh, planning to ditch stand-up as a career if it didn’t go well. He only went and won the Perrier award – the youngest ever winner at 24 - and a career as a stand-up, TV presenter, actor and novelist followed. But age certainly hasn’t mellowed him: he seems to have plenty of scorn for the comedy scene, bemoaning the rubbishness of festival and comedy club audiences, the trials of touring, comedians who crack too many jokes and comedians who see Edinburgh as a way to get a TV show. Phew.
Fortunately, there’s one thing he is very enthusiastic about: Edinburgh audiences themselves. “They’re really brilliant,” he says. “I always find Edinburgh brilliant – I don’t know what it is.” While shows based on boom-boom punchlines or overly prescribed themes meet with his derision, he’s hugely enthusiastic about having the opportunity to just talk about his “passions”.
“It’s a beautiful thing to go on a stage and talk about the world – the only comics I really like talk about the world. If someone’s got a brilliant story to tell that’s fortunate, but you don’t need to restrict yourself. Comedy isn’t a bunch of jokes – it’s not about punning for an hour.”
I ask if this means his new show is likely to change throughout the run.
“It will, otherwise it’s like having an office job,” Hughes explains. “I like to respond to the audience – I’m good at picking up on the audience.” A veteran of Edinburgh – he reckons he’s been about 15 times – Hughes is certainly confident about his show: Ducks and Other Mistakes I've Made. “People have always asked if I get nervous and I say no – because I’m really good at it.” He adds, matter of factly, that he doesn’t mean this in an “arrogant way.”
Although he’s got a soft spot for the crowds at Edinburgh, Hughes still has a grumble about the festival’s development. “It’s weird watching it change. It literally used to about new work, now it’s all about people trying to get a TV show. It used to be you’d rock up on the 2nd of August without a care in the world.”
So is it more difficult now for young performers trying to get a break – hasn’t the festival become all about the big names? My suggestion is rapidly shot down.
“It’s easier for the young ones! The media is obsessed with youth. For people like me, the press is like ‘we’ve heard what you have to say’.”
Maybe stand-up is a young man’s game; while 44 is hardly ancient, Hughes seems a touch preoccupied by his advancing years. Suddenly we’ve swerving off topic, and I’m in for a grilling. How old am I? 24, I reply, feeling unacceptably young. Now, what do I think about this: apparently women ‘find themselves’ at 29? Well … I grow a little flustered, if I’m honest, and ramble on, sounding distinctly wet behind the ears. Finally, I conclude that whether or not 29 is some kind of maturity marker for women, self discovery is as much about the journey as the destination. Happily, Hughes agrees. (Oh and in case you’re wondering, according to the same theory men “never grow up”).
Bringing it back to Edinburgh, we chat about the ‘festival experience’ – shorthand for barely sleeping, eating rubbish and drinking too much. But it seems age prohibits this sort of behaviour too: “Years past, I would have been mental, but I’m 44 – I’d be in hospital if I tried that now,” laments Hughes.
He has, however, a great excuse to get him away from the pub unscathed: “I’m bringing my two dogs with me to Edinburgh, so I’ll have two drinks and then say ‘I have to go now everyone’, and get back to the dogs. I’ve got a very old cat I’ll have to leave behind, though. They’ll be a note saying: ‘can you feed the cat, and if she dies, please bury her.’”
Poor pets – and Hughes has been on the road a lot this year. But aside from having to leave them behind, how has touring been?
“The minute you get on stage it’s fabulous – but everything else is terrible. I don’t even go on holiday anymore because hotels depress me.”
But at least the tour audience want to hear you; what Hughes really hates is a distracted crowd. He’s decided that he loathes festivals. “You’re onstage and you can hear drag racing or live music – it’s really hard work. You’re playing to people who have no interest in you whatsoever. You’re on in the middle of the day. I’m never going to do any more festivals. I like to say ‘cunt’ in my show, which at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, suddenly sounds quite rude.”
For focused, unfettered rudeness, catch Sean Hughes: Ducks and Other Mistakes I've Made at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, 4-19 August, 8pm.
Return to the Edinburgh Fringe homepage
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...