Sarah Kendell talks to the Perrier award-winning comedian about the state of gay stand-up in Britain and why he's voting Tory.
It's the day before his chat show begins its new run at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and Scott Capurro is looking forward to catching up with some old and new acquaintances. “I'm really excited about all the guests”, he says, “Most of them are friends of mine, and if they're not friends they're icons I really admire. I saw Vivienne Westwood speak at the V&A last year and I'm just so excited she's doing it.”
Capurro is lucky enough to have some friends in very high places. As well as national fashion icon Westwood, the celebrity guests appearing in his weekly Thursday show this spring include Jimmy Carr, Little Britain's Matt Lucas and former Bond girl Brit Ekland, which his heterosexual friends are foaming with jealousy over. “Every time I mention her name to a straight comic, they almost lose their shit”, he says.
Raised in San Francisco, Capurro was originally an actor and appeared in hit films Mrs Doubtfire and The Phantom Menace before turning to comedy full-time. Despite living in the unofficial gay capital of America as the equal rights movement hit its peak, his suburban high school was far from accepting of his sexuality. “The kids in my school were pretty homophobic”, he recalls, “I wasn't out then, but people knew and it was pretty torturous. It's very different over there now – the gay kid is the hottest kid, he's valedictorian and on the football team.”
It was only when he left the 'burbs to pursue his acting career that Capurro realised being out and proud as a performer was not a taboo. “I saw some openly gay performers on stage in the city and I found it very inspirational, so I started doing that”, he explains. “When I came over to the UK to attend a film festival for a movie I produced, I was asked to do stand-up, and it kind of snowballed into my being a comic almost full-time.”
During his 15-year career in the UK, Capurro has tackled some pretty sticky subjects, from gay sex to race to politics, resulting in him being criticised and in some instances even banned from comedy clubs. The comedian maintains it's not his intention to cause controversy, but merely to tackle the funny side of life in a completely uncensored way. “For me it's important to talk about things I think are funny, and if that bothers people or pushes their boundaries or whatever...” He trails off, before continuing, “I think people who go to comedy clubs like to have their boundaries pushed a bit, so I try to give them what they pay for.”
While Capurro sees himself in a different light to popular gay comics like Alan Carr or Graham Norton, he's nonetheless full of respect for what they’ve done for gay performers in general.“I think Graham has changed the way TV is done here”, he says, “He's pushed a lot of envelopes. I think they both take it pretty much to the extent they can, but I mean, you want to play BBC 1 on Saturday nights, you're going to have to soften it.”
What concerns him more about the future of the industry are legal freedom of speech restrictions imposed by the current government, an issue he hopes will be resolved on May 6th. “Gordon Brown keeps passing laws that limit what we can say”, he says, “Hopefully the Tories might kick things up a little bit because obviously they're going to win.” It might surprise some to learn the left-leaning Capurro is a Conservative supporter, but the comedian maintains it's the person, not the party that wins his vote. “All I hope for in politics are colourful figures. What party they belong to I don't really care. I hear Maggie Thatcher was a really good MP, so there you go.”
Continuing with his politically challenging material, Capurro will be presenting a one-off solo show on April 14th at Leicester Square Theatre, Scott Capurro Goes Much Deeper, which will focus on cultural diversity in the UK. “I'll be talking mostly about how Britain's so diverse and relatively sophisticated compared to the rest of Europe, but that it's almost impossible to talk about cultural diversity in this country because it makes people very nervous”, he says. No doubt it will be another evening of tough questions and big laughs from a comic who's still got a lot of fight in him yet.
Scott Capurro's Position runs Thursdays from April 1st to May 6th at Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
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