CityLife

Seymour Mace's Edinburgh (and Tuesday) bound Sundayland

Seymour Mace and Peter Slater

THERE'S something about Seymour Mace that seems to attract the eccentric.

It’s as if he exudes some mysterious magnetic force that draws in the dispossessed, the city’s pavement philosophers and the lovers of individually packaged jelly-based desserts.

“I was in the supermarket and I often see this bloke in there. I was stood in the refrigerator aisle by him and he was looking at the strawberry trifles and turned to me and said ‘four strawberry trifles for that price? Bargain eh? I buy these every week. Take the strawberries out mind.”

Mace divulges his exciting supermarket encounters over a coffee (tea and a sticky bun in CityLife’s case) in a café around the corner from his flat and opposite the very store the incident with the aforementioned trifle man occurred.

Though he manages to attract the attention of random strangers regardless, most people down the shops would recognise him from his role as twin brothers Craig and Steve in BBC’s Ideal. A role (or two) that has brought the quirky stand up to the attention of the TV viewing public.

Mace’s first gigs were back in his native Newcastle at a fairly early age: “I started in comedy when I was 7 or 8, I used to do puppet shows behind the settee for me Mam and Dad. I had an orange horse called Horsey and a humpty dumpty who was originally called Humpty.

"My Mam and Dad thought they were hilarious. I can’t remember what the relationship between Horsey and Humpty was.”

Dispensing with the early sidekicks, he followed up on his early promise by becoming a street performer and worked as a clown in Japan.

When Mace started out on the stand up circuit, he instantly cut an idiosyncratic figure with his frilly shirts, sharp suit and sheriff’s badge and in 2003 he won our very own City Life Comedian of the Year competition.

Since then he’s put on three shows at the Edinburgh Fringe - Imaginary Friends Reunited, Where’s Batman? and last year’s Testamental.

This year he’s taking his new vehicle up there; Sundayland, a regular first Sunday of the month night that he has been performing at XSMalarkey.

Time rather than space

He previews it there this week on er… Tuesday… “Sundayland on tour throughout the rest of the week. That’s good isn’t it? It’s on tour through time rather than space.”

Guess that applies to the Edinburgh run too? Only it’ll be on tour throughout the rest of the week not just a Tuesday.

“Except every Sunday when it’ll be coming home for a special Sundayland on Sunday show,” he notes. Quite.

The project is an eclectic mix of oddball skits, chaotic comedy and barmy games.

The Edinburgh version will have the “same feel as a Sundayland show but it’ll just be half an hour shorter without any breaks. But it’ll still be funny and have me and Peter Slater in it and possibly some guest appearances from other comedians.

"t’ll be different everyday like Sundayland. All the regular features News For Dogs, Party Popper Roulette - it’s like Russian roulette but with party poppers but only one of the party poppers is live.

"There’s live Guess Who where the audience become the board. All the favourites. Then there’s old people dancing – that’s new. It’s just us dancing like old people to a really cool song.”

He’s also in Edinburgh with a show for kids, “It’s not a kid’s show!” he counters, “that’s the frustration, it’s a show for everyone.”

Sorry no, not a kid’s show. He’s not doing a kid’s show at all. Make that a show for all comers.

“There’s something in there for everyone, from flying sausages and drawn on moustaches for children to a nice cup of tea and a crossword puzzle for the older generation. It’s all in there.

"Human Buckaroo, I’ve bought buckets and a rake and a rope and a cowboy hat and I stand there on one leg and people balance stuff on us until I fall over. And there’s prizes to win, so come to Funshine. It wants to be your friend, that’s the tagline. Actually, that sounds quite sinister doesn’t it…”

Seymour Mace will be trying out material for his Funshine show at Mirth on Monday (July 27) at Iguana Bar before playing Sundayland at XSMalarkey on Tuesday, July 28.