CityLife

Interview: Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan

‘I THINK my first out-of-town gig was in Manchester at UMIST in 1991. From then on I was generally doing the circuit everyone does. I did a lot of stuff in Manchester, I always seemed to be coming up and doing gigs. I have a lot of affection for Manchester,” ponders Alistair McGowan of his comedy origins.

For a man best known for slapping on disguises to impersonate the famous on the telly in Big Impression, it’s hard to imagine McGowan schlepping the comedy circuit. But he, like many others, has put in his time.

Though he’s done impressions since a young age, a pivotal moment in his choosing of a comedy career came on trip out with mates from his Worcestershire school.

“I can remember more or less the first time I saw any live comedy. I was about 17 and a group of us went from the sixth form at Evesham High School to watch Jasper Carrott at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

“I sat up in the balcony and watched this man with the audience in the palm of his hand. And something about it just made me think ‘I want to do that.’

“I remember thinking, ‘This is brilliant’, but a huge part of my brain was thinking. ‘How does he do this? How is he making this work?’

“I suppose it was a sense of control, bringing people joy, expressing yourself, all those things make you want to do it.”

Given that he started out in 1989 and has had years of TV success, this is remarkably McGowan’s inaugural solo tour.

'You can't improvise Shakespeare'

“It really came from doing pantomime at Christmas, which was something of a low ebb creatively and psychologically,” he laughs.

“Although I did enjoy the experience in some ways. I suppose for three years or maybe four years since the television series ended I’ve been doing theatre and then suddenly they said, ‘Could you do a spot and do some impressions (in the panto)’ and I thought, ’That’s what I do’. I had to brush up on some new people and it suddenly made me think I really fancy doing some of this again. It was the first time in four years that I’d had that thought.”

So, from just five minutes of material in December of last year to two hours by the time the tour started last month, it has been a daunting prospect, but ultimately for McGowan it is what feels like home.

“Having gone through the theatre world, which I’ve really, really enjoyed being a part of, there’s still something else (about stand up) about being in control.

“The fear of doing Measure For Measure in Wolverhampton, where you’re doing a huge part in a Shakespeare play that people will know and where you’ve got other actors on stage, if anything goes wrong, you can’t improvise Shakespeare.

“That was more terrifying probably than doing stand up because in stand up there isn’t a right or wrong really.

"Yes, you can stumble over a gag and lose your audience, but it is up to you to get them back and no one knows what your act is inside out.”

Though he promises ‘120 voices in 120 minutes,’ the show isn’t just a series of clever impressions, but comedy too.

'Flirt with the audience'

McGowan deftly blends the two, with the added level of humour brought on by having ‘someone else’ deliver the gag.

“I was in Edinburgh and I love caramel slices, as we call them down here, but in Scotland they call them Millionaire’s Shortbread and it made me think why, when they made them, did they think that only a millionaire could afford to put caramel and chocolate on top of a shortbread biscuit?

“I tried that out and it was getting a good laugh, but then I did it one day as Andy Parsons from Mock The Week and it suited not only his style of comedy, the way he structures his sentences to get the gag, but it suited his voice as well and suddenly people are laughing three times as much. That’s what I love, that you’re getting those three laughs in one.”

Having completed his run at the Edinburgh Fringe, and with a few dates of the tour complete, McGowan has warmed up nicely for The Lowry date. He’s thoroughly enjoying being back out in front of a live audience again.

“I can’t remember if it was a comedian who said this or something that I thought up, but you sort of flirt with the audience, in a way.

“On a successful night they go back to yours for coffee, and that’s how you’ve got to feel at the end of the night, that you’ve got to that stage where you’re just about to score.

“They should want to come home with you after the gig in a way, and so far in the tour it’s been that case. It’s been going really well.”

Prepare to be seduced.

Alistair McGowan will be working his charm at the Lowry on November 8.