By llqyale appointment
Crowned Channel 4’s King of Comedy, ANDREW MAXWELL aims to rule the roost this August. Brian Donaldson meets a man who loves a Challenge. If he can be bothered, that is.
ndrew Maxwell has a way ol' making grown men
cry. On one occasion. while warming tip an
audience I‘m the .lonathan Ross telly chat show. Maxwell took a slight exception to one lltigh (irant lookalike who appeared to be ignoring the big ‘clap now” placard. ‘So. I started on him: “Hey you with the lloppy public schoolboy hair." and he looked aghast. l was like: "I‘m not really taking the piss. l’ye got working-class cheap-as-chips hair that no matter what I do with it. I still look retarded. You‘ye got really posh locks." But he got tip and Mt: the whole room was hushed until someone shouted that he had tears in his eyes. I was mortilied. but when l tttrned round. .lonathan was doubled tip laughing.‘
At which point the Dubliner perl'orms an inch-perl‘ect Ross cackle. Among his plentil’ul skills. Maxwell is a master impersonator. particularly adept at l'ls‘ter loyalist. posh (ilasgow and schemie lidinburgh. an accent he loyes hearing during August on the liringe. In order to do so. though. he knows that he must take to the terraces ol’ liaster
Road (prel‘erably dragging along a bemused Australian or
American comedian tor the ride) or rent a llat in Newhayen rather than Marchmont or the New Town. the standard stand-up haunts. He's also pretty spot—on with his 'l‘ayside accent. which he adopts to tell the tale ol an abusiye heckler during his lirst solo lidinburgh show in 2()()().
"I'he greatest storm-outs are during the l‘estiyal and they're always these really crazy Scottish people.’ he begins as a set—up to the story ol~ a l'ellow who. instead of angrily linding the exit ended tip stumbling into Maxwell‘s dressing room. (‘learly dismayed at the injustice oi this wrong turning. he utterly smashed up the presumably tiny room. emerging in l’ront ol’ the comic and audience bloodied and unhowed. ‘Ah'm lae Dundeeeeeee.~ was his linal. deliant yell. Maxwell's telling ol‘ the tale had this listener all—too close to mirthl‘ul tears.
At the end ol‘ August 200-1. you could haye l‘orgiyen Andrew Maxwell l'or allowing himself a quiet bubble. The ways ol‘ l’errier panels have long been a source ol' dismay l'or comedy obseryers but they reached a zenith ol' oddness last year when Maxwell was denied a place on the shortlist when some critics were insisting that This Is My Hour was among the l'ew obyious winners. Instead they gaye it to a character comic doing a motiyational guru. Perhaps Maxwell should haye a word with .lackson's Way. '1 lind it really hard to get my head around working at all: I'm a l‘ucking shirker by nature. 'l’hat‘s why I loye stand-up. I turn tip. I do it: it's all instantaneousf
10 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE -'. ‘ ' A . i .w' t}?
‘STAN BOARDMAN BULLIED ME ALL THE TIME IN THIS PASSIVE- AGGRESSIVE WAY'
Despite the l’errier thumbs—down. other results haye delinitely been swinging in his t'ayotir. Last August he won a llerald Angel and. at the start of 2005. despite being riddled with llu. dragged himsell to the (‘hortle awards to take the (‘omics' (‘omic pri/e home to his sickbed. "l‘here can be nothing you could want more than recognition from your brethren.‘ A month alter last year‘s l‘ringe had lileed out. he took part in the latest reality brainstorm when he appeared in (‘hannel 4‘s Kings oft'unmly.
Alongside the old guard such as Stan Boardman and Mick Miller and peers like .laney (iodley and Scott (‘apurro. Maxwell was a reyelation. l.i\'ing with the comics by day and competing against them on stage by night. he put aside regular bust-ups with Stan Boardman (‘he would bully me all the time in this passiye-aggressiye way") and the shows ramshackle nature (a technical hitch meant that phone yotes couldn‘t be counted for the first ‘eyiction‘. so a show ol‘ hands from a bemused audience was required to oust (‘apurro) to come out on top. ‘l'ye never won a thing in my lil‘e.~ was Maxwell's yictory' speech on the night.
As you can well imagine. material about his experiences on reality TV will crop up heayily on this year's show. (imml Roy‘u/r'. ‘l’eople think that they just put spanners on ('elv/n'ily /.()l'(’ Island and idiots in the Big Brother house. Thank your fucking lucky stars that these are the kind ol‘ people on there. It. they had politicians exposing themselyes on these shows. they’d romp elections: it’s that powerl‘ul. 'l‘here‘s such an intimate bond going on there and they might know yoti better than you do.’
ll' there‘s any justice in the comedy (or any other) world. then many more people will get a chance to know Andrew Maxwell by September. And l‘or his own part. it certainly won‘t be for the want of trying. Despite his natural tendency towards a slothl‘ul semi-existence. it‘s clear that a lot ol‘ cllot‘l went into his show last year (a meditation on linding your own leyel ol contentment which inyolyed him riding around on his son‘s red trike). and this year he‘s aiming to staye oil that shirker mentality tor a little longer.
‘I lind stand-up in lidinburgh deeply unglamorous. I want this to be dangerous and for people to leaye knowing I had expressed my intellect. I just want to make people shit themselyes laughing and for lightning to strike the bell- tower eyery night.‘ .lust make sure you take a tissue.
Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 5-29 Aug (not 9, 16), 8pm, £1 1-£12 (£9.50—210.50). Previews until 4 Aug, £6. Thanks to GNER for travel. See www.gner.co.uk.