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solving the problem together. Other than getting to grips with her ‘novel’ idea, I wonder if Solon’s Fringe absence, other than her obvious TV and radio commitments, can be explained from a comment she made last year that, taken at surface value, leaves little to the imagination: ‘To be honest, I don’t love live performance. I never have. I always wanted to get into TV and radio.’ So, is she here on sufferance? ‘For a while, live performance made me feel physically sick. It was one of those things, like exercise, that I would enjoy afterwards, but during it I was very nervous. There are some people that do enjoy it and you can tell that. I was starting to worry about it in a way that meant I just left it for a while after I came back from Edinburgh. Then when I started to do radio recordings with a studio audience I really enjoyed it properly for the first time, albeit reading off a script. Now I want to get this fear out of my system and avoid the hang-ups about doing it. Yeah, this is the year I conquer my demons.’
Admitting that she is one of the Perrier winners who would say it made a difference to their career, Solon says she doesn’t feel any more or less pressure coming back as a winner after a break: ‘I am going up to enjoy it, there’s pressure on myself to do well as there is on everyone to do well, but with no external pressure. I don’t think anyone comes up thinking, “It doesn’t really matter, I’ll just do whatever I want”,’
Indicating in other interviews that her gender, as a character comic, has been less of a factor than it would have been for a stand-up, it’s fair to say that since winning the Perrier, Solon has played in the premier league of comedy with the big boys. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse to be exact. ‘Harry came to see one of my shows in London, and I think that was how it came about. It’s great to watch legends in action. They have
an ability to identify the simplest ideas of what is funny and embrace silliness in comedy which I lean towards in my personal tastes.’
I pick up on her own personal taste and probe what inspires her and once again she comes up with some unexpected answers. ‘Silly comedy. When I was young I loved all the Mel Brooks movies and the Naked Gun breed of American films that would do anything to make you laugh in that consistently silly way. People have firm views on what comedy should be; that it should make a point, comment on society and be politicised. I think that it should make people laugh and not be taken too seriously. The sillier and the bigger the effort made to make you laugh the better.’ Also name-checking We Are Klang, Josie Long, Jeremy Lion, Human Remains and Kath and Kim as some of her favourite comic takes, Solon adds that by and large she feels that British comedy ‘doesn’t take silliness far enough unless it is in a self-conscious, hammy way. A lot of comedy here likes to go for a slow pace and ums and aahs in awkward moments rather than got for all-out energy.’
It may be that the energy of her own characters (that have included an Australian divorcee possessed by the spirit of Lady Diana and a competitive wedding planner from Rotherham) is reflected by the ‘uncorked nature’ of her writing process of which she says, ‘I have to write myself into stuff, to generate a lot of material. I can write for three weeks before I start to think of things that really interest me.’ Solon then adds something that Fast Show star Paul Whitehouse would readily endorse when she says, ‘Sometimes characters are one-offs who might be funny for 30 seconds and that’s all you need. In character comedy the established idea is you do a character for ten minutes when five or six is often enough.’ For Laura Solon, less is clearly more.
Laura Solon, Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, 9–30 Aug, 5.05pm, £11-
£12 (£10–£11). Previews 6- 8 Aug, £5.
‘LIVE PERFORMANCE MADE ME FEEL PHYSICALLY SICK’
Festival Comedy
WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE Brian Donaldson picks out a quintet of former Perrier Award winners who are appearing again this year without having to worry about all that nomination nonsense
Dylan Moran The youngest winner of the Perrier when he tousled his way to glory in 1996, the Edinburgh-based Irish fella’s victory speech has gone down in Perrier Award speechy history for his passionate insistence that nominee Bill Bailey should have been given the nod. Clearly this made an impression on the hippie materialist who then joined forces with Moran for three successful series of Black Books. ■ Edinburgh Playhouse, 0844 847 1660, 10 & 11 Aug, 8pm, £20–£18.
Frank Skinner In 2007, the cheeky Midlands chappie made an emotional return to the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, the tight and sweaty venue where he won the Perrier in
1991. This year, he hits the Assembly Rooms to host his Credit Crunch Cabaret. Looking back, it was a really weak year when he won it, only having to beat off Eddie Izzard, Jack Dee, Lily Savage and Avner the Eccentric. Now, whatever became of Lily Savage? ■ Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, 14–30 Aug (not 17), 6.50pm; 27–29 Aug, midnight, £10.
Sean Hughes Seems like yesterday when the London-born Irishman sidestepped Dillie Keane, Pete McCarthy and Jimmy Tingle to take the Perrier. It was, in fact, 1990.
■ Gilded Balloon Teviot, 622 6552, 22–30 Aug (not 27), 8.30pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13). Daniel Kitson Almost certainly the most reluctant ever winner of the Perrier, the hyper-sensitive Yorkshireman was nominated in 2001 with Love, Innocence and the Word Cock before scooping the prize a year later with Something. A heavyweight shortlist included Jimmy Carr, Omid Djalili and Noel Fielding, but Kitson practically went out of his way to deny ever having won the thing, getting grumpy with everyone in his wake, including his own PR, Peter Kay, journalists and punters arriving at his gigs mildly squiffy. ■ The Stand, 558 7272, 9–30 Aug (not 14 & 15, 21 & 22, 28 & 29), 11.59pm, £10.
Al Murray The Pub Landlord really does take a dip into the nostalgia bank this year by performing material from all his Perrier- nominated shows from 1996 up to the winning set of 99.
Having lost out thricely to Navan lads Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan, and Royston Vasey’s League of Gentlemen, it seemed he might never become a winner. But eventually he beat off competition from Ross Noble and the Boosh. ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 26–29 Aug, 1pm, £5. 6–13 Aug 2009 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 13