GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL
From middle-Class ponoe to Thick of It apparatohik, Chris Addison is a slave to the punchline, finds Mark Fisher.
Mission control
hen you look back across the shows Chris Addison has brought to the Edinburgh Fringe over the past decade it's hard to imagine there might be a unifying idea. What link could there possibly be between Atamieitv. a show about the fabric of the universe. Civilisation. about mankind's cultural decline. Part ()ut. Starboard Home on the charms of being a ‘middle-class ponce‘ and The Ape that (int Lucky. which found fun in anthropology"? The only obvious connections are the two Perrier nominations. a surfeit of brainy ideas and a lot of laughs. But. as the comedian has realised. there is a recurring theme. It‘s all about control.
‘lt's all about how humans control the world or are controlled by it.‘ says the stand-up who is taking a break from writing his first sitcom. Lab Rats. to do a one-off gig at the Glasgow Comedy Festival. ‘I did a similar one-off show at The Stand in Edinburgh about a year ago and I realised that control was the thing that connected all these shows together.‘
Comedy was less a calling than something he fell into. he says. so he‘s never been driven by the same degree of ambition as some stand- ups. Yet look at the phenomenal volume of Addison‘s output and you can only think there must be something propelling him forward.
If it isn‘t ambition that‘s compelled the Manchester-born comic to produce one collection of comic verse (Cautionaijv Tales/or (Imii'n-Ups). two radio series‘ of Civilisatirm. three of The Department as well as a tongue- in-cheek financial column for The Guardian. not to mention sundry quiz show appearances and gag writing for Harry Hill and Davina McCall — all before the age of 35 — then is it so wrong to imagine he might be trying to impose a controlling order on the world‘.’
For once in our conversation. the sharp and articulate stand-up is momentarily thrown. Yes. he concedes. perhaps there is something in the theory.
‘Am I a control freak'." he hesitates. ‘I don‘t know. You‘d probably have to ask somebody else. I‘m going to go away and worry about
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that. I suppose anybody who wants to pursue a career in comedy has to be disciplined. You have to be controlling in that you have to make the decision yourself and not be scared into a
‘AM I A CONTROL FREAK? YOU'D HAVE TO ASK SOMEONE ELSE'
decision. otherwise you end up doing shitty things.‘
He pauses for reflection. ‘Yes. all right. you can have that. But I‘m not so much a control
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freak as a control dork. I‘m less threatening than a freak.‘
Of course. nowhere has the controlling impulse been more excruciatingly exposed than in The Thick of It. Armando lannucci‘s BAFTA-award winning satire on the corridors of power in Blair‘s Britain. It‘s the show that earned Addison a nomination as best newcomer in the British Comedy Awards for his role as ()liver Reeder. the beleaguered junior policy advisor with the hots for his opposite number in the Tory camp. and which. more than anything. has brought his face to a wider audience. Subjecting himself to the maelstrom of swear words delivered with
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18 THE LIST 1—15 Mar 2007