Comic performance poet Tim Key talks with Sevya Boning-Brigshaw about joking at the back of class and worming his way into Footlights without ever going to Cambridge
After spending a reasonable portion of afternoon listening to his answerphone, I give up on interviewing comic performance poet Tim Key. However, when I dial his number for a weary final time, and am poised to leave name and number, to my confusion Tim answers. As I faff about trying to find my question notes, he tells me that he was in Shrewsbury preparing for an evening performance of Masterslut, his one man comedy show currently touring England, sequel to his previous shows; sellout The Slut in the Hut and The Slutcracker. He says that the show has an unusual combination of poetry, talking, bathing and sub-aquatic art.
Comedian Tim Key, who has on the BBC’s Never Mind tahe Buzzcocks and The Bubble, studied Russian at Sheffield University. I ask him what it was that lead him to take this course, which prompts Tim in telling me the romantic tale of falling desperately in love with a girl in the Ukraine, causing him to change his course, “I wanted to go back to Russia after four years and surprise her by speaking Russian.”
Despite being a student at Sheffield, Tim also was successful in nabbing a part in famous comedy sketch group Footlights, founded at Cambridge University. He tells me, “I was poking around after university, not really knowing what to do and I lived in Cambridge” and says, “One of the things I auditioned for was being in Footlights which I didn’t know much about. I got the part and the next thing I knew, I was in this sketch gig that had years and years of reputation and I was lucky that the people that I was with that year were very talented so we put together a pretty good show.”
He talks about the advantage of being involved in a group with such a star-showered history, and how it gave them an immediate audience – although it was not always one that they were aiming for, “the main pool of our energy in Edinburgh was devoted to flyering young people to decrease the age of our audience, that was our big plan.” He also speaks about the snobbery surrounding the Footlights, although undoubtedly the experience must have been worth all of the grey hairs and upturned noses he had to tolerate.
Back at school, Tim says that although he was never class clown, he used to always like making the other kids laugh, he reminisces, “I always sat at the back [of class] with another little boy and we used to just make each other laugh.” This instinctive leaning towards comedy stayed with Tim until he reached his late teens, “I had this nagging unidentifiable thought that I wanted to do this, but I never thought that it was a possibility when I was eighteen or nineteen, but I then decided that probably wasn’t going to happen.” After stepping down from his attempts as a stand-up comic, an experience that Tim describes as “frustrating and demoralizing” he found his niche in comic performance poetry. I ask him about how he feels when he is on stage, he replies rather sweetly, “it feels kind of magical”, he says, “Just like you’re doing what you were meant to do.”
Tim says that his greatest fear as a comedian is not of being shunned by an audience, but is of the possibility of losing his drive for creativity, “If you still have the appetite to make something new, you should be okay.” I asked him finally what advice he would give to someone thinking about going into comedy, he says “do it, just get going! Get writing, perform loads and just constantly be doing it. Practice. Take every opportunity, say yes to everything” He hesitates, “No, don’t say yes to everything. Say yes to lots of things!” Wise words indeed.
Masterslut is at The Carriageworks Tuesday October 30 carriageworkstheatre.org.uk