Homepage News Reviews - Acts - Shows - Screen - Radio - Books - Clubs Interviews Awards 2006 Edinburgh 2005 - Reviews - Blog - Previews Features Archive Awards 2005 Edinburgh 2004: - Previews - Shows - Diary Guestbook Forum © Emporium Of Mirth 2004 Editor: Lauren Murphy Reporters: Fiona Wilkie Natalie Joanne	Emporium of Mirth Paul Putner Think of a comedy show you've loved in the last 5 years and chances are, Paul Putner has been involved somewhere along the line, be it in a cameo or in a main part, his face will be somewhere involved. As Such, Paul is so busy he couldn't make it to an interview, but he still let himself be subject to Jo's interrogation by E-mail... What programmes or cultural influences made you want to become a comedy performer and actor? I was and am still, a big fan of Laurel and Hardy. I was especially taken with Ollie. It was such a complex character. He played this total bully, coward and was utterly pretentious but you loved him all the same. Tony Hancock was another big influence on me. When I was a little kid I based my personna on him. Other boys in the playground were pretending to be Starsky or Kevin Keegan and I was mooching around saying, Stone me! How dare you! The BBC showed a slow motion montage of Hancock on that BBSC final the other night and it made me cry for some reason. Pathetic. Other early influences were the usual suspects for comedians of a certain age: Carry Ons, Monty Python, old horror movies, Dad’s Army, Eric and Ernie, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Gene Wilder, Pete and Dud, Ian Dury, MAD magazine, Phil Silvers and I was obsessed with those fruit men pencil tops . When and how did you get your first ‘break’? How did you earn your equity card? I’m not sure what my “break” was but my first job that earnt me my equity card was a six month stretch as an actor/stage manager at The Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland. I nearly went mental with the boredom. I only had one line of dialogue to say for half a year and that was “Sit down Mr Vole.” I didn’t work for a while after that but eventually got to understudy in Run For Your Wife in London’s glittering Theatreland. I went on a few times and got to act with Windsor Davies who was a fantastic man. However, Terry Scott was a grumpy old sod who moaned at me on my first day. It’s quite unsettling getting bollocked by famous old British comedians. One Summer I sold soft drinks out of a big tray round me neck at a Pro Celebrity golf match and while looking for customers, I strayed on to the green. Eddie Large screamed at me in front of a big crowd, “Oi! Chocs and Ices! Get off the fairway, you prat!” What would you be doing if you weren’t an actor / comedy performer? I remember going to my school careers advisor and asked about jobs that required scuba divers. It was a phase. The early eighties were a great period for monster movies, (The Thing, An American Werewolf In London, Poltergeist, Evil Dead) so becoming a special FX make up artist was another fad of mine until I discovered that you have to be a chemist with an electronics degree to do all that clever mutating alien/husky shenanigins. I like writing so I might have attempted journalism or perhaps I would be running a small record shop. Seeing the way the phonograph industry is going it’s as well I didn’t. What programmes have you enjoyed working on the most and why? One show that springs to mind was a one off for Channel 4 called ‘You Are Here.’ It had an amazing cast, Lucas and Walliams, Keith Allen, Peter Serafinowicz, Paul Kaye, John Thomson, Nigel Planer, Kate Robbins, Eddie Marsen and Sally Phillips. We spent a week in Emmerdaleland and the cast anecdotes flowed like the river Trent. I spent many a lunch break grilling Planer about The Young Ones and King And Castle, (well, maybe not King and Castle) During this period Keith Allen persuaded half the cast to appear in the Fat Les Vindaloo promo. Ha! I hate football and all sport. See if you can spot me. I’m the zombie one. Preparing for Shaun Of The Dead there. What programmes have you least enjoyed working on and why? I loved appearing in Spaced but it was a very uncomfortable shoot day. It involved me getting blown away by a paintball gun. The FX guy rigged up this heavy duty paint squib to my chest . When the squib exploded it was like being slapped very hard on the solar plexus by a large painter and decorator. Then I had to lie twisted on the damp ground covered in this yellow sludge for the next scene. The director Edgar Wright is very much into shooting many, many takes and so it seemed an eternity I was prostate in the mud. God help us if I had to fight for my country. You memorably played ‘the curious orange’ on ‘This Morning with Richard Not Judy’ and have performed in a couple of Richard Herring plays. What was it like working on these projects? Do you still see Richard and Stewart? TMWRNJ was tremendous fun. The script read throughs were always disrupted by me having embarrassing hysterical laughing fits. One fit went on for bit too long that it started to frighten the cast members. It was exciting breezing into the BBC TV centre on those crisp Sunday mornings to do the live show. I had to spend most of the morning with orange make up on the middle of my face and Rich made the same crap joke every week. “Paul, you’ve got something on your face.” Series two was recorded at the Riverside Studios at Hammersmith. My main memory there was everyone hitting the bar after the show to wind down and being absolutely spannered by around by 4’O’Clock. The hangover on Monday was epic. Disgraceful. I’ve acted in a few of Rich’s plays and I must say, enjoyed performing in them more than anything I did at drama school. Yeah, and that means you, Mr Anton ” party pooper” Chekov with your seagulls and troikas. I still see the boys now and then. Richard has been busy with his touring, running and rowing so I haven’t seen him much recently. Stewart and I, occasionally DJ our retro tunes at the Barfly Camden and see the odd band together. ‘Odd’ being the appropriate adjective here. What was John ‘Lord Bergerac’ Nettles like to work with in ‘Midsomer Murders’? I appeared in two Midsomer Murders as a copper. It was interesting to watch John Nettles work on set. You think, “Hang on..he’s just mumbling and shuffling about” but then you watch the show six months later and suddenly this great understated, rich screen performance materialises. What th..? Aaaah, now I see why you never stop working. I’d like to say that Johnno and I painted the town red into the early hours but I merely helped him with a crossword clue during a break between set ups. When and how did you first hook up with Matt Lucas and David Walliams? Matt and I were introduced to each other at a stand up comedy class in 1992. We quickly realised we were both more driven to actually do stand up professionally than the rest of the class and became good friends. The pair of us started gigging on the London comedy circuit but for every one gig I performed he’d done twenty! He was young and fearless and it was quite exhilarating to watch Sir Bernard losing it on stage, arbitrarily yelling, “You fuckahs!” at the audience. Matt took me to see Dave do his double act called Bunce And Burner (which was the best double act name I’d heard since I saw Straight and Strange at Butlins) He was another gifted performer who clearly was going to make it. One of my favourite things I have ever done on stage was with Dave. It was The South American Tribute To Laurel And Hardy. We created these two Mexican thugs attempting to do their homage to the Stan and Ollie routines. “ Why don’t yo do something to fuckin’ elp me, Stanlee, Si thatsa nutha fina fuckin’ mess, yo gotta me into, you cocksucker.” Etc How we got away with this on BBC Choice? What is it like working with them? I’ve worked with them on lots of stuff, live shows, TV, radio and these days they take it all a lot more seriously. That’s not to say they didn’t take it seriously at the beginning but there is a lot more pressure to deliver now. We use to piss around much more on Mash and Peas but on Little Britain there’s not much time for all that caper. We still have a laugh though. The thing I find amusing is having serious conversations with them on set when they are made up as these dreadful women. Once on location I was dressed as the street mime artist and stood in a car park with Lenny Beige (Steve Furst) chatting with Paul Daniels, Keith Harris and Orville about Eminem. I thought, this is like one of those dreams you have after a very spicy late night pizza. Do you play any part in the writing process for Little Britain? No, they write it all. The only material that was mine was the aforementioned literal mime artist character, Mimo. I used to perform him at a comedy cabaret club called The Regency Rooms. I just liked the idea of the way mime artists mimed climbing invisible ladders, pulling ropes, eating bananas etc in such an exaggerated fashion and what it would be like to actually do those over stylised actions with the actual props. Ever tried picking up a telephone receiver the way you mime a telephone? It’s hard. I may have some material in LB 2 though. Matt and David obviously think very highly of you, as you have played pivotal roles in Mash and Peas, Rock Profiles, and Little Britain. What’s your favourite of these? What’s your favourite character that you’ve played? They have been very loyal to me. Thanks lads. I liked playing Morph in Mash and Peas and doing Phil Daniels in the Blur Rock Profile was a giggle too. I worked with Phil on Time Gentlemen Please and he teased me that he and Damon Albarn would be consulting their lawyers. Paul from Fat Fighters is great to do. I admire his perseverence to lose weight and still returning to the Club week after week to listen to that drivel. I’m on a diet myself at the moment so if I’ve lost too much weight by the start of filming series 2. I might do myself out of the part. Your ‘Rock Profile’ Robbie Williams is very popular with fans. Do you love dressing up in outrageous garb? Lee and Herring frequently had me dressed in lycra. I suppose it just looks funny on a fat bloke. I find it a bit inconvenient because you’re all zipped in and can never go for a slash. I expect it was the same for the Tweenies. You know what? I kept the Robbie outfit. I once customised it for a Halloween party costume. I went as Pan. Some of the female guests clearly disapproved and I wish I hadn’t made all the effort quite frankly. It was almost winter and I was freezing too. Since the mega success of Little Britain, do you find that you get recognised more often by the public? Not that often. I think it’s because I wear so many disguises on the show that only a real comedy fan might spot me. I still get the odd person shout at me, Oi Curious Orange! Get off the fairway, you prat! What was it like working with Sean Lock on ‘fifteen minutes of misery’ the radio show that became ‘15 storeys high’? The great thing about performing comedy for radio is that you can ham it up bit and get to play such a wide range of characters. I was doing World Of Pub at the time and Kevin Eldon recommended me to Sean as he couldn’t do the series. What can I say? It was great to do and Lock is brilliant. In the TV show though he persuaded me to sit in a bath naked with a camera pointing inches away at my crotch. That was quite embarrassing. You have performed in your own show (Earle Stevens at Soho Theatre), have you performed any other solo shows? Do you have any future plans to do any other solo show and if so what are they? Earl Stevens Puh-leez! is the only one man show I’ve done. It was iniatally performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001. It was my love letter part poisen pen letter to the comedy industry. I’d like to revisit the American stand up comic again one day. I have a few ideas for shows but have been a bit preoccupied to knuckle down and write them. You have to be quick because you can bet your cute ass that someone else will eventually have the same idea and do it first. What current comedies / projects are you working on? One for the sci-fi comedy fan, I am doing a radio series called ‘Nebulous’ written by Graham Duff with Mark Gattis. I am writing on Radio 2 show The Day The Music Died. Series 2, then Little Britain 2 and a couple of other projects that are in development. I also want to open a really bizarre comedy cabaret club nite in London at the end of the year , finances and time permitting. What ambitions do you have? What would you like to do in the future? I’d love to do some more movies. This year, I got to act with Leslie Phillips on Peter Richardson’s new film, Churchill: The Hollywood Years and drove a big holiday coach in Fat Slags The Movie and be a zombie in Shaun Of The Dead. I just want to keep creating stuff, work regulary and learn how to use a computer properly. Quick fire questions: Ones to watch: Television: Trendy I know, but I loved what I caught of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Stage: ‘Die’. It should be touring soon and I cannot recommend it enough. Set in Hades, it’s a living cartoon on stage with a strong message about of corporate culture. Radio: I hear Danny Baker is rather good these days. Film: American Splendor, Underground comics are another great passion. If you liked Ghost World or Crumb then this completes the trinity. Ones to avoid: Television: Please no more muckraking documentaries about old comedians. That When Steptoe met Son thing was a disgrace. However, The Showbiz Set was excellent. Stage: With the exception of Our House, ( old Nutty Boy here ) are all these bloody musicals based on the music of old pop bands. In fact I hate musicals unless a Tin Man, Gene Kelly or Jodie Foster are in them. Radio: Magic FM. Anaemic Screen: Party Monster. P-yew! What a stinker! Pretentious and soulless. Favourite websites: www.tvdregs.com My collegue Ashley Blaker’s and mine affectionate take on TV comedy nostalgia. www.notbbc.com An excellent discussion forum about entertainment. www.framleyexaminer.com Everyone knows about this, I know . A brilliant piss take of local newspapers. www.bluejam20.freeserve.co.uk Paintbox. Passionate website about everything from obscure sixties kids TV to old British New Wave bands. www.gawkagogo.com These are the Die guys. www.scarygirl.com Freaky art and cartoon links. Best Heckle you’ve heard (where and when) I wasn’t at the gig but a mate told me about seeing Kirk Douglas’s other son Eric Douglas do a turn at the Comedy Store. He was going down badly and Douglas berated the rowdy audience, “Hey lissen up I’m Eric Douglas and who the fuck are you? To which some wag replied, “I’m Spartacus” and then the whole audience started,” No, I’m Spartacus” No I’M Spartacus! etc. How awful for him on so many levels. Best reply to heckle (where and when) Johnny Vegas responding to John Lydon’s barracking at the Q Awards: “You’ve become old and bitter but I will defeat you with love.” Interrogation by Jo, Spring 2004 (with additional questions from Tara of The David Walliams Website) RSS  Printable version	Visit our Siamese Twin Sister Site!