The Big Show Interviews Alan Davies!

0:00Mike Minogue:The Hauraki Big Show with Jace, Mike and Keyzie. Tune in weekdays at four on Radio Hauraki.

0:06Keyzie:Fellas, you know, over the years we've had some amazing guests, but our next guest is truly a comedic legend. He's a stand-up comedian, he's an author, he's an actor, he's a presenter. I'm talking about the one, the only, the magnificent Alan Davies. G'day Alan, how's life? Oh, very good. Thank you. What an intro. I'll leave now. It's down here all the way. I've got to be honest with you. Keezy here. Yeah. Hi, Keezy. You are sincerely his... I thought we were going to say I was his dad then. Yeah, well, who knows? Do you remember when you came to Ireland? Came here last time in New Zealand. In 95.

0:48Yeah, and you met that woman in the bar. Well, this is her son!

0:52Keyzie:Funnily enough, we did meet back then, Alan, way back in the day. There was some sort of festival going on. But Keezy here, you're his hero. So he was saying to us when he came in today, he hasn't had any sleep all night because he was so worried about it. And he's terrified that I'm going to ruin things for him, but I don't know how I could. You've got the look about you.

1:13Mike Minogue:Ruin anything. Well, they will. Trust me, they will. Alan, Jase isn't lying. For some reason, in 2010, I was studying for a few years there, and a friend of mine, this is during the age of, and I feel bad about it, but pirating TV shows and stuff, I was given... Don't worry, I've been paid. Yeah, exactly. That's all that matters at the end of the day, right? But this is 16 years ago. I was given every episode of QI for the first 10 or 12 seasons or something, and every time I was hungover, which was a lot, myself mainly, but a lot of my flat and I would just sit down and watch them on repeat. I think I have got the first 12 seasons of you and Stephen Fry in my head, locked away.

1:52Those are the golden years. Well, they were.

1:54Mike Minogue:And so when I, you know, because Stephen Fry was here earlier, was it last year? And I went to that. And then when I found out you were coming, I bought tickets straight away. Because for some reason, you guys are just locked into my brain from that era. Oh, well, that's nice. Yeah. Is it weird for you to be on the other side of the world and to know, and I don't know, you've been to New Zealand a few times, but there's a real love for British comedy here in New Zealand. Yeah. And it's great for me because it means I can tour here. And I really like New Zealand. It's a beautiful country and I can turn up.

2:23Yeah, the people I... I mean, initially, Jonathan Crete was the number one show on New Zealand television in the 90s. It was huge. And now QI, there are just so many episodes. Well, that's the thing. So many years, you know.

2:35Mike Minogue:When you signed up for QI, which is a comedy British panel show, and they said the first season's going to be called Season A. Yeah, that's right. That means 26 seasons are going to happen, right? They didn't really mention that. Did they not? The master plan was slightly kept from me. Where are you up to now? We've just recorded Series X. Wow. Extraordinary. I'm sitting in the chair now. Everything's changed. Quite a few of the comedians weren't even alive when Series X was on. And I used to be this sort of stupid brat in the corner, and now I'm the old man. So it's totally reversed. I don't know anything, but it's because I'm senile.

3:13That's the general vibe. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, we've got Y and Z to do, and then I'm emigrating to New Zealand. Yeah, well, you're most welcome, mate.

3:21Keyzie:Because I mentioned at the top of the introduction there, you're an author, you're a stand-up comedian, you're an actor and a presenter. Where does Alan Davies nestle most comfortably amongst all those roles? Oh, well, it's the stand-up's my thing. Oh, really? The stand-up's what I started doing stand-up when I was 22 and I did it for five years before I got any opportunity on radio or anything else and I absolutely loved it. And loads of the people that I met then are still friends, and a load of them ended up on QI. So QI, I had a period where I wasn't doing stand-up, which I sort of regret now.

3:56Yes. But a lot of them were turning up on QI recording so I felt like I was seeing everyone and we had an audience. But if I hadn't had Jonathan Creek or QI or all those things, I'd be doing stand-up. That's what I'd be doing. And having the microphone and being on the stage feels at home. Yes.

4:13Mike Minogue:Because when you're a stand-up comedian, getting stuff like the comedy panel shows and stuff, That's the stuff you see on TV, my generation anyway, and you think that's when you know you've made it. So you go into that world and then you sort of – did you have like a break and then come back to stand-up, if you know what I mean? Yeah, I did. And I kind of was doing a lot of acting for a time after Jonathan Crete and I was doing a couple of other dramas and I played a barrister. That was weird. It wasn't very funny. And then I kind of got a little bit back into it and then I started podcasting in about 2009 all about Arsenal, my football team.

4:51That was all we talked about. But it was fun to do. It was funny and the only people who listened to it like, they'd find you, your audience would find you and I thought this is how this works now. You don't have to just be on someone's living room every night of the week. People will find you and they will listen to your stuff and I enjoyed being off the cuff and I enjoyed making people laugh. So I got back into stand-up then and I toured New Zealand there and I did two tours back to back. There's been a bit of a hiatus for touring, but I've still been gigging. Yeah. And now I've put this show together called Think Ahead and really because I'm thinking ahead.

5:29I mean, anything could happen in the next few years. How many more tours am I going to do? The range of things I can do in my life is narrowing down. Yeah. But I feel as though as a comedian, and I saw Dave Allen do a show in London when he was 61 years old and I've never laughed at anything so much in my life. Yeah. And I've got a year till I'm 61. I don't think I'm going to make the Dave Allen standard. Got to put a time to sharpen up. Yeah. But I do feel like you can talk about anything at that age. You've been through a life, you've seen things, you've experienced things and you're less concerned about withholding stuff that perhaps you wouldn't have talked about when I was younger, you know, more able to talk about the whole picture.

6:10So I feel as though it's a good time, later in life is a good time to be a stand-up comedian, actually. And the young comedians, I remember, I was thinking about when I started, if it got a laugh, you'd say it. You wouldn't always know why it was funny. It was a little bit hit and miss. Some gigs would be great, some wouldn't. You weren't a master of the craft kind of thing. But I think as you get older, you're going to get the hang of it. The Horaki Big Show, weekdays from four on Radio Horaki. Oh, g'day, mate. Oh, homos, yeah. Look, if you want the chance to win all our on-air competitions and stuff and get amongst the live conversation, tune in to the Hauraki Big Show, four to seven weekdays on Radio Hauraki and iHeartRadio.

6:56The Hauraki Big Show podcast.

6:58Keyzie:Is it also, you know, because I found this as I've got older, that you care less? I mean, I don't mean that, you know, it's like, oh, I don't give a shit about it. I know what you mean. The consequences of things you say and do can restrict what you say and do. Yes. If you're thinking about that. And also, you know, a lot of people live life by their fears. You know, I don't want to do this because this and this could happen. And I hate that feeling of living life according to what you're afraid of. In other words, you're living life according to things that haven't even happened yet. But that hasn't happened.

7:31But it could happen. Yeah, but it hasn't happened, has it? Yes. So let's carry on doing what we want to do and say what we want to say. If things happen, we can react to them. But let's not not say things because of things that haven't even happened. This is slightly, I feel at the moment, there's a kind of a bit of a cancel culture. There's always that feeling in the air, oh, you better be careful, you better watch out. And I think, no, these things haven't happened. I'm not going to be restricted by things that haven't happened. Yeah, no fair point. Our boss is always telling us the opposite here.

7:59He says, just don't say it. Just don't say it. If in doubt, don't speak.

8:04Keyzie:We have a look in the studio when we're live on air, Alan. We give each other a look and it's like, don't go there. Because we know where it's going.

8:12Mike Minogue:We've got comedian Alan Davies who's in from the UK going on a massive tour across New Zealand. Tickets are available at livenation.co.nz. Alan, you mentioned you're 60 now and you've come back out gigging again. Jase here, he is apparently 39. But he was gigging when you were here in the 90s. But he hasn't done stand-up in a long, long time. Do you think he should get back out there as well? What if you enjoy being up there? I mean, you've got to... Surely it's whether the audience enjoyed being up there as well. I think they should be considered as well. That is a consideration. But that is something that we will discover.

8:46That's right.

8:47Keyzie:Well, that's why I asked you that question, Ellen, because I'll never go back. I mean, during the time that I was doing it, it was all fine and dandy, but now I hate the idea of going back and doing stand-up comedy. I'd rather be a third-rate rock DJ and just sit comfortably in my life. You know what I mean? But you seem to me to be a person that likes to keep pushing the boundaries a little bit, keep yourself on edge. Well, I think it's just if you feel like you've got something to say or if you can feel some material coming together, you think, oh, now there's something happening. I was working, I wrote a memoir a few years ago called Justin Moore, him about my childhood, and then I worked on a second volume kind of following on for that called White Male Stanek about going into comedy.

9:31And I was writing about things that I'd never talked about on stage. And while I was working on that book, I started to have ideas for stand-up around some of those areas. And that was the show Think Ahead. And once I thought there's something in this, I've got a bit of an idea. I've been doing this a while. I think that's funny. That's funny. But that must be exciting, right? When you've got that and you actually feel like you've got something that's worth getting up on stage again, you're not forcing it. and then you get an opportunity to put something together. As you say, your passion is comedy and being a stand-up.

10:05When you get that urge again and that feeling again, it must be exciting and annoying because then you have to do some work. You have to do some work. You have to go a long way from your family and your kids and all of that. But that part of it, when the show's just beginning to form and it's, you know what you want to say, but it's loose. Yes. That's the best bit, really. And then eventually, by necessity, it's got to settle down into something, first of all that I can remember that's going to work, that's going to be organised, and then you take the audience on a journey. And this show is the most personal show that I've done, but it's been the best received.

10:40I've had the best notices. The audience reaction has been great. So it's been very gratifying, really.

10:45Keyzie:Yeah. Well, I mean, they say, like, if you're writing, for example, you know, write about what you know about. You know what I mean? And it sounds like you're dealing with real experiences in your life and bringing comedy to it. Well, also, if you're a comedian, the first thing you need to establish is some sort of stage persona. How are you going to be when you're up there? Everybody's got a unique stage persona, whether it's Eddie Izzard or Bill Bailey or whoever it is. And then once that's there, you're sort of stuck with that, really. And mine was always a bit people pleaser and a bit of a facade.

11:17And most performers have got something going on behind the facade, and most people have, you know. But if you can take the facade down a bit and show a bit more of the stuff that previously you might feel was a bit shameful or was embarrassing, then you're really on to something. But it takes a while to do that. And the book White Mouth Stand-Up is about taking that down and not being ashamed of things that weren't my fault. Yes. And then creating something and knowing that the audience are out there and there are many people in the audience who've had difficult experiences as children or other stories of their own.

11:56and then once you get everyone in a room, we're all in this together, right? And that's the nicest thing about being a storyteller, really. Yes. And I really feel that, especially now when everyone's just on their phones morning, noon and night, to get everyone in a room, phones in pockets, just listening, it's nice. It's as old as the hills, isn't it?

12:16Keyzie:Yeah. And it takes a bit of courage to do that too, to be honest about things. And for you to then have, for you to come on stage to be, you know, sort of it's the culmination of decades of doing what you do across so many different things, but then to be, to let the curtain down a bit and show who you are as a person and talk about your experiences, to then have the audience respond to that, you must have been terrified the first time you did it and yet the reaction has been, this is the best we've ever seen of him. Yeah, it feels like that. And, yes, you are unsure about how much of it is really just for you.

12:54You don't want to be a self-indulgent performer. No-one likes that. But as a comedian, ultimately, laughter is still the barometer. There's still a needle going. And you can't have silence in the room unless that's what you want at that moment. And that's a really good comedian. and there are some about who I aspire to be like, they're like conductors, you know. The audience are making the noise that they want them to make and it's quite an amazing skill, you know.

13:26Keyzie:It is. So you're on Hamilton tonight. Straight to Hamilton. I'm on my way short.

13:33Mike Minogue:So Hamilton, you've got Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Palmerston, North Christchurch, finishing in Dunedin. Once again, livenation.co.nz. If you want tickets and you want to see Alan Davies live, So, Alan, I'd just like to say for me personally, seriously, like watching you on QI years ago, I'm watching stuff that's like 20 years old, you know, and now I'm on a comedy panel show here in New Zealand, a sports one, and a lot of what I do on there is based off of, oh, Alan is always just a big goofball and you were never trying to be correct or win. And so I've taken that away and I genuinely apply that to what I do here.

14:08Mike Minogue:So I'd just like to say it's really nice to meet you. It's a safe route to humour. Yeah, totally.

14:13Keyzie:Yeah, it is. Alan Davies, what an absolute pleasure, mate.