Comedian Lee Hurst first appeared on our screens as a panellist on the comedy sports quiz, ‘They Think It’s All Over’ where he remained as a regular face on the programme for three years, despite a self-admitted lack of football knowledge. Over the years, he has done a range of TV work, on such shows as Have I Got News For You, The What In The World? And most recently the Comic Relief 24 Hour Panel People special in March this year – but TV is only a small part in the career of Lee Hurst. TV star, writer, radio host; Lee is all of these things, but above all else, he is also a stand up comedian. These past few years, Lee has focused his attention on the club in East London’s Bethnal Green that he set up in the late nineties, The Backyard Comedy Club. The club has undergone a number of incarnations and is currently closed while it reinvents itself yet again. In the meantime, Lee is hardly sitting idle.

For the first time in ten years, Lee is going on tour with his new stand up show, MAN V WOMAN. Not just stand up; Lee has also incorporated a unique game show into it in which he will bring a member of each sex from the audience onto the stage to face a series of tasks and questions. With the audience having the final say on the winner, will they be honest or will they vote on gender lines?

Before he embarks on the tour in September, Lee took some time to talk to The Public Reviews about the tour, the club and his view on ‘political correctness’ in comedy:

So Lee, this will be your first tour in ten years: why so long, and how are you feeling about it?

I’ve been bobbing along playing at my club, but now it’s shut for a period I thought I’d take a One-Man show out that I used to perform there from time to time. Unlike any tours I’ve done in the past, I know this one works in advance rather than working it through during the tour, so I’m very relaxed about it.

As well as a stand-up comedian; you’re also known as a TV and radio star, a writer, as well as running your own comedy club… Which of these do you feel most comfortable with?

Comfortable is not really the word I’d use. I guess gigging is the easiest. You basically just turn up and have a laugh; great job to have.

You’ve mentioned before that you prefer performing live to the TV appearances – how come?

With the live gigs it’s very much ‘do it and then do it again the next time you gig’. With TV, you do the job once and then someone else edits it so you are not really so involved in the end product, which can be a bit frustrating.

So Lee; the comedy club: It closed and then reopened, you ran it and then you didn’t…what is going on there? I hear the venue is currently being rebuilt?

Basically, the club is shut for a period. It’s going to be demolished and then a 7 storey hotel will be built. I will then lease back the ground floor and open the venue again. This time around though, it’ll be a bar in its own right with a performance space at the rear. We will be doing live comedy several nights per week, but also moving into live music and pretty much anything else that takes our fancy.

Stand-up can be a very physical operation, especially when on tour and performing so many shows. You suffer from the condition, ankylosing spondylitis (acute arthritis) – does this affect your stage performance at all?

Once in a blue moon it’s been painful on stage, but if push comes to shove I could always perform a gig from a bar stool, although I haven’t done so yet. It has slowed me down a few times, but not too much.

Like many other comedians, you’ve also had your fair-share of Media controversy: are you more aware of yourself and the Press nowadays?

I just ignore them mostly. I can’t do anything about it so why worry? It’s a bit like being a passenger on an airplane.

In regards to the Media; do you feel that people have become too concerned with being ‘politically correct’ when it comes to comedy now? Has this had any bearing on your own material?

I loathe political correctness. It seems to be a refuge for people who don’t live in the real world. Most people who are PC will go on about ‘freedom of expression’ and then try and thought-police people to silence by reacting to individual words. I recently made a remark on Facebook about South East and North by North West Sudan declaring independence from South Sudan. It was a silly little word play comment, but I was then accused of being xenophobic by some tedious, worthy warrior. They undermine anything they have to say with such nonsense. I have a few topics in my act that do not sit easy with some fellow comics, but then they don’t live in an inner-London borough and partake of some of the experiences that I live through.

The new show you’re touring is called Man V Woman, and has been described as being two shows in one: a stand-up performance and also a game show. Can you tell us more about the show?

The first half will be me doing a stand up set, but also getting to know the audience and having a giggle with them; I also use this time to scope out people who will join me in the second half. The second half is a Game Show. The 2 “volunteers” will be dragged kicking and screaming to the stage by security personnel if necessary. They will then be quizzed by me to find out the different ways men and women react to the same scenarios. They will also have to carry out some tasks as well as answering questions. I will award them points throughout, led by the audience and whose answers they prefer. I’m curious to see at the end of the run which gender wins more and how much the results are affected by the individuals concerned.

How did the idea for it come about? Would it be fair to say that it’s very much about looking at society’s perception of gender difference?

I was doing a number of One-Man shows from time to time at my comedy club and was looking at different ways of involving the audience so that I could improvise off them. I had a Chat Show where the audience wrote the questions, I was the interviewee and an audience member the host. I did an auction whereby people brought stuff along and I sold it to the rest of the audience and I also did a game show where I was quizzed by the audience with their own questions and I scored points against the clock. Of all of them, the one that lent itself logistically to any theatre was the Man V Woman game show. As I play each venue I will be looking to find which of them would be suitable for the other aspects of the show and may bring them along next time.

Finally; so why should people come and see the show?

I can guarantee that they’ll have a great time. Several women have gone into labour at my shows in the past, so I like to think I’m making them laugh so loudly that the babies came out early to find out what all the noise was about! To the people that end up on stage, I don’t ridicule you at all; it works at your pace. Just relax and enjoy the show with the rest of the audience.

 

Interview by Julie Robinson

The UK tour of Lee Hurst’s stand up show MAN V WOMAN kicks off in at the Derby Theatre in Derby on 15^th September. For details of all tour venues and how to purchase tickets, you can go to the Lee Hurst website.

Tags: Comedy, Comic Relief 24 Hour Peoples Panel special, Derby Theatre, Have I Got News For You, Interview, Lee Hurst, Man V Woman, The What In The World, They Think It’s All Over