From TV shows ‘Little Britain’ and ‘Come Fly With Me’ to children’s books ‘The Boy In The Dress’ and ‘The World’s Worst Pets’, beloved UK comedian and author David Walliams has legions of fans in every age group. He’s now big with the grannies, he’s told. We got to talk to David ahead of two shows in Christchurch in October. There’s a night show for the grown-ups and for his book fans, a matinee performance in which David shares his inspirations and acts out some extracts.
What can the Christchurch audience expect from your show?
Well, they can expect a hugely entertaining evening. We have been working on the show for quite a long time now trying to make it as funny as it can be. There are some surprise ‘Little Britain’ characters. There are lots of very funny stories that I have never ever told before. There is sharing a lot of the inspiration for characters that people will know from for instance ‘Come Fly With Me’. And there’s also a chance for people in the audience to ask me absolutely anything they want. And that’s the bit I’m looking forward to the most because that’s the bit where I am going to have to be on my wits. Hopefully when things like that go well and you come up with something funny in the moment or someone asks a rude question, those are always the best bits of any show. People know it’s spontaneous, they know that they’re seeing something they couldn’t have seen the night before or the night after. So that’s the bit I’m really looking forward to. But ultimately the show is designed to hopefully be a great piece of entertainment and for you to walk out having had a great, great time, a great night.
What kind of questions do you expect?
Some people want to make you laugh and say something a bit cheeky, other people genuinely want to know something. Some people just want to say something. Interaction with people is really fun. When you go and see a comedy show and someone heckles and the comedian comes back with something really funny, that’s normally the best part of the night.
Is this a chance for a retrospective on your comedy career?
It is a bit because I’m starting to realise I’m really old now. People used to stop me in the street and say ‘Can I have a picture with you’ and you think ‘Great!’ And then 10 years later they would ask and then say ‘Oh, it’s for my mum, my mum really loves you’. And then recently I had one ‘Oh, it’s for my granny, my granny really loves you’. Is that where I am now, the grannies? It doesn’t feel too much like nostalgia. ‘Little Britain’ still seems part of the culture, certainly in the UK. Newspapers still pick up on catchphrases, characters and sketches. We just had a big IT problem and headlines in the newspapers were ‘Computer says no’. And these things come in circles so there are now lots of kids and teenagers finding ‘Little Britain’ and ‘Come Fly With Me’ for the first time. Because they’re watching it on YouTube or Apple or whatever. And if you do a sketch show, it lends itself quite well to YouTube clips because they’re 2 minutes long rather than having to watch a whole sitcom. So I’m lucky that I’ve not been forgotten and I’m lucky that I’ve had some other things that I've been doing like being a judge on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ or writing children’s books, which has become the biggest part of my life. So I’m lucky I’ve had these different parts to my career and you feel fortunate that you can draw an audience. Me and Matt started [in 1995] in London with a little preview show we were doing for Edinburgh, and three people booked tickets. And we had a call – genuinely 100 percent true – someone called the box office about 5 minutes to 8 and asked would you mind starting the show 5 minutes late, there’s three of us here and we want to finish watching ‘EastEnders’ before we come over. And we were thrilled because we had doubled our audience! That’s where you start, whoever you are in the comedy world. Everything above that is a bonus.
Your comedy has certainly tested the boundaries over the decades. Do you think you would be cancelled today?
No. I think if you look at really successful comedians today, a lot of them are really edgy. Ricky Gervais – his special on Netflix is brilliantly funny and quite shocking. You’ve got Jimmy Carr, who’s a genius and a good friend of mine – some of the most shocking jokes you’ll ever hear in your life. He’s a massive hit on Netflix as well. You’ve got Dave Chappelle, you’ve got Chris Rock. I think people have a hunger for that, there’s often a desire to see comedy that is going to be edgy. But there’s also a desire from some people to see comedy more literally now, so they are less able to understand the playfulness of it. And the other thing is that when you are looking at things online, the context is gone. So instead of it’s Saturday night, you’ve had a few drinks, you’ve spent some money to go see Jimmy Carr live because you love Jimmy Carr and you know you are going to get some really shocking jokes and you’re going to gasp and laugh in equal measure. Now, it’s 8 o’clock in the morning, you’ve logged on to Twitter and suddenly you’re confronted with some joke that you don’t like. There’s no context anymore, you haven’t made any choice to see or hear this, so I think it’s quite inevitable that people are going to go ‘Oh my goodness me, this is awful!’. Well, it’s not for you. Don’t worry about it, it’s not for you.
So comedy should be shocking?
It shouldn’t always be shocking. I mean, I write children’s books, they’re not meant to be shocking but they are meant to be funny. And there’s certainly loads of things we’ve done that haven’t been shocking but have been funny. But sometimes creating those big explosive moments is exciting. Thinking about things I grew up watching, like Monty Python’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ and the Mr Creosote sketch. That’s one of the funniest things I have seen in my life. It’s unbelievably hilarious, shocking, disgusting – it’s 10 minutes of utter explosive laughter. And it’s literally explosive, isn’t it, because Mr Creosote explodes. And you think, well, you know, what’s the problem? But culture moves on, culture changes, there’s things that we revisit and things that we think OK, that’s a bit different now.
Your children’s books are a huge success, why do you think the kids love them so much?
Well, I don’t know, that’s a question for them. A friend of mine said to me, ‘Oh, the kids love your books’. So I asked her why and she just went, ‘Because they’re funny’. I thought OK, I’ll take that. That’s the aim of most of them. If kids are laughing and they’re having fun reading them then they’re going to be drawn to them. It’s not for me to say whether they’re funny or not, I can’t be my own critic. All I know is I work very hard to make them funny and that’s the feedback I get. I want the books to be read for pleasure. I want kids to choose to read them, and then if kids choose to read a book, they’re a reader. If they only read when they’re told to in school or when a parent puts a book in front of them when they’re not necessarily that interested, they’re really going to stay a reluctant reader. For me, I started off reading the comic book ‘Beano’ and that got me into reading. Brilliant. You start off with that and then one day you’re reading Charles Dickens. So I’m halfway between the ‘Beano’ and Charles Dickens. Probably closer to the ‘Beano’.
An Audience with David Walliams, Christchurch Town Hall, Wed 2 October, 7.30pm; The David Walliams Book Show, Christchurch Town Hall, Wed 2 October, 3pm. Ticketek.