Pat Cahill interview

Pat Cahill is a rising star on the stand-up comedy circuit. He is now entering the world of acting, via his own mini-sitcom for Channel 4's Comedy Blaps strand. We find out more here...

Hi Pat. How did you first get into comedy?

A few mates and I decided to put on a gig at the University Of East Anglia, in a tiny basement bar in Norwich. We'd cram about fifty people in there once every blue moon and go on far too long about nothing important, as we had no clue what we were doing.

Ha ha. You've got quite a distinctive style, how long did it take you to find what worked for you and the audience?

I'm still working it all out. From gig to gig you can never tell what it's gonna be like, so you just say 'sod it, this is what I'm currently doing, please for the love of god just give it a try.'

It's working for you though - you made it to a number of new act finals in 2011 and 2012, winning awards along the way. As you progress to a more established circuit headliner, do you feel any additional pressure?

A bit, but I can only carry on. Industry pressure is a sort of invented one. As one new comic starts climbing the mountain they look at the next one and say 'well, he was three thousand feet up by Tuesday, where are you?' And you say, 'but I'm climbing up the other side, and stopping every now and then to dance.'

You're signature piece for a while was your Tumour Dog song. Has it been hard to drop that solid 'banker' material from your set as you continue up the 'mountain'?

It stopped fitting in. In a five minute set with little need for longer ideas/themes, you could bung it in and get away with it. In a longer set where I may get a little more philosophical or whatever it just started to stick out as a bit cruel. It's not like I have a burning spiritual passion to spread the word about dog tumours, so I jobbed it off a while ago.

Did anyone object to you about the premise of that song? People can get rather sensitive when it comes to the subject of animals we've noted.

Oh god yeah, but usually the people who loved it the most were those who had had one two or more dogs die of old age and had experienced what its actually about.

The reason we're talking now is Still Reeling, your new Channel 4 Comedy Blaps episodes. Perhaps we could ask you to introduce what they are about?

It's about a young man, Ricky Day (me), and his father Les (Matt King). Ricky is a naive young berk with dreams of becoming a TV fishing star and Les, having been dealt a few harsh realities in life, is the would-be wiser old man.

There are elements of me and my father in the characters. I decided to try and be a stand-up comedian, which is about as deluded an idea as becoming a fishing star, and my father is indeed a funny older man in a wheelchair. But in reality dad is very supportive of my stupid ideas, unlike Les, who tries his best to bring Ricky out of dreamland.

However, the kitchen being covered in tools and fishing equipment is about as true to life as it gets. I once walked in to find my old man making a life-size replica of a terracotta warrior on the kitchen table. He's great.

Has your dad seen it yet?

Dad's got no internet so I'm showing him a DVD of it this weekend. I imagine he'll be fine. When I talked him through it and said 'do you mind if I stick a sort of version of you in a thing?', he said "do what you like, throw me out the bloody window if you want" (I must stress he meant in the Blap).

Just a quick side track: Whilst your Comedy Blap is entertaining, real life fishing is dull surely?

The anticipation of a catch keeps your mind quietly focused on one thing. This gives the rest of your brain chance to wander about and fix problems. And this is only interrupted by bouts of excitement (the bite) and, should you land a fish, joy. It's the working man's meditation and I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't appreciated it.

Well argued. Robson Green and his Extreme Fishing show gets a few mentions in your Blap. What do you think of that show?

It's brilliant. It's fish porn. He's having the time of his life, and we're along for the ride. Long may it live!

Back on track: Are we right in saying this is your first filmed acting role? If so, why the change in direction, or is this something you've always wanted to expand into?

You are correct, first time on film. It was a lot of fun. It's not a change of direction - just as I've always wanted to do stand-up, I've always wanted to work on sketch and narrative TV comedy too.

I had no idea how to get in to any of the aforementioned, but I have had this opportunity and it was a pleasure. It's nice to have the whole 'that didn't work, do it again' advantage with film, and to be able to go 'look at this thing wot I done'.

What was it like working alongside Matt King? He's also a stand-up who moved into acting of course...

Matt's brilliant. He was perfect for Les, chucking new titbits in, throwing himself willingly out of the chair, happily working with blood sausage on what was one of the hottest days of the year. And having a writing/stand-up/acting background, he was a great brain to have on board. He seemed to share our view of the Blaps from the off and he would instinctively throw in a noise or a line to make it more 'Les'.

Also how did you find writing with the experienced Graham Duff? Did you learn anything new about the craft?

Absolutely. He's done so much great stuff, him looking at a gag is like seeing someone sit a Rorschach test [the psychological test involving ink blobs]. He just looks at it and says 'eggy' and you know it's too eggy.

With it being two short pieces, it's hard to squeeze lots in, so the exercise became about choosing the most illustrative ideas. Graham just knew that bringing in another character would show us more about Les and Ricky and so we found the home help Coral (the terrific Hayley Jane Standing). He just knows the right buttons to push to get the right funnies out.

Is the intention to view this as a pilot, with the hope of making a full series?

With the Blaps we tried to make both episodes a mini-sitcom with a self-contained story - a bit like the old Looney Tunes cartoons. We'd all love to expand this into something bigger, but it is great to have made these little nuggets of fun. We have already got pages of ideas for episodes and plots, and there is so much more we'd love to explore in the world of these few characters. Not least, I want an excuse do some more fishing.

Thanks for your time Pat!

Here's Episode 1 of Still Reeling, 'Home Help':

Update, 9th October. The second episode is now online too: