Alexander Fox on mixing comedy and drums interview

In 2011, Alexander Fox left school and went to music college, where he began an illicit affair with his drum teacher. Their lives became intertwined, then increasingly "dark and dangerous". In 2019, he's ready to tell the story in his Edinburgh comedy show, Snare.

What inspired you to centre the show around an electronic drum kit?

When I started bringing even a little drum to work-in-progress shows, I discovered immediately that audiences - especially curious comedy audiences - found drumming really engrossing. I guess it's because there's nowhere for the performer to hide: the audience sees every stroke and hears every note. The personality of the drummer is intrinsic to how the beat sounds. All of that is just like performing comedy, from a different perspective.

When I brought my debut Ringo to Pleasance Courtyard in 2017 and there was the full drum kit in the room, I had beautiful young audience members who came for the comedy staying behind to talk about drums, and hairy divorced blokes who came for the drumming sticking about to chat about narrative comedy structures!

All in all, adding live drums to a comedy show is a little bit different - and I think that's fun in the very busy marketplace of comedy.

You talk about having an affair with your college drumming teacher - how did that come about?

I'd rather not say too much about who she was and where exactly we met. I change her name and a few other details in the show, to respect her privacy. You'll have to come to the show to find out exactly how it all began, and how we maintained it in secret for so many months!

But Snare is definitely not written as a sexual brag. It's a love story that's doomed from the start, between two incompatible people trying to find something they desperately need. It's that, but funny.

The audience are used as session musicians. Do you find utilising the audience in this way helps with your performance?

Without sounding too 'Pep Guardiola', my entire philosophy centres on the audience feeling that they have a stake in the show. Comedically and narratively, they'll enjoy it most if they believe the story and the emotion beneath it, and engage with the jokes.

Drumming-wise, they'll likewise enjoy it most if they have a stake in me recording the remaining four tracks on my album, which is the premise of the show. They only have to play air trumpet, and one person out of sixty has to play a cowbell for five seconds. But it helps my performance immensely, and I hope their enjoyment of the show, if we're building something together.

For me, comedy is teamwork: I want to make something with you, not at you.

Who are you main influences in both music and comedy?

I love comedy with real heart/emotion most. Frasier, Marion & Geoff, the Ralph and Ted storyline from The Fast Show; and contemporaries like Kieran Hodgson, Joseph Morpurgo and Max & Ivan to name but three.

Musically, I'm pretty eclectic, from Steely Dan to John Martyn to The Police to Simon & Garfunkel.

It'd be easier to list my favourite drummers: Mitch Mitchell, Stewart Copeland, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and Jeff Porcaro. I taught myself as a child to sound exactly like Stewart Copeland from The Police, although recently I've heard myself sounding more like Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

If you come to the show, judge for yourself and tell me afterwards, I'll buy you a beer and we can talk about snare drums.

Do you make up the drum solos on the spot, or are they rehearsed?

Nope they're completely made up. From what I read, very few drummers are able to plan what a solo will sound like because it is so determined by mood and feel.

All my solos used to start with a Buddy Rich/Steve Gadd military snare groove and end with a Keith Moon-esque cymbal shower, but with nothing certain planned for the 90 seconds in between. But my recent jams (can you jam on your own?) have been far more Mick Fleetwood/Phil Collins tom-toms and 'jungle' rhythms. But I can promise with certainty the solo every day will be exciting, polyrhythmic and a fun end to a funny show.