Circuit Training 68: Gary Delaney is... The Gagfather

If you listen to as many comedy podcasts as we do here at BCG towers (well, we host enough of them), you'll hear Gary Delaney's name crop up pretty regularly. Stand-ups of every strata - from just-starting-outs to superstars - credit the Solihull-born comic with expert punchline assistance. He's something of a savant in that respect, writing, repairing and polishing gags for other acts both on a professional and casual basis, while also holding onto enough of them for his own stand-up work.

Generally low-key during his two decades in the business, Delaney has become a tad higher-profile over the last few months. He and Sarah Millican did try to keep their turn-of-the-year nuptials as publicity-free as possible, in fairness (and Circuit Training was politely steered away from any personal questions here), but definitely profile-raising is his first solo tour, which had just begun when I winged these questions over a couple of weeks back.

This email chat sees Delaney muse on his recent Musketeers masterpiece, the pun-crafting technique, TV writing rooms - including a surprising admission about one of the greatest sitcoms ever - and the comedy stylings of Money Saving Expert's Martin Lewis. Let's delay Delaney no longer...

How's the tour going?

Lovely so far. Really nice crowds, full of people who like one-liners, which always helps.

It being your first tour, how much of the material is classic stuff, and how much has been written for it?

It's essentially a 'best of', but it's constantly changing as new jokes push out older jokes.

Is it all gags, or do you need to mix things up along the way?

Definitely have to mix things up. I learnt that after about two previews. Picture jokes are the best way to break up wordy jokes so I have my trusty* laptop and data projector with me.

* Temperamental and unreliable.

What's your usual gag-writing process? Do you do a proper working day, or is it more relaxed and random?

The best gags pop into your head fully formed for free, but there's not enough of these so you need to spend some time at the coal face too.

Patented* ten step joke-writing routine:

1) Listen to what's being said around me, conversations, radio etc. Ignore what people are really saying to me. Instead spot phrases I can be a smart arse with.

2) Make a note of them on my phone.

3) Book in a new material night.

4) Late afternoon of that date, panic and turn my notes into actual jokes.

5) Half hour before gig, look at what I've written and get anxious it's not good enough. Hastily re-write, remove embarrassingly bad gags, add new ones.

6) On stage, edit and tweak as I go. Leave out the shit, try and improvise a better wording on the fly to bits that look weak.

7) Listen to the recording on your phone, rewrite according to what you actually said out loud. Grade the gags.

8) Keep the good bits, gradually introduce them into my set. See which survive the step up.

9) Give the OK bits a rewrite and a second go, abandon the shit.

10) Rinse and repeat.

*not patented.

Your recent Musketeers/football scores gag was magnificent. Does a pun like that come fully formed, or would it need a fair bit of fiddling before it's ready?

Something like that is largely fully formed. You hear the football score on the radio. '4-1'. Your trying-to-be-a-smart-arse brain thinks 'That's what the score would be if the musketeers played football.' Then you play around with the wording 'til it makes sense, is short, has the surprise at the end and has a pleasing rhythm.

I ended up tweeting it as "and now the results for the Musketeers football league. 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-4."

I guess the fiddly bit is realising that 'all for one and one for all' can be best expressed as '4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-4'.

I tried this joke live in my warm ups for my Edinburgh 2013 show but it didn't make the final cut.

Do your Twitter gags ever make it into your live sets (or someone else's), or are they finished-with as soon as they're online?

I used to try everything on Twitter, but that was when Twitter was new and I only had a few hundred followers. Anything any good gets stolen now, so that reduces incentives to post good stuff up. In fact even if I don't post my new jokes up somebody will usually see my stuff live and post it up for me. Now I mostly use Twitter for stuff that doesn't work live for one reason or another.

You've written for many of the big UK comedy shows - what's the nearest you've come to an environment like the Larry Sanders writing room?

I've never seen Larry Sanders so I can't comment on that. Most writing rooms are good fun (assuming there's no one being a dick, making you reluctant to take risks that might fall flat). No two writing jobs are alike. Sometimes you're all round a table, shouting out and topping each other, sometimes all together but essentially working separately, sometimes at separate desks, sometimes at home. Not sure which is best overall.

As a writer and stand-up, is it an odd feeling seeing someone else get a big laugh with your punchline? And can you remember the first time you saw it happen?

I like it. I still kinda feel that it's my laugh really, even though it's clearly not as I've sold it.

I first saw it before I'd ever been on stage myself. I used to write for my old college friend 'Money Saving' Martin Lewis when he dabbled in the mid '90s. That's kind of how I came to stand-up really. Add in a joke about nurses that he wasn't doing right, and a drunken bet, and here I am.

It's annoying to see someone get a big laugh with a joke of mine they've nicked but if they're a customer (or just a mate I gave it to) then it's 'Great, good for you!'

Have you ever had punblock: the puns drying up?

No. Writer's block just means you're too tired and need a couple of good nights' sleep.

Any new projects in the pipeline?

I'm recording a set for a stand-up series next week, hopefully Mock The Week will have me back in the Summer, and there's a couple of other possibilities I don't want to talk about in case they don't happen and I end up looking a liar!

For details of Gary's tour visit www.garydelaney.com He's on Twitter as @GaryDelaney