Circuit Training 62: Patrick Monahan goes on and on

Everyone's favourite Geordie-raised Irish-Iranian stand-up, Patrick Monahan is on a one-man mission to make clear that not every comedian is an egotistical nutcase who needs to perform to stay sane. The famously talkative and unflinchingly tactile comic clearly revels in life on the road, even if he readily admits having no clue where he is from one day to the next.

Not that location matters, as Monahan's capacity for cajoling laughs from any crowd you stick him in front of him is legendary; indeed, his tendency to go off-script and find his audience all-too interesting has caused a few career hiccups along the way. Still, winning that reality show a few years back has done wonders for his profile, and he's currently gearing up for another big Edinburgh, after last year's hugely popular show.

Before that, he'll be playing at the lovely Larmer Tree Festival down near Salisbury (who sorted this chat for us), along with the likes of Dylan Moran and Rich Hall, Van Morrison and Seasick Steve. And perhaps doing a bit of crowd-surfing. But more of that later. First: that Monahan 'method.'

Am I right in thinking that you were a bit 'freeform jazz' early on?

When I started I literally just assumed that people turned up and talked, people like Dave Allen. It was probably a year or two after I started doing stand-up that people started saying to me 'that's a nice little routine, you could structure it like this, exaggerate the ending, and why not do a reveal, a juxtaposition?' And I'd never heard these words before.

I remember doing my first few gigs and literally doing a different set every time. Working with another lad who'd been going for a few years, he said 'why didn't you do that bit from last time?' and I said 'well, I've done that bit' and he said 'you can do the same act again!' and, I'm like, 'you're joking!'

You're an Edinburgh stalwart now, but I'd imagine it was difficult going from your rambling style to that structured hour?

It took me years to realise I didn't have a proper show. I was lucky to have an audience who liked what I did, but I'd struggle with the industry people. Some nights I'd do a routine and a bit of banter, but another night I might do something completely different.

The audience would love it and sometimes they'd come back three times within the month because it was always different, but the industry would hate it, because a TV producer would come in and watch the show and they'd speak to their boss, 'he's got a routine in the show I think would be perfect' then the chief exec would come and watch the show and I wouldn't do that routine. My agent was going 'look, just stick to the same routines!'

What's this year's show about?

It's called Cake Charmer and is basically hinged on this survey in the paper about what makes people happy. I love doing surveys: every time I see one I block out the results and try to guess what people have put. So I did this one and put cake top of the list, and other things that make me happy: hugs, CSI, and then in the show I reveal to the audience what actually is in the list. Like, what would you put? When are you happiest?

Er, probably just after finishing an interview! I'd imagine most people put something boring like friends and family though.

Yep, and the thing that makes people least happy is work, commuting, travelling. It helps me tie everything together. I'd written a lot of this material before I'd come up with the theme - I would have talked about cake and travelling the world anyway - but through this survey there's a structure for the show, then at the end I call it all back.

A lot of people will have seen you win Show Me The Funny, the big ITV talent show a few years back. Did you have any qualms about going on it? You were doing ok already.

The thing with that show, nobody had a clue what it was all about. They'd just say that it's a load of comics coming in to do workshops, we'd all have to work in groups then in the evenings do a show; tough gigs, a stag or the army. We didn't realise it was going to be like The X Factor and there'd be judges, they kept that secret. Then we realised that it's 24-hour filming and more of a reality show, not a stand-up show.

Some people got put off by that but to be honest I actually preferred it, because if I was doing my tried-and-tested material, that'd be worse: you do your crafted material for a load of drunk squaddies who don't want to listen, that'd ruin it. So I thought 'just go there and play with them' and that's where I got told off a bit because I was messing about with the audience too much - which is what the audience liked, but the judges hated it, 'we want to see you do material'.

It seems to be a theme for your career - 'be less spontaneous'...

I do understand though, they did make a point that actually sometimes I am a bit naughty and do too much banter, and some people might think 'it was good, but I wanted to hear more about him.' So I did learn to pull back a bit.

Did winning that show have the impact you hoped it would?

Yeah, but I tried not to think of that before I did it. Me and Stuart Goldsmith talked about this after the first or second week, Stu said 'look it's ITV1, we're both doing Edinburgh in August, this is gonna come out in July, literally a couple of weeks before, all you've got to do is a couple of weeks on the show, do what you do, even if you go out after a few weeks, by then there's a new audience you're getting stuff out to.'

Once I did Show Me The Funny, suddenly somewhere like Middlesbrough I'd literally doubled or trebled my audience. People love or hate TV but you've got to keep doing a few little things just to boost your audience, and once you've got it you've done it. And the thing with me, my shows are quite clean and not controversial.

What would your ideal TV show be then?

I would love to do something more of a gameshow, not the panel shows, I've never really watched them. I'd like to do more like The Generation Game.

You do have that natural patter...

Exactly, you want to meet real people. With a panel show, I know most of the people, then you see them trying to shoehorn in a routine and it's a shame as that routine doesn't look as good, on telly, sat behind a table. You're almost shooting yourself in the foot because this is your good stuff and you're not really giving it a chance.

Do you pitch TV ideas much?

At the moment I'm trying to write a book, a couple of sitcoms, some gameshow ideas. The book I'm doing is all about hugs. This year in Edinburgh I'm doing the 25-hour record where me and Bob Slayer are going to be hugging each other for 25 hours, from the end of my show on the 6th of August I hug everyone who comes out, Bob comes then me and him hug all the way through until the next day at 11pm, going round Edinburgh hugging each other at different shows.

Nice. Before that you're playing the Larmer Tree Festival with some big names: Rich Hall, Dylan Moran...

Dylan Moran, he's an icon isn't he. I remember when I was first doing stand-up, one of my mates was a promoter or something and got us free tickets; I was sat on the third tier of this place thinking 'how does anyone do stand-up in a place like this, a big old theatre in London?' and I was just blown away, watching this guy with his glass of wine. He was so good we went and bought a ticket to go and see it again. Then I worked with him at a festival in Inverness, and what a lovely guy.

It's quite a unique fest, this one, live peacocks roaming the site. Any other memorable festival experiences in recent years?

I did one last year just before Edinburgh. I went on last, did 45 minutes messing about and then finished off by crowd-surfing, me and this little kid at the front who was there with his mum but didn't want to sit with her because he was trying to be cool. So me and him crowd-surfed over to his mum, we had a race to see who could get there first. You can only really do that at a festival.

It does seem the perfect environment for you.

Exactly: you do so many theatre gigs where it's nice and safe, but crowd-surfing, you couldn't plan that.

Patrick plays the Larmer Tree Festival at the rather gorgeous Larmer Tree Gardens, 17th-21st July, visit www.larmertreefestival.co.uk for details. Then his show Cake Charmer will be at the Edinburgh Fringe from 31st July to 25th August, apart from the 7th, when he'll be hugging Bob Slayer all day.