Circuit Training 105: Nuff Props for Spencer Jones

One of the most memorable sights on British comedy stages over the last couple of years - festivals or theatres, indoors and outdoors - has been Spencer Jones' prop-happy alter-ego, The Herbert.

Honestly, it's almost as much fun watching unsuspecting festival-goers' reactions to his hilariously freakish prop-based mayhem as it is watching the stage. Almost. It's actually not advisable to take your eyes off Jones for long, as you might well miss something that everyone else will be yapping about all the way home, which is always annoying.

Jones begins an eleven-show run at the Soho Theatre on May 1st as The Herbert in Eggy Bagel, the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe sell-out (in the good sense), and follow up to Proper Job, which secured two Comedians Choice awards the year before. This one is officially "a story about wheelbarrows, dads, evil water and eating too much chocolate," but you can't really explain a Herbert hour with regular words. You'd be better off with a series of bewildered hand gestures and facial expressions.

Now, a good few people have probably come away from one of Spencer Jones' shows and wondered what sort of man lies beneath the distinctive basin cut. Actually, he's a fine actor and writer, and it recently emerged that he'll star in an upcoming BBC sitcom pilot, Mister Winner. Jones also co-wrote/starred in the BAFTA-nominated CBBC show Big Babies, won a Broadcast Digital Award for his Sky short Spencer Jones's Christmas, and has a regular role as the Ricky Gervais-like actor William Kempe in Ben Elton's Shakespeare sitcom Upstart Crow.

The Herbert, though, is nobody-like. So let's find out how on earth that came about.

What sort of comedy did you first get into?

The earliest stuff I remember laughing at was Russ Abbot. I was really young and I didn't get the jokes but I just remember sitting there laughing when everyone else did. Then a little older, Nan and Grandad used to listen to a Two Ronnies tape in the car. It had loads of singing and I knew all the words. Around that time I was in the church choir and doing village musicals, Annie Get Your Gun, Fiddler On The Roof, that sort of thing. I couldn't stop watching Oliver the Musical.

Then Mum married my Step Dad and he had a Billy Connolly tape with loads of swearing on. It was brilliant. Then he played me Derek & Clive. Mum found out, kicked off, then hid it in a drawer. She said I was too young. But I used to sneak it out when they went to Asda.

So you got the comedy-character bug?

I was always in plays at school and drama and music were the only lessons I had any interest in, that and re-enacting Harry Enfield stuff we'd seen on the telly the night before to our C.D.T. teacher. I watched Vic & Bob all the time in my mid-teens. They did a pilot called The Weekenders. I watched that fifty times easily round my mate Steve Carter's house.

When did you first start gigging, and what sort of stuff were you doing then?

I did three gigs with my mate Shane. We were called Marks and Spencer. We were 16. It was sketch stuff taking the piss out of adverts on telly at the time. Surreal stuff. We had a picture of Des Lynam on stage that we kissed when we came on. I don't know why. The first two gigs went well. But the third one we got booed off stage by 40 of my mates and I didn't gig again until I was 24! Then I tried my hand at stand-up - I was average, very average - then some sketch stuff, then characters.

How did The Herbert come about - was he a fully-formed idea or did he evolve gradually?

I did a workshop with Doctor Brown aka Phil Burgers, for a week. I can't sum up in a paragraph what happened that week but I will say it did change how I approach getting a laugh. Herbert was not fully formed, the first gigs were weird, but I knew it was how I wanted to work. I wanted to call him The Dickhead at the start. I used to go on stage with an empty pint glass and shout into it.

How would you describe The Herbert to, for example, a distant relative? And how did your own family and friends react the first time they saw him?

It's just me turned up to 11, trying to make you have a nice time. I switch [off] all the negative stuff and just crack on. My family like it, even my brother, who I took the piss out of. And my Missus sees everything before I try it on stage. I run into the living room to show her the start of an idea like a large toddler who's found a worm wearing roller skates.

Is it ever an effort getting into that character, if you're having a bad day?

No effort at all. People have paid their hard-earned money and chosen me over loads of other brilliant stuff. I'm on stage for an hour. I want them to have the best time possible. I get paid to be a dickhead. I'm not complaining about that ever.

Has it ever gone horribly wrong? Prop malfunctions? Ever really freaked an audience out?

It goes wrong every night! Without fail. Sometimes I manage to cover it up and other times its funnier than the stuff I have planned. It's all good. We shouldn't worry so much about making mistakes. Its drilled into us. I've had all mine drilled out.

Upstart Crow looks fun: can you give us some backstage gossip? Completely made-up gossip is absolutely fine...

Gemma Whelan always puts her feet on the seats, shameful. Liza Tarbuck replaced my key ring with topless photos of Daniel Craig. Steve Speirs is hilarious when he's got the hump. Rob Rouse does a really good Michael Caine impression. Dom Coleman lives near me and rides a horse around the local area dressed like as an onion.

What's next after this Soho run? And longer term?

Short term I'm working on a new live show for Edinburgh. I have two script commissions for telly I really wanna start work on. And I hope I get the chance to act more. I've not done a film yet. That would be nice. Mum would like that.