Edward Aczel interview

Five years into his comedy career, critically acclaimed stand-up Edward Aczel is still working full-time as a marketing manager in a normal, conventional office. Madness! We gave him a call to find out what's going on...

Hi Edward. Thanks for giving up your lunch break to talk to British Comedy Guide. You're still doing a full-time 9-5 job. What's that all about?

Ha ha... sanity I think. I've come to the conclusion that it's about sanity. The comedy circuit is quite a crazy world and I think I'm quite a conventional character really, and I kind of prefer my rather drab existence in suburbia. I would like to go full time one day I think... but my big issue is around risk.

I'm not the biggest risk taker in the world. I may take risks on stage sometimes, but there are different types of risks. I've always liked the stability of the job and like the fact that when you're at work you're not expected to change the world in any way, there's a certain security in that. Meanwhile the comedy world is largely insane.

Could you not take a deep breath and make that jump? We're sure you could go full time...

I suppose I probably could, although I've bought a house this year and comedians don't tend to get mortgages... so having a steady job helps. I'm one of those people who tends to live life without too far a distance in front of them.

I hope at some at some stage - hopefully comparatively soon - I'll be a full time comedian, but for now my radar isn't working on that principle.

Fair enough. Is it hard to juggle your job and gigs?

Well, I'm going to take a few days annual leave to do the Soho Theatre dates I have coming up. One of the good things about comedy though is it's almost always in the evenings and at weekends. But, yeah, I tend to spend all my life working, if you know what I mean.

It can be a pain some days though. For example, waking up on a Thursday morning after a gig the night before and having to respond to work emails. But you get used to it.

We guess it must be nice to stand on stage knowing you're sort of getting paid twice for that hour - via your holiday pay, and the ticket sales?

Well, in theory, but it never seems to work out like that. Comedy is quite an expensive game, in the sense that Edinburgh always costs quite a lot of money annually and I always end up being slightly behind, if you know what I mean?

You said you tend not to plan too far ahead. So how did you first get involved in stand-up?

Yeah, there was no plan! It would be nice to say I have always wanted to be a comedian and I have always wanted to stand on a stage, but that's not the case. I saw something in a paper about a stand-up evening course and thought, 'why not?'. Suddenly I'd finished the course and tried out for the Jimmy Carr DVD. That went well, and then I did the BBC new talent competition, and that went well...

You did really well on Jimmy Carr's Comedy Idol... you made him cry with laughter!

I just approached it in a really mad way. I kind of wrote it down just five minutes before I went on. If you watch the clip, what you're actually seeing is me winging it rather than anything else. I was making it up on the spot.

Seriously? Winging it was bit brave and crazy wasn't it?

Yeah, it was crazy but I had the feeling that I had nothing to lose. I was just messing around more than anything else. I wasn't doing anything other than enjoy myself really. The 'what have I got to lose' attitude turned out to work extremely well.

You've since built on that early success. How much of your act is still winging it?

I got to a point - probably about two years in - where I realised by nerves couldn't take winging it any more. I was just ending up on a real knife edge all the time.

My shows are now more planned out, although I feel I've sort of lost the nerve now to stand up and see what pops out. When you see a lot of comedians they're very, very structured and you see the same set every time you see them. There's part of me that wants to break from that and just see what happens... but it is astonishingly nerve-wracking to do that.

So I'm much calmer before I go on now, but I do believe the energy produced from not knowing what to say can actually make people laugh - but it can also be quite hit and miss.

As part of your act, you have pulled in various business conventions and applied them to your show. For example, performing a SWOT analysis on the gig. Have you ever been tempted to reverse things and try comedy at work?

No. I initially thought performing was very much like sitting in a client meeting, or doing a business presentation; but the difficulty is that the aim at work isn't to make them laugh, the aim is to get out alive. In a funny way, you're also trying to get out alive at a comedy gig, but ultimately you're trying to do different things inbetween. You get told off for making people laugh at work!

Well, we're sure they'll be laughing at the Soho Theatre. Despite the mortgage and stuff, will you still be at Edinburgh this summer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be doing Edinburgh... that's the plan. Then take over the world with comedy...

Cool! Thanks again for your time Edward. We'll let you finish your sandwich and get back to work!

www.edward-aczel.co.uk