Nathan Caton interview

We talk to Nathan Caton ahead of the London run of his stand-up show...

Hi Nathan. How has 2015 been for you so far?

Busy! I've been gigging non-stop and doing a few writing projects too. But I'd rather be busy because, if I weren't, I'd just be sat at home playing FIFA and not being productive.

You must be very happy with the title of your current show - 'Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton'. How long did it take you to land on that?

I'm not usually into puns/corny titles when it comes to show names, but I happen to be a MASSIVE fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so I'm happy. I came up with the title in 2013, a whole year before the show debuted. It was a choice between 'Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton' and 'Your Mum!' The latter sounded too aggressive, which isn't my character at all. I'm soft as! And as I said, I'm a huge fan of the heroes in a half shell so the choice was obvious.

Your family feature a lot in the show. What do they think about that?

My family are actually pretty cool with me making jokes about them, but having said that they haven't seen all of the jokes I've done, so maybe that's why they're cool.

My little brother has been on the receiving end of a few of my routines and has got a bit of notoriety from it. The only thing he can't stand is being called "Nathan Caton's little brother." It drives him nuts... "I've got a name too!"

My Grandma is also mentioned a lot in my jokes. She's fine. She's now resigned to the fact that I make jokes about her and I tell her how many people in comedy clubs come up to me and say that they'd like to meet her, to which her response is "Bring dem come! Mi can cook for dem. But mi will charge! If you making jokes about me, mi need to make some money off of you!"

Ha ha. You've been gigging for a fair few years now. Have you noticed any change in the comedy circuit since you started out?

Comedy has got bigger and bigger since I started. Everyone wants to be a comedian now. There's so many acts now and not enough comedy clubs and slots to cater for everyone. As an act, it makes you work harder so you don't get forgotten and left behind.

You've appeared a fair bit on Radio 4 - in shows like The News Quiz and The Now Show plus, of course, your own series Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing. Have these shows changed or boosted the audience coming to see you live?

Being on Radio 4 has definitely helped me in terms of my audience. It's funny, because when I started out I never thought I'd be someone Radio 4 would go for. In fact, I had barely heard of comedy on Radio 4. I remember when I first did some writing for The News Quiz the producer came up to me and said "These jokes are very funny Nathan, but Sandi Toksvig doesn't say 'yo'."

But I'm grateful to have appeared so much on Radio 4 in recent years. It's definitely increased my demographic. I recall when I was recording my stand-up for the first series of Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing, as I was onstage I looked to see who was in the front row and there was a few students sat next to a married couple in their 70s. It was lovely to see. It's how comedy should be. Things like age, race, sexuality etc should be irrelevant. Comedy is universal. We all laugh.

Nice answer. TV viewers might recognise you from your appearances on Mock The Week. How was that to film the first time?

Incredibly scary! It was the first big TV thing I had done. That's no disrespect to any of the TV stuff I had done before, but this felt like a bigger deal. Mock The Week is one of the main shows for a comedian and a show I had been watching for years prior to being on it.

Doing Mock The Week for the first time, I felt the same way I felt when I first started doing stand-up on the circuit; wondering if my jokes were good enough, going through them over and over again. Fortunately the cast were really lovely and welcoming. I was on the same team as Micky Flanagan and Andy Parsons, both of whom I had gigged with before being on the show so they helped me. Micky gave me some tips and encouraging words before we started filming so I'll be forever appreciative to him for that. The filming ended up going really well. I said my first joke and got a big laugh and the weight that it lifted off my shoulders was unreal.

You've appeared on Mock The Week a few more times since then, and also other shows like Live At The Apollo (pictured)... does it get less nervy each time?

Hell no! I still get nervous. I remember standing backstage at the recording of Live At The Apollo thinking "Will my jokes work? Should I quickly change my set in case?" The nerves don't go for me. But then I was told "if you don't get nervous, then you're not doing it right."

You mentioned FIFA earlier. We know you're a big football fan. If you had to make a team out of comedians, who would select?

Terry Alderton in goal, being the ex-Southend man. Maff Brown the former Brentford player (I'm also a Brentford fan so that helps). Tom Rosenthal would be in my squad too. I played with him in the comics vs critics game a few years ago and he's a player. I'm not too sure who else would be in the squad, but I know one thing for sure... I want Ava Vidal as coach cos no one is arguing with her!

You're bringing your show to The Museum of Comedy... are you looking forward to performing there?

Yea I am. I've done a few new material nights there and I really like the venue. It's very conducive to comedy. Hopefully it'll work that way for my shows.

What's your plans for after this London run? Will you be working on a new live show?

Yep. I'm working on my new show for this summer's Edinburgh festival. I may chuck in some new bits for it in my show at The Museum of Comedy. As well as working on the new show, there's a few projects I'm getting stuck into and, as always, I'll be performing in the clubs up and down the UK.

Teenage Mutant Nathan Caton is at the Museum Of Comedy in London on 26th, 27th and 28th March 2015. To find out more about Nathan, book tickets, and see where else he is gigging visit www.nathancaton.com