Simon Munnery interview

Without a hint of offence intended to Simon, it would be very difficult to picture those wispy locks and crooked grin being applied anywhere else but live entertainment.

"Erm, I guess I could do something else, we'll see what happens I suppose. I wouldn't mind doing something else, but I have always enjoyed doing it, and then I carried on doing it, and then you start earning a living doing it, and then you're stuck like that. I do enjoy doing other things, like woodwork, but I guess if it became a living it wouldn't be much fun."

Over the last 25 years, Simon Munnery has been touring his own surreal and satirical offerings to live-entertainment followers, through various, and completely opposing characters, routines and streams. The purchase of a ticket to see Munnery is like buying a Kellogg's Variety Pack, and playing a game where you close your eyes, pick a box at random, and pour the contents into a bowl. At this point your cereal has already been decided, and can not be returned, so you can open your eyes to pour the milk.

"You still get nervous before a gig, I think that's all part of it. There's a lot of pre-joke nerves before you go on, and it's kind of like a drug, but I don't know what it is. Nerves, excitement, I know it's something, some sort of dread."

"Maybe you do get more license as you get more reputable, or perhaps you have always got that license, but you just didn't realise. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I only do what I like, but I guess the people who have seen me before become a little more accustomed to what I do, but then again, there are a lot of people who haven't seen me before. Maybe they have been dragged there by someone else, I'm not too sure."

You could say (and many do) that Simon Munnery is one of the funniest comedians never to become a house-hold name. Although Munnery has been a staple figure on the comedy circuit for over two decades, the mention of his name away from the comedy clubs is rarely an occurrence, as his toe-dippings into the mainstream have been few and far between.

"I guess would consider changing my act for TV if it came up, but I don't think I would be happy about it. You know, I do my act which I am happy with, but if something came up during a gig, I would always adapt it to that particular audience. But I wouldn't tone my gig down before hand, I wouldn't say to myself 'I better tone it down, I'm in Bradford'."

The current trend is for stand-up comics to be plucked from the circuit by TV Executives and put at the front of entertainment-based programmes. Munnery has always been one to go his own way, creating surreal characters, writing abstract routines and generally conducting whatever he sees fit for a live audience - which, although seems a formality, is becoming less frequent on the circuit.

"As long as you're happy in your skin, doing what you do, then that's all that matters really. I guess the main goal in comedy is to come up with a good joke. That's success, isn't it? Creating something that you like and other people like. Commercial viability is obviously important, you know, if you're doing something full time you need to earn a living doing it."

"I don't actually think that critical acclaim is as important as being happy doing what you do, and the audience like it. It's not necessarily about what the critics think."

Munnery holds a similar satirical gaze and turn-of-phrase as fellow stand-up Stewart Lee, so it comes as no surprise that they have been more than acquainted.

"I think it's inevitable that if you spend time together, things rub off. But I guess that there is a strange feeling that because Stewart is more successful, they wouldn't see us as sharing the same comic language, but they would presume that I was the one who was copying him. It isn't necessarily that simple."

Simon is currently touring the UK with his new show Self-Employed, which collects 24 years of life experiences and anecdotes. "It's an hour of honed material, about life, death, children and work. It's formed like sedimentary rock; under intense pressure for a very long time."

For all things of a Simon Munnery taste, including tour dates, see www.simonmunnery.com