Terry Alderton interview

In 1999 Terry Alderton was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award and quickly shot to stardom. However, after a spell of success, he then faded from TV. However, a new version of Terry appears to be heading back toward TV...

Hi Terry. Would you say 2010 was the best year you've had for a while?

I tell you what, well done. I think 2010 was the official opening of a new chapter for me. In 2005 and 2006 I was starting that reinvention of myself, and I think I've been steadily getting to where I need to be. 2010 was a really good year, one where I could say 'this is it, this is what I'm doing'.

What I think I'm trying to say is that 2010 is the year in which any preconceptions of me have been changed.

You appeared on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. How was that for you?

Yeah, I was a bit nervous actually, which is not like me because I am quite steady normally. On top of the nerves I wasn't very well - I had just got back from doing The Comedy Store in India and, in true traditional cliche, I unfortunately got ill with Delhi Belly - which, without boring you, I am only just about getting over now. I've had the camera up the backside and everything!

But, anyway, yes I was nervous - and with the illness I can say I was shitting it, ha ha - so it was all a bit weird. I was feeling terribly ill and obviously this was a real comeback for me television wise, and I also knew my new style is - shall we say - not that conventional.

As you say, you have a new distinctive style of stand-up involving talking to yourself. Was it a conscious decision to be different?

My whole aim when I was younger was to be Mr Saturday Night, that's what I thought I wanted to be. I would go out and tear rooms apart, I honestly would do that - I'd smash the fuck out of them... but with really not very much in terms of material. At the time I could never understand that snobbery towards me, and I would think "funny is funny, isn't it?"... well, funny is funny, but for the long game I now realise it is different....

I was doing the Comedy Store in Manchester and these two girls were sitting at the front and laughing at me and not with me. One of them just went "look at his shoes" - I was wearing these shoes from this lottery show I did - and I thought, 'yeah, look at my shoes for fuck sake'...

I think I wasn't being honest with myself. I had worked my way up and got this TV recognition in 1999-2000, or something like that - I did a year on telly and that was it, it was all over. All that time I had taken to get there, and it was all finished within a year. So then I slid down into a horrible place, I was quite depressed and what have you, and didn't do anything for years. I thought, if I go back everyone will think 'look who is back' in a mocking way.

My wife encouraged me to come back. So I decided to reinvent myself with these voices. I used to say to my mum I wanted to do a double act with myself; she asked me what I meant, and I didn't quite know...

I walked on stage one night not really interested. I had had enough and turned my back to the audience and started talking to myself. It went down quite well and I was encouraged to try it again. So I went away with that idea and spent maybe a year just dying on stage, struggling through gigs and not going very well.

I went to Edinburgh with it in 2006, my wife was pregnant and I was under bad management, and I knew I had to do go up there and suffer it - and it was just awful, an awful time. But actually, by the end of the festival, I went 'I know how to do these voices now', and I just built and built it, and of course we've got to this point now...

That sounds like a long time to carry on doing something that, at least on first appearances, didn't appear to be working. You must have had strong faith in it to keep going at it until it did work...

Yeah, well I had to change, I had to reinvent myself. You know what this business is like... in 1999 I was on telly and the real flavour. The year before no one wanted to talk to me, but that year in 1999 everyone was up my backside. It was incredible. So once that has finished, you've either got to be a hack, or reinvent yourself. So I thought balls to it, I'm not going to lose this...

I probably could have been Mr Mainstream on TV now if I stuck with the original plan, but I would be hating myself. Admittedly I would have a lot of money now - and I could do with some money!

Comics get quite excited with what I'm doing now, which is a major thing for me. When you're peers respect you, that's fantastic. I tell you what was lovely: when I was in New Zealand another British comic came up to me and said: "you do realise that whether you like it or not you're in comedy history now." When I asked him to explain, he said: "Well, think about it, it doesn't matter if it's 10 years, 5 years or 20 years time... if anyone tries to do what you're doing comically people will be saying 'oh, there was a comic years ago that did that'". And that's true actually, inadvertently what I've done with the voices and what not is I've got a style of comedy that no one else can do a punchline and setup like without being called a copy.

Don't get me wrong, people are either into it or they're not into it... all I know is that I really am into it and so pleased that I have found this device.

Are you worried the 'inner voices' might spill out into everyday life, like when you're just shopping or something...

If truth be known they're always in my fucking head. Ha ha. I can't self diagnose, but perhaps I have some personality disorder. It can be quite wearing actually - it's obviously great for comedy, but in my real life it can be quite tiring. I can't take a day off - I can't get away from me or them or it! Don't get me wrong though, I'm not dangerous! Ha ha.

I think the voices concept would be great to use in the role of a TV game show host. "My next contestant is Margaret from Suffolk... [turning away, and adopting sinister voice]: SHE'S GOT AN ILLIGITMATE SISTER - ASK HER ABOUT IT"

The irony of the whole thing is this: I reinvent myself, like I said earlier, but now it's maybe too dangerous from TV, when it wouldn't have been ten years ago. Even BBC2 - which used to be a pioneering channel - are all just scared now. They don't want to take any risks... but maybe they don't need to take any risks, so that's my tough shit.

But there is YouTube, which I've used quite extensively for some of my character stuff...

Yeah. One of your characters is 'Danny Dire'. Has Danny Dyer seen the videos do you know?

The background to those videos is that I interviewed Danny on something and he tried to stitch me up on camera. I was working for Virgin Media at the time, so I asked the bosses if we could do some pisstake videos of him. We did, and they did reasonably well on hits.

Anyway, yeah, he knows. I did a film a couple of years ago that actually comes out next month - straight to DVD, of course - but, there was a guy working on that film that met Danny Dyer about the same time, and he told Danny that he was working with me on this film. Danny apparently said I was a cunt. I didn't expect anything more grammatical or linguistically elegant from him!

Are you sticking with the acting...

I'd like to do more acting, but I think I need to keep being creative in stand-up first and foremost, as those other bits will follow in time.

You're off on tour at the moment. Do you enjoy all the travelling?

I don't relish all that, but I want to build my audience up. I don't think there's any other thing I can do, or any other way I can do it. You look at the likes of McIntyre, who is a phenomenon now - but what he does is very accessible to the mainstream, and I think if you're trying to push something a bit different I think you've got to go out on the road and do it like Izzard did.

One thing I'd like to do is going to America, and also the Montreal Comedy Festival. That's the one festival that I can never get. All the other festival in the world I do, but for some reason that festival has never taken me. I think if I got a crack over there it would go down well because it's something fresh, not known. I think that's why I've had quite a lot of success in New Zealand and Australia recently; because no one knew me there, I could start fresh all over again with no expectations.

I hope my format of comedy can grow. It's not just me, it's about the audience as well, there's times when I've finished gigs and, as I walk off, I'm screaming to myself "we fucking did it, we did it" - it's a real joint effort between me and the audience. It takes me to get it going but once I start spinning the metaphorical plates, it's about all of us keeping it going together... and I think as more of the audience get that, it can go places that are really exciting. There's times I come off stage now and go, 'I didn't even know I knew stuff about that'. It's brilliant. Some nights I unlock quite a lot of stuff I didn't consciously know I knew. I should go back and do my GCSEs now!

I think they might spot you muttering to yourself Terry! Ha ha. Cheers for chatting to us, and best of luck with the rest of the tour...

[i]To find out more about Terry and see his tour dates visit www.terryalderton.com