Totally Tom do Waiting For Godot - interview

Sketch group Totally Tom - aka Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton - are taking on Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting For Godot for a series of shows in London. They explain more in this interview...

Hi guys. You'll be familiar to many people for playing the backstage technicians in Live At The Electric. You're portrayed as idiots in that. Has anyone meeting you in real life assumed that's what you're really like?

Tom S: All the time. Not necessarily because of the show. I think most people haven't seen the show and think I'm an idiot. It's my fault really for always playing the goofy one.

Tom P: I sometimes get recognised for being the one who has to deal with the idiot.

You must have had fun making Live At The Electric? Any news on a Series 4?

Tom P: We've received absolutely no news on Series 4!

Tom S: Maybe it's already being made and we just don't know about it.

You're currently preparing for Waiting For Godot. Do the characters you play have anything in common with previous comedy roles you've had?

Tom S: I suppose I'm the mopier one.

Tom P: And I'm the more anal one.

Tom S: We sort of get annoyed with each other; these characters seem in a perpetual state of...

Tom P: ... Irritation.

Tom S: And we're trapped in our flat lot of the time.

Tom P: We live together in real life. It was a marriage of convenience really, thinking we'd get more work done, but now we're stuck together forever!

Any favourite lines from the play?

Tom P: I've got some least favourite lines. That's what's been so frustrating - you can't change any of the lines. We're used to doing our own sketch shows so if a bit doesn't work we can re-write it, but with this it's much tougher.

Tom S: But it's also nice to have the lines already written.

Tom P: Yeah, by someone much cleverer than us.

Tom S: With any luck people will think we wrote the show.

Tom P: They'll think Samuel Beckett is the title of our new sketch group.

Tom S: "The Samuel Becketts" performing live at the Fringe!

Talking of the Edinburgh Fringe, you've not performed at the festival for a couple of years now. Is it because you've been busy, or because you feel doing it is no longer an important factor in your comedy career plans?

Tom P: We definitely want to go up next year. It's just because we've been busy working on different projects.

Tom S: Didn't want to rush anything.

[Interruption]
Tom S: Oh! I've thought of a line I like from the show.
Tom P: What is it?
Tom S: "I like the silences". [Followed by a silence]
Tom P: Because you don't have to remember any lines? [Silence]
Tom S: Because silence speaks a thousand words. [Silence]
Tom P: Right.

Would you call yourselves comic actors?

Tom S: I think I would define myself as a serious actor but, because I'm so bad at that, it looks like I'm trying to be funny. And that's why I'm a comic actor.

Tom P: I don't think the play is that funny, certainly by the second half, so it's not like we're comic actors playing in some rom-com musical. It's actually pretty bleak.

Tom S: Well it's dark comedy.

Tom P: Yeah. It is always punctuated by comedy but the themes are pretty devastatingly sad. [Laughter]

As you touched upon earlier, this isn't a show you've written. How does it feel stepping back from the writing process?

Tom S: On the one hand it's really nice not to have to come up with the jokes, but on the other hand it is hard making a play which was written in the 60's feel contemporary. Particularly as they [the Beckett Estate] are very strict about keeping everything the same, so it's been interesting trying to make the lines feel like they're being said by young people.

Tom P: Or authentic.

Tom S: That's been the challenge. And not being able to use the ejector-seat of pulling a silly face and waving my hands in the air to mark the end of a sketch.

Tom P: Or a music cue.

Tom S: And having to genuinely try and act.

Tom P: But it's been fun.

Although you're working together in this, you also perform separately in various projects. What's coming up next?

Tom S: I filmed Siblings recently, which is a show about a brother and sister who get in to all kinds of crazy mix-ups. That's coming out mid-May and I play alongside Charlotte Ritchie who is amazing, and loads of other funny people... including Tom P, who is in an episode.

Tom P: I smuggled my way in.

Tom S: Any time we're not working on a project we try and write new material.

What do you think when the other one gets a job that you're not invited to do?

Tom P: I'd find it fine, if Tom didn't storm in to my room saying (big fist pump actions): "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Tom S: For the record I don't do that.

Tom P: We're generally pretty supportive of each other.

Who is the Diva out of you two?

Tom P & Tom S: Definitely Tom.

Your latest web video - Cool Words - is funny. Any plans to do more web-based stuff?

Tom P: Definitely.

Tom S: That's something we love doing. Coming up with silly ideas to make with no money and no pressure. Mr. Box is a really good YouTube channel that puts them out for us as well.

Tom P: There are a couple more sketches we want to film.

Tom S: They're probably one of the funniest things we do!

Soho Diaries is another good video you put up recently...

Tom P: That genuinely came from wandering around Soho listening to jazz.

Tom S: And generally behaving like a dick.

Do either of you have a TomTom navigation device?

Tom S: I passed my driving test but don't have a car. But Tom's usually the one who knows where we're going.

Tom P: I am the TomTom.

Tom S: It would have been a much more clever name for our sketch group.

And finally, do you think you'll always remain to be a double-act?

Tom S: Yes! Definitely.

Tom P: No. Not at all.

Totally Tom star in Samuel Beckett's classic play Waiting For Godot at the Arcola Theatre from 7th May - 14th June 2014. Book your tickets now