Kieran Hodgson interview

Written by: Matthew Stiff
Published: Friday 18th November 2016

Ahead of his upcoming run at London's Soho Theatre, we speak to Kieran Hodgson about his show Maestro, which was nominated for the 2016 Edinburgh Comedy Award. As well as this, we discuss how he wrestles with writing his material, his reprisal of Jonathan in Nick Mohammed's musical Mr Swallow - Houdini and his Radio 4 sitcom pilot, Sweats, which has just been recorded.

So, welcome... let's start by talking about Maestro, are you looking forward to the upcoming run?

Yes, tremendously, it's so much nicer to be doing the show than just thinking about it; at the moment I'm very restless.

Edinburgh was all hunky dory and then it's over. And no matter how well it's gone, the fact remains that it's over and that spotlight on you gets switched off and you almost feel like nothing's happened. You're back in your flat and it's as if you've achieved nothing. And then the thoughts begin, and no-one likes thoughts...

Having performed the show at the Soho Theatre a couple of times in late September, how are you finding the transfer from the smaller room in Edinburgh to the Soho Downstairs, which is almost double the size. Have you had to change anything?

No not particularly. You have to adapt to the sight lines of the space but, in general, the room I'm in at the Soho Downstairs is very conducive to my style of comedy. There's a wonderful intimacy to it, even though it's got a substantial capacity I think everyone feels very connected to the performer. The atmosphere in that room is superb; throughout the run of Lance I was overjoyed by the audiences and hopefully that'll continue.

The show, Maestro, is really fantastic, you must be very proud of it.

Yeah. I think so, I'd say so.

It's very personal, is that fair? It certainly felt that way, whether it was a concerted effort on your part or not. It felt incredibly honest and truthful.

It certainly is, and even where it's not... it is. If that makes sense? It all comes from an honest place even if things have to be monkeyed around with for the sake of an easy story.

Do you write it as the honest narrative and then think 'right, how do I make this into a comedy show'?

Pretty much. I plan the narrative and then, when it comes to making an actual show, I start from the beginning and think 'right, what's this character going to say now that's funny', and then how to make the next sentence funny and the next sentence... but in the back of your mind you're thinking 'I need the character to achieve certain objectives that I've set myself for the story of the show'.

That can simultaneously focus your attention much better, it stops you having characters that just blither on for half a page pointlessly, but at the same time it can shut down possibilities. You find yourself being quite prescriptive: 'no... this character can't say that because it then goes on to contradict something they do later'.

Do you think some of that comes from being such a meticulous script writer, with so many developing characters, each with an identity, you can muddle yourself in knots?

Yeah you really can. There was one bit in particular that I did five or six times, rewriting, and it was because it was this five minute section that needed to achieve lots of things but I could never find a way of making it funny as well. And it was maddening to keep going back to it and back to it; there's a real problem solving approach to it at times.

You've quite a balance of all three at the moment, but which would you say you enjoy best: writing, acting or performing?

Given how the last three shows have gone, I'd say obviously doing those shows is the best thing. Going out and doing an hour that is your creation and it follows your rules and your timing is tremendous because if it goes well then it all flows into you, all that good will; which is very, very nice.

But it does tend to take over your life and it can kind of define you in terms of your mood, and the way you look at yourself can become very linked to the show that you're working on and how well you think it might go or might not go. Whereas with a bit of acting work, even though you're not getting as much glory, there's maybe a healthier relationship that you can have with it where you go in and do the work and enjoy the work and then say right that's done and you can distance yourself from it.

As well as Maestro, Mr Swallow - Houdini is on at the Soho Theatre soon. How much fun is that to perform? As much as it is to watch...

Oh, it's a dream, just as much fun. And the bits where Nick [Mohammed] is just trying to make you laugh are wonderful. Frustrating, but wonderful. He's the captain of the ship. And because Mr Swallow is such a fantastic character he's free to do whatever he likes. And all the co-stars can do is try and play it even straighter. We've got no room to try and be silly in return. We just have to stand there and take it. I'm so bad at keeping a straight face.

The thing is, towards the end of three weeks in Edinburgh he was getting mega silly so towards the end of six weeks in the Soho Theatre I can't imagine the stuff he'll be larking around with.

These two shows, Houdini and Maestro, are both very warm. They've obviously been well honed and meticulously practiced yet you are still part of it as the audience. Maybe that's to do with the messing around on stage as you mention. You feel like you're in it together, even though you've spent months and months crafting it.

It's nice that, and funny, too, because with Kieran And The Joes [his former sketch group], a big part of our shtick was heavy audience interaction. And it was something the Joes could do very well but I found very scary. So it's quite nice now that I've kind of got the best of both worlds where I've got this intimate connection with the audience where everyone feels involved but I never talk to the audience at all; I never say 'Hello Madam', I never get anyone on stage to do anything.

In general I'm not a very spontaneous person, I have a very slow brain, so I find it much more comforting for me, and the audience, to just put the train on the rails and off we go.

What drives you to write and perform comedy in this way?

Well, the fact that by now it's far too late to do anything else. I suppose, to employ a tired expression to describe it, it is a sort of addiction, I suppose, in that as long as I can remember I've been able to pull a face and do a silly voice and get a laugh from people. And I've just done that more and more and it's become a career and I just can't imagine not doing it.

It's almost like it's so deeply ingrained in me that to do anything else would seem foolish. I mean, that doesn't stop me almost daily thinking I should give it up.

How do you force yourself to keep going, then?

Well the thing is, I love structure. You hear a lot of writers who say they never fitted in at school, you know, 'I hated the rules and the regulations'. No... I loved them. I couldn't get enough. I wanted more rules and more heavy timetabling from the authority figures of my time.

There's that episode of The Simpsons where they're in the spaceship and the ants get let out and they go 'freedom... horrible, horrible freedom'. That really sums up my working day I think. Because there are things to do. There are things to be getting on with. But there are just no immediate consequences if you don't get on with them. And so you've got all the worry of goals and deadlines but without any concrete sense of how to set about how to achieve them.

As well as the live shows, you've also got a Radio 4 pilot in development.

Yes, Sweats!

Sweats was originally devised by a friend of mine and me a couple of years ago before I'd had my breakthrough doing my solo, personal things. So strangely it's completely unrelated to anything that anyone will have seen me do for the last three years. So, if you love French Exchange, and Lance, and Maestro... then who knows if you'll love this.

Can you tell us a bit more about it?

It's just a very silly lighthearted sitcom, really, about a fairly useless brother and sister who run a gym in Worthing.

You always want to take the thing that's powerful and look at it as if it was rubbish. And gyms are this huge business, this huge presence in our lives, especially if you're on the tube every day and things like that. Big money and a very powerful influence on people's psyches and how they feel they're meant to look. Everyone has to do a 10k now.

We thought it would be a lot of fun to see the antithesis of that which is a gym that's in a converted British Heart Foundation shop that has the worst facilities in the world. But where one of the managers is desperate to turn it into Fitness First or Virgin Active, or whatever, but doesn't have a lot to work with.

I play the foolish boy character, which is one which I'm well used to playing. The manager is the brother and he's terribly lazy and happy with things the way they are. And his sister, Lucy, is the one who's desperate to turn it into this sleek corporate entity.

So that must've been nice, to stumble across something from years ago that's effectively a new piece of work for you...

Yeah. I have to say I have enjoyed working on it again. You know, there's an old writer's saying which is 'I don't enjoy writing but I enjoy having written' which is probably true.

Nothing better than re-reading a scene you've written and having a couple of chuckles at a line. It's very satisfying. But whether the audience will laugh at that, I don't know.

That's all you can do I suppose, as a writer, write something that you think is funny and hopefully the audience responds, too.

Well exactly, you have to start there. That is all you can do. Does it make you laugh?, well that's step one; does it make two of your mates laugh?, that's step two; now does it make an audience laugh?... that's step three. That's the tricky one.

'Kieran Hodgson: Maestro' will be at the Soho Theatre on 22-25 November and 29-3rd December and touring nationwide from February 23rd. See kieranhodgson.com for dates. 'Mr Swallow - Houdini' runs at the Soho Theatre in January and February 2017. Dates & Tickets