Jim Campbell

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Thursday 16th February 2017

If you're a fan of the hugely popular podcast The Football Ramble, you'll be aware of the co-presenter who satisfyingly quasi-rhymes with it: Jim Campbell. But Jim doesn't just talk about football; Jim talks about pretty much everything else when doing his solo stuff, which has garnered him 'nuff praise since he pricked Edinburgh ears with his debut hour Nine Year-Old Man in 2012.

On February 28th in the famous old market town of London he's co-hosting a benefit gig called Bethfest, for his former agent Beth O'Brien, who's had to close her fine company due to ill health, regrettably. So Jim, co-host Bec Hill, Jay Foreman, The Beta Males, Lazy Susan and several other acclaimed comics (read our recent interview with Megan Ford here) are raising funds to send her to the US for treatment.

"So many acts and people from within the comedy industry have offered their help and support and The Bill Murray - where it's taking place - have been great in letting us use their venue," says Campbell. "It's going to be brilliantly varied and probably very chaotic so you should buy loads of tickets."

It's a happening, alright. Now let's venture back to Jim's highs, lows and weirds.

First gig?

A mixed bill night at The Good Ship in Kilburn. The bill was mostly musicians, musicians who went on to do well too - Kate Nash was on and so was Scroobius Pip, ridiculously, as well as my Uni friend, the writer Laura Dockrill, who'd booked me the gig and was doing performance poetry. It was packed and there was a lot of talent on display. I'd never done anything even vaguely like it before so it was intimidating.

On top of this I had to follow a performance poet called Alim Kamara, who is brilliant, but did a very intense poem about the physicality of what happens to a child's body when they're accidentally shot in a drive-by shooting. By the end of it he was screaming and his closing words were: "I don't want any of you to clap, because if you clap you're missing the point. Thank you."

There was no MC so I then went straight on and died. Despite that I enjoyed the laughs I did get enough to know that I wanted to figure out how to do it properly, though maybe in slightly different circumstances.

Favourite show, ever?

A few years ago I did a show in Edinburgh that Beth produced and that Bec co-hosted with Phil Nicol, called Phil Nicol's Cray Cray Cabaret. The show was opened by a band who'd come over from Nashville and they'd soundtrack your jokes.

I wasn't doing a show that year so was basically on holiday, feeling none of the pressure and madness Edinburgh inevitably brings. Adam Hills had been on before me so the crowd were already in a great mood and they were a dream. What I learned is that I should always have a backing band.

Worst gig?

A corporate gig at Birmingham City Football Club. I followed a Q&A with their then manager Alex McLeish. The crowd were mostly made up of drunk local businessmen sat at round tables. There was no proper introduction, the mic didn't work and they hated me, and I mean hated me, apart from one kid, who was there with his dad and seemed to love every joke. He kept me sane, whoever he was, and I hope that all of his dreams have since come true.

The weirdest gig?

Like every comic I've done loads of weird gigs. I did one on roller skates, but the strangest was probably when McNeil & Pamphilon [from Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit - they're at Bethfest too] had me do a set while wearing a VR head set and having to hold a tray of drinks, which being a very clumsy man I of course dropped.

I suspect that they knew this would happen all along. Telling jokes to an audience you can't see while experiencing a virtual reality roller coaster isn't something I expect to do again.

Who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the comedy business?

I'll leave out this question as those people will probably work out who they are and hunt me down.

Is there one routine/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?

Loads, but you have to kill your darlings, as the saying goes. I can't bear to think of them as it's so painful. It's definitely that, and not that they turned out not to be funny all along so aren't worth sharing.

What's your best insider travel tip, for touring comics?

Fail your driving test so that someone else has to do the car bit. It looks knackering.

The most memorable review, heckle or post-gig reaction to your stuff?

During my first solo show in Edinburgh there was an older lady in the front row who kept talking throughout, not heckling as such, but just commenting on what I was saying as if she was watching TV in her living room.

Nothing got her to stay quiet, even when other audience members told her to shut up. She had her hand in a sling and it turned out that this was because she'd recently cut off the tip of her little finger and couldn't remember how. She left five minutes before the end, then came back again just as I was wrapping up. When I went outside, she'd bought me a burger to apologise. She was an odd one.

In that same show I had a bit about the abandoned shoes you see on the motorway and had left one outside the room as a call back. One day about half way through someone opened the door and threw it at my head. Never found out why.

How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?

Unfortunately for me, and the public, there is an industry-wide conspiracy against me, one that you are almost certainly a part of. That's literally the only plausible reason for me not constantly being on your TV.

I am confident that I'll be able to bring it down though, so watch yourself: I'm currently working on a new show and a few writing projects and it hasn't been able to stretch to my podcast, The Football Ramble. We released our first book last year and now have an army of listeners. An army. Think about that next time you try to suppress me.