Toby Whithouse

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Tuesday 28th March 2017

Toby Whithouse is a slightly different kettle of fish to our usual FGWG correspondents, chiefly because the former So You Think You're Funny? finalist isn't really doing stand-up these days. If you know the name anyway it's probably from the credits of, ooh, Doctor Who maybe, who he's a regular writer for. Or the BBC series Being Human, which he created.

Anyway, he's back on stage soon with a new one-man show called Executioner Number One. We'll let Toby explain the plot.

"After an overwhelming public vote brought back the death penalty 40 years ago, Ian has had one ambition: to be the country's most senior hangman. With the death of the current Executioner Number One, his goal is within reach. It's a mixture of theatre, stand-up and story-telling. Which, reading that back, sounds horrific. It isn't."

But how horrific were his old stand-up gigs? Let's find out.

First gig?

I did the Jill Edwards comedy workshop in Brighton (which I'd recommend to everyone). It culminated in a proper gig at the Komedia. I was on near the end, and was as nervous as I'd ever been in my life.

I was going to close with a bit about watching TV with your mum and dad and then a sex scene comes on. It was the pay off to a couple of gags I'd set up and had worked really well in our rehearsals.

And of course the compere did the exact same topic after the interval. I was sat with the other people on the course, and they looked at me with a mixture of pity and sympathy usually reserved for someone who's just heard about the death of a close relative.

Favourite gig, ever?

The semi-final of So You Think You're Funny? (SYTYF) in Edinburgh in 2007. I love Edinburgh so much, it's utterly magical. It was a great gig and I won the heat. I was on a high until the final, a week or so later. Which was, ironically, one of my worst ever gigs.

Worst gig?

So, yeah. I think I only really properly died twice. One was the final of SYTYF and the less said about that the better. The other was a gig I did in Brighton, run by Zoe Lyons. I was so miserable afterwards I immediately rang my mate, the comic Andre Vincent. He talked me down and we chatted for ages.

Then I wandered back into the venue. Zoe was on and storming, and I realised she'd been on for about half an hour, even though she was just MCing. It had taken her that long to get the audience to remember this was a comedy gig and not my cry for help.

The weirdest gig?

I think everyone's had the gig where the sound system doesn't work, and you realise that without a microphone you're just a strange man standing in the corner of a pub shouting.

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

All the comperes and the other comics were genuinely really great. Some audiences on the other hand...

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

I tended to drop any gags that didn't work, and usually I could see why. Though there was one I quite liked about how dangerous air shows were. There was always a crash, I'd say, someone always died. "But you can't ban them. Because then they'd just go underground."

Nothing. Everyone's face was like yours is now.

What made you move away from stand-up?

I didn't have time to write new material. I had a pretty solid 20, but it was becoming a bit dated. My stuff about The East India Company and my Harold MacMillan impression just weren't landing in the way they used to. Plus audiences in Brighton had heard it so often it was like a Robbie Williams gig. I could just do the set-up and hold the mic out to the audience for the punchline.

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

I did a gig and got a message afterwards that the agent of one of the other acts wanted me to call him. I was so excited. An agent was interested in me! This would move me up a level. I could get paid gigs, it would raise my profile, it was the beginning.

So I rang him... and it turned out he just wanted to tell me that Jack Dee had some material very similar to a bit of mine, so I should probably drop it. That's it.

How do you feel about where your varied careers are at, right now?

I've always got a few TV things in development and I'm really enjoying them. I write pretty regularly on Doctor Who and they're filming one of my episodes now. However busy I am, I'll always try to write an episode, I genuinely love it. But I'm so excited to be performing again. I mean, obviously I veer between excitement and a kind of horror that makes you genuinely contemplate faking your own death. But it's mainly excitement.