Paul Merton returns to stand-up
- Paul Merton is performing his first, full-length stand-up shows this millennium, with two work-in-progress gigs at London's Museum of Comedy
- "Many people have no idea I used to do stand-up and I'm one of them. I thought I would return to stand-up while I could still stand" he told British Comedy Guide
- Have I Got News For You also returns for its 65th series next week, with Merton and Ian Hislop joined by Charlie Brooker and Miles Jupp
Paul Merton is returning to stand-up for the first time in more than a quarter of a century.
The Have I Got News For You star is performing two hour-long, work-in-progress gigs at the Museum of Comedy in London on May 21st and 28th.
"I'm returning to stand-up now because I believe what the world needs at this moment in time is another stand-up comedian" Merton told British Comedy Guide.
"Many people have no idea I used to do stand-up and I'm one of them. I thought I would return to stand-up while I could still stand."
The comic still regularly performs live with improv troupe The Comedy Store Players and has appeared at every Edinburgh Fringe since 2008 with Paul Merton's Impro Chums, with a further 11 shows scheduled for the Pleasance Courtyard at this year's festival.
He made his stand-up debut at the Store in 1982 and hit upon his deadpan persona during his third gig, performing one of his most famous routines.
"I'd written a three-minute routine about a policeman under the influence of LSD. He was giving evidence in court, oblivious to the fact that anything he was saying was remotely funny" he once recalled for the Mail on Sunday.
"He's just describing this acid trip in the stereotypical policeman way: 'Thirty-five minutes later, I was sitting aboard an intergalactic spacecraft bound for the planet Zanussi, when I observed Constable Parish approaching me disguised as a fortnight's holiday in Benidorm.' I got a standing ovation and walked all the way home in a daze of pure elation."
Merton was last billed as performing stand-up in 2012 with his Out Of My Head tour, which touched on the mental health issues that led him to a six week stay in a psychiatric hospital. In reality however, the show featured stand-up alongside sketches, songs, old-fashioned variety homages and improv with his regular collaborators Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster, who is also his wife.
Meanwhile, Have I Got News For You returns for its 65th series on April 14th with team captains Merton and Ian Hislop joined by Charlie Brooker as host and Miles Jupp as one of the panellists.