Extraordinary

Luke Rollason interview

As Disney+'s new British comedy, Extraordinary, launches this week, we talk to co-star Luke Rollason - a BCG Pro Talent Awards: Performance finalist - about the show and his intriguingly named character, 'Jizzlord'.

Tell us about Extraordinary - it has quite the premise?

It's a show about a world where everyone has a superpower - except our lead character, Jen. I love that tagline. I've auditioned for a lot of strange things in the last couple of years (man with talking penis, Elizabethan donkey clown, man who thinks he is 7 foot tall and walks everywhere on stilts) but that tagline immediately knocked me over with its simplicity and potential. The invention of the writer, Emma Moran, is inexhaustible.

Your character is - without giving too much away - quite unique, requiring a particular level of physicality.

Because I have a background in "clown", there was this rumour that spread around set that I was a trained circus performer. This could not be further from the truth. I did go to clown school, but it involves absolutely zero physical skill training. But every time I had to do anything remotely physically challenging, the stunt coordinator would always preface instructions with "now, I know you're used to backflipping off trapezes, but -".

No matter what I said, I could not dispel the idea that I am capable of backflips. I am also terrified of heights.

But weirdly, even though I don't consider myself to have an "acting" background, the stupid stuff I've been doing for the last five years ended up being unnervingly relevant. This is probably the only role absolutely ideal for someone who performed a one-man nature documentary for three years and then toured a physical theatre show dressed as a dancing sperm. So, if you want to get cast in a Disney+ show, that's all you have to do.

Jizzlord also goes on a bit of an emotional journey?

It's a strange role to play because when we meet Jizzlord, he doesn't know anything about his past or who he is. He's a blank slate. On one hand, that throws all the preparation we often associate with acting straight out the window. I found that a bit of a relief - I knew as much about the character as he knew about himself. So much of "clowning" is about responding live to a situation, and the thrill of taking whatever is thrown at you when you're performing. For my performing background, then, it was a dream role to play - where the emotional journey can never come from the "preparation" you've done as an actor, but solely from the situations you find yourself in. It's my first major role in a show, so in many ways I was just as clueless as the character is. That was helpful.

Do you think his journey mirrors that of Jen, perhaps in reverse?

They have a lot in common. Something I love about Extraordinary is how all the supernatural "power" stuff isn't about wish fulfilment. In superhero movies, for the first ten minutes the protagonist's life is a struggle, then they're transformed into someone who can handle anything. Obviously, life isn't anything like that. In Extraordinary, superpowers become this beautiful and absurd lens to explore the disappointment of believing that one day you're going to become someone special, someone different, and you'll finally understand who you are. So Jen's commitment-phobe booty call, for example, can literally fly off into the night. For both Jen and Jizzlord, their relationship to the world of superpowers is what makes them feel like an outsider.

This is your first major TV acting role. How did you find the filming process?

I've never enjoyed being paid to do something more. Often in comedy, the stuff that pays is the stuff you endure in order to perform your beloved show for free. I feel so spoilt. The best thing about making the show was the cast - especially the other leads, Mairead Tyers, Bilal Hasna and Sofia Oxenham. For all of us it was our first big job, so you're going on this huge adventure together. Being on set for a show like Extraordinary is absolutely absurd - one moment you're taking a dog to a strip club, the next you're dodging flying trout because a character has the power to summon sea creatures (but not the power to control them). I refuse to give any context.

Were there particular concessions made during filming, ahead of VFX being added in post?

I think the thing I loved most about filming this show was how much was achieved with practical effects rather than VFX. Visual comedy has always been very much my thing, and I'm so used to making my own terrible homemade props. So, to find myself on a set where someone has spent an hour sticking hundreds of tiny metal objects onto a character who has the power of involuntary magnetism is SUCH a delight.

For reasons to do with my character's power, there are a few scenes where I am wearing nothing but something I christened a dignity diaper. (Although I've now Googled that, and it turns out those exist already and it's a medical thing. I'm now trying to scour my brains to think if I've called it a dignity diaper in any other interviews. Oh God.)

Anyway, it's like a little beige pouch you stick on to keep you feeling safe when filming nude scenes. Except I am quite hairy and struggled to work out how to stick it on. There are some scenes where I am holding this thing on by the will of my buttcrack alone. I'm now very good to presenting side bum to camera.

You've been starring in online sketches and performing live shows for a while. Was the plan always to become a TV actor too, or has that happened accidentally? How did you get cast in Extraordinary?

I was drawn to performing comedy because it felt the easiest medium for find an audience for stupid things I wanted to make. I would have just as happily been a filmmaker, or a director, or an artist (except I'd be bad at all these things) - but only in live comedy can you think "what if I had a lamp on my head in the dark and went nang nang nang" and then that evening 30 people in a basement have to watch you do that. I am obsessed by the immediacy of that. I always wanted to be a performer, but when I first moved to London trying to be an actor felt a lot less creatively fulfilling than the nang nang nang stuff. And weirdly, that stuff was a lot more successful in terms of professional development too. It brought my work to the kind of venues that attracted "industry" attention, and it's how I got an agent. I feel very lucky to have not been fired by my agents before I was cast in this show. I think the nang nang nang thing was beginning to look pretty commercially unviable.

There's things I've always loved about making things for screen - especially when it comes to creating visual worlds which you could never portray on stage. For me, whatever the medium is, it just comes down to getting an idea out of your head and out into the world.

In terms of the live circuit, how do you describe your style of performance? Clowning? It's not stand-up, you're in a bit of a niche.

I tend to avoid calling myself a clown - which is a wild claim when my Instagram handle is lukerollasonisaclown. But it does make me cringe when MCs announce "next up, we have some clowning!" Mostly because that mirrors how the rest of the audience reacts when they hear that.

Privately, I absolutely think of myself as a clown, but for branding purposes I tend to refer to myself as a physical comedian or a trained bushbaby. My main aim is to be the most memorable act someone sees at a gig. Not the best, not the funniest or the most accomplished, but the most memorable. Even when it's a total trainwreck, I know there's no way any audience member is going home and isn't going to mention the guy who performed a silent parody of Ghost as a mime orgy. I had an entire row walk out during that bit in Buxton, that's how bloody keen they were to go home and tell their spouses about it.

You were brilliant in our BCG Pro Talent Awards final a couple of years ago, and we really loved your Edinburgh 2022 show, Bowerbird. It's been great to watch you hone your act. Would you say last year was your best yet in terms of live performances?

I don't know. Because of filming, I definitely performed live less than I would have liked. 2021 was actually a very good year for me for performing, even if it was a bit of a disaster personally. Maybe because it was a bit of a disaster. I'd had a big wobble, and was feeling ready to give up performing for various reasons. But the WIP shows I did that year pulled me out of a hole and helped me fall in love with it all over again. I've never needed to do a show that badly before. There was some absolute bullshit I did in those shows, but there's nothing like a breakdown to make your friends receive your work with generosity.

What are your plans for 2023? Will you be back at the Fringe?

Too early to say. We all had such a luxurious run-up (timewise) to the 2022 Fringe. I'm not sure if I want to go back to trying to desperately throw a show together in time for August. Making live shows has always been my favourite way of creating, and I love getting to do it, and all I want really is the freedom to make the dumb ideas I want to make even if they make no sense from a career perspective. I am obsessed with an old idea that reimagines Bill Gates's rise as a burlesque strip show called 'Magic Mikerosoft Excel'. There's no way that'll be ready by August 2023.

And presumably you'd be up for returning as Jizzlord in a further series of Extraordinary?

I can't think of anything better. It's been the best job I've ever had in my life, including "Elizabethan Donkey Clown".