Barry Cryer interview
We talk to comedy legend Barry Cryer about his role as team captain on the GOLD comedy show Jo Brand's Great Wall Of Comedy...
Hi Barry. How would you describe Jo Brand's Wall Of Comedy?
It's a so-called quiz. But it's really a pre-text for a lot of banter, and conversation and stories. It's not a chat show, but a quiz where the questions prompt you into conversations and recollections and stuff. It's a joy to do.
We were told 'if you know the correct answer quickly, don't say it - it's ok to be wrong and enjoy yourself, and maybe we'll get around to the answer'!
So, with your wealth of knowledge, did you know all the answers straight off?
Oh, you learn something new all the time. There were facts popping up and little details I've never heard before. It was fascinating.
You've written on many TV shows across your career. Do you have a personal favourite?
I'm looking at a photograph here at the moment of Kenny Everett. That was a very happy period - he was the only non-comedian I ever wrote for. He wasn't a comedian, he was 'Kenny Everett'.
The late Ray Cameron - who is on this photograph with me and Kenny - we wrote Kenny Everett's TV shows. Ray Cameron was the father of Michael McIntyre - the generations link up.
Thinking about Michael McIntyre and the fact his dad was in comedy too, do you think comedy is something that's natural, even inherited, or is it something you can learn?
You can learn technique and learn tricks of the trade, but it's got to be in you to start with. You can see a comic doing their material and see if it's essentially there in them or not.
Nowadays, most performers write for themselves, but going back a bit almost everyone used writers like yourself. Do you think more stand-ups could do with writing teams?
Well, it depends - you can't generalise. Some people write for themselves and it works brilliantly, and some people you see and you think 'you need writers'.
I remember years ago, pre-Monty Python, there was this breed coming along who wrote their own material and, if you're a freelancer like me, it suddenly went very quiet, and you think 'what's happening here'.
We were looking at the list of people you wrote for...
I would say 'we'. People say to me 'you wrote for everybody' and I say 'we wrote for everybody'. There was a whole gang of us, I never wrote alone.
Good point. Is there anyone you wished you'd written for more than you did?
There was a brilliant programme recently about Dave Allen [Dave Allen: God's Own Comedian]. We all knew Dave, that brilliant man. I wrote a bit for him and I had an offer to do a Dave Allen series, but I was doing something else. I would have liked to have written more for Dave Allen.
You're known for looking out for new comedians too...
I do the Fringe ever year in Edinburgh - although I'm taking a break this year - but, yeah, I've been doing the Fringe for years. Every generation has got brilliant people in it, so I go to the gigs... they call me Uncle Baz in Edinburgh, it's lovely.
How often do you spot new talent?
It happens so quick for everyone now. Ross Noble, Rob Brydon, it's really happened for them, and the great Bill Bailey. Young ones are coming along all the time. More women than before, which is great.
You're not on Twitter, which is where most of the young comedians hang out?
I'm not into Twitter yet, no. My son keeps nagging me, but once you're in there you're in, and I don't think I want to be in. I've got an addictive personality, that's what worries me.
You always seem to be happy and friendly. Is there a dark side to you?
There is a dark side to me, which I don't think I will ever reveal. I do have un-healthy preoccupation with prawn sandwiches. If you'd please not quote me on that, I'd be very grateful. I'm also a big fan of Piers Morgan - which is a source of deep shame. Like I say, don't quote me!
Oops! You're still working hard, with TV shows, tours and more, despite now presumably having enough personal wealth to relax a bit more...
I've got enough money for the rest of my life... if I die a week on Thursday.
I take a break all the time, I'm freelance. I'm a lazy person, but I work do very hard in bursts to get it over with.
To end with, perhaps we could ask you to tell us your favourite joke?
This was publicised in the Radio Times earlier in the year, complete with a comic strip illustrating it. It was the first joke I ever told in public, in a student show in 1956 in Leeds...
A man, driving down a country lane, ran over a cockerel. He was very upset and went to the farmhouse and knocked on the door. A woman answered the door and he said 'I appear to have killed your cockerel. I'd like to replace him.' And she said, 'Please yourself, the hens are around the back.'