AN EARLY experience in comedy, overhearing people talk outside his dressing room, became a formative moment for Jack Dee, one that has driven his sense of commitment and ambition throughout a career spanning almost 35 years.
Jack Dee, one of the best known and most successful of British comedians, is coming to Galway to play two shows at the Town Hall Theatre on Tuesday February 11 and Wednesday 12 at 8pm. They will also mark his debut in the city.
“I’m really looking forward to it as it’s always nice to play new places,” Jack tells me during our Tuesday morning conversation, and tour so far has already been going down a storm in Britain with shows selling out and extra dates added. “I love doing stand-up. I feel it’s very natural for me to do, and I love putting together a show. I take it very seriously because I’m very lucky to have people coming to see me, and I’ll give the best night to people and be as funny and as honest as I can.”
That sense of responsibility to his audience, and a deep commitment to his craft, are qualities which has stood the Bromley native in good stead throughout his career in stand-up and television, and it stems from his very earliest days in comedy.
“When I was young and just starting out, and I’d just done my first TV show, I was playing a venue, and there was a queue out the door, and it was just outside the dressing room window, and I could overhear people. One said, ‘I’ve been saving up for this’, another said, ‘This ticket was a birthday present from my parents’. I’ve never forgotten that, and that’s why I regard what I do as a privilege, and take it seriously, and not shirk from it.”
Itching for the stage
Jack’s new stand-up show, Off The Telly, marks his first tour in six years, a return to the stage after a busy period of television work, including starring in the sitcoms Josh and Power Monkeys; writing and creating, with Pete Sinclair, the popular ITV sitcom Bad Move; and presenting Jack Dee’s Helpdesk and The Apprentice: You’re Fired!
“When I have a long hiatus from stand-up it means I’m doing sit-com, and I get entrenched in that world,” he says, "but after two or three years I’m itching for the more immediate experience of the stage. You get a kick from live work that you don’t get from TV, and have all these ideas that would be brilliant for stage, but that wouldn’t work on television. You get to this point of ‘I can’t wait to get out there again’."
'There are a lot more opportunities for young comedians now to get on air, but it’s also difficult not to become a niche comic'
Jack’s career in television stretches back to 1992 and in the 28 years since, there has barely been a year where he has not been on screen as an actor, presenter, guest, or contributor on everything from The Jack Dee Show to Top Of The Pops to Live At The Apollo to Lead Ballon to Channel 4’s Alternative Election Night. “The title of the new show is a pun,” he says. “I’m that guy ‘off the telly’ but also my disillusionment with it as well. I’m glad I’m at the back end of my career and not having to start out now.”
How we consume 'television programmes' - you could be watching TV via a TV, laptop, or phone - has changed enormously with the advent of YouTube, social media, and streaming services. Jack reflects on how this is a blessing and a curse for emerging comedians.
“There are a lot more opportunities for young comedians now to get on air,” he says, “but it is a very crowded market, so it’s difficult to make a dent. It’s difficult not to become a niche comic. You could have a hugely popular podcast, but outside of that no one might know who you are. Yet, up to about five or six years ago, TV was very important in launching a comic’s career, but TV doesn’t have that power anymore, it’s not as important.”
Laughing at ourselves?
At 11pm tomorrow night, the United Kingdom will formally leave the European Union – transition period not withstanding. In previous interviews, Jack has admitted to largely keeping his comedy Brexit-free given how poisonous and divisive the subject became over the past three years. However, a subject of this magnitude could never stay out of Jack’s comedy forever, and since the end of last year, it has been making its presence felt in his new show – but true to his belief that comedy should hold all things open to question, no side on this issue is left unscathed.
'Everyone’s opinion will be comical at some level and at some point in time'
“I look to approach it in a way that will appeal to everyone in the audience,” he says. “What I eschew is stating how I vote. I don’t want to spend the show justifying my decisions or imposing my view on an audience. When I do stand-up, it’s me inviting the audience into a montage of my life and what I’m going through, and thinking. There is no deliberate Ted Talk theme or message. I shy away from the didactic. I look for what are the common denominators that enable us to laugh at our own decisions.”
That ability to look at a belief, ideology, or stance, no matter how cherished it is, and to be able to acknowledge and explore its absurdities, is a key feature of Jack’s comedy.
“We are losing touch with the ability to step back and laugh at ourselves,” he says. “People have become so subjective and protective of their beliefs that they are unable to laugh at them, and it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, as everyone’s opinion will be comical at some level and at some point in time. Instead of tip-toeing around an issue, and being overly sensitive, you need to be able to explore your own hypocrisies and prejudices, and present them as comical. We need to be able to do that.”
This is a ‘Róisín Dubh and Off The Kerb Productions presents...’ event. Tickets are available from www.roisindubh.net and the Town Hall (091 – 569777, www.tht.ie ).
