Dandyisms sees Charlie O’Connor perform his highly physical style of comedy - accompanied by live music, storytelling and plain silliness - to audiences at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Meanwhile, Martin Walker is suffering from hair envy, but being British, he doesn’t mention it.
“Ah, Lee - he’s like a creepy uncle that gives great comedy advice - you know those? I did a couple of weeks work experience at Objective Productions and managed to make him laugh. I guess a lot. We stayed in contact, and when I asked if he’d direct my show he was all like ‘I would literally rather kill a dog than not direct your show.’ I’m joking of course. He killed the dog.”
“For my debut Fringe I didn’t want an hour of just straight chatter, so I try to mix it up as often as I can. We got the regular jokes, the not so regular jokes, music, and a section that’s completely improvised off audience suggestions. But be warned, it’s all very silly.”
How did you meet your Dandyisms director, Lee Hupfield? (Balls of Steel, Kevin Bishop Show and many others)
“Ah, Lee - he’s like a creepy uncle that gives great comedy advice - you know those? I did a couple of weeks work experience at Objective Productions and managed to make him laugh. I guess a lot. We stayed in contact, and when I asked if he’d direct my show he was all like ‘I would literally rather kill a dog than not direct your show.’ I’m joking of course. He killed the dog.”
You’ve been in LA over the past four years. What’s the comedy scene like over there?
“It’s great! Very different though. A little in terms of humour, but more in terms of the scene itself. The ‘indie/alt’ side of things is as big if not bigger than the club scene. The LA Comedy Store for instance is very different to the London one. It’s a little stuck in the 80’s, and smells like what I imagine David Letterman smells like. Not that I have anything against David Letterman, I just like to imagine how he smells.”
In the future do you plan to base yourself in the UK or in the US?
“Ideally I would rather not choose. In a perfect world I would spilt my time between the two. I love the UK, it’s my home and there’s an ease in performance and conversation that often doesn’t come in LA - where being British makes you a little more novel, all the time. Yet at the same time, there’s such a wonderful sense of positivity and excitement in the US that can be really infectious - us Brits can be downers some times.”
If you were curating a stand up show for television, who would be your guests?
My dream guests would be Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Eddie Pepitone, Hans Teuwen - if you don’t know him you have to look him up, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook - I know they're sadly both dead, but this isn’t a real TV show - unless it is, in which case I could really use the money...
Broadway Baby Listing and Edinburgh Fringe Box Office: http://www.broadwaybaby.com/shows/charlie-oconnor-dandyisms/700219
Twitter: @charliewoconnor
