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Tim Key chats about winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award, Alan Partridge and writing the perfect poem

Jon Davis | Thursday 10 March, 2011 12:49

Tim Key picks up the phone and says ‘I thought you were late. I rang my agent to find out where those jokers from Snipe were.’ He continues to explain that he’s using a friend’s phone, a friend who’s continuously late and so has set his clock fifteen minutes early. When I reply that it’s now precisely two thirty (the scheduled time of our phone interview) he adds comically, ‘you guys at Snipe have built your business on punctuality.’

Despite his concern for time management, Tim Key doesn’t appear to be a man in a rush. In 2009 he won the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award for his show ‘Slutcracker’ and two years later, after a run at London’s Soho Theatre and then a stint in Australia, he’s finally putting it to bed. ‘It was quite unexpected that the show would have a life after Edinburgh. I got to take it to Australia and it was then that I decided I should probably do a UK tour before I stopped. I’ve never done a tour so it was a nice opportunity to go around the country with a show I definitely liked.’ When I ask whether he is concerned about moving on, he seems a little hesitant. ‘Ideally I won’t still be doing this show when I’m approaching forty. Hopefully I’ll have got a new one by then, but I’m not going to lose to much sleep over it.’

And why should he, Key has been winning big fans with his off-kilter humour. From his turn as guest poet in Charlie Brooker’s ‘Screenwipe’ and ‘Newswipe’, and his panel show, ‘We Need Answers’ on BBC 4, Key has been has carving out a great profile amongst a new wave popular, alternative comedians. For those who aren’t familiar with his particular brand of humour it’s perhaps difficult to explain. Key’s award winning ‘Slutcracker’ is an eccentric and quirky mix of poetry, short films and general ramblings, perhaps more akin to a theatrical performance than straight stand-up. His often shambolic and deadpan delivery is an acquired taste, as many have commentated, but for those who have the right palate it’s truly hilarious and original.

Ultimately it’s a show which centres around poetry; short, tender, every-day vignettes which Key undercuts with his cheeky asides. What they lack in poetic construction they make up for in heart and comic observations. Their simplicity has been described by some as wilfully artless and banal, a fact Key finds amusing. ‘Sometimes people will come up to me and says it’s not poetry. I don’t mind that too much really, but I think, on balance, it is poetry. I mean you might not like it but I’m afraid it has to be called poetry.’

This is indicative of Key’s poems. On the one hand they appear whimsical and on the other they are tender and heartfelt. Take, for example, the poem which ‘tackles the thorny issue of dew’, in which a man gathers dew to use in a meal for his lover, and the surreal poem where he lists the animals he could fit into, not fit into or would need help fitting into. But this duality is of course part of their inherent humour. However, Key admits it was difficult to find the right environment for his mix of styles. ‘I tried it in a poetry environment and I tried it is a stand-up environment and each time it didn’t play out exactly as I would have wanted. At that point you sit down and think where is this going to work. Then I thought, I suppose I’d better book a theatre and just do it on my own.’

When I ask him if he ever writes ‘serious’ poetry, he laughs and says ‘yeah, I can’t do that. I tried to write a really poignant piece to kind of finish the Slutcracker show off. Had I managed that it would have been marvellous. Unfortunately I wasn’t quite up to the task, so the whole show just stays at one level.’

When I interject that writing such a poem into a comic routine, especially with his often ironic delivery, would be very difficult, he quickly replies, ‘I think it’s perfectly possible. Yeah, I think it’s a massive missed opportunity, owing to a lack of ability on my part. I think you can do that, I thinks it’s very possible to create something that’s all over the place, really funny and then just suddenly make it go really solemn and particularly serious. I think I’ll maybe take a show to Edinburgh when I’m in my fifties and really nail it.’ This is a mark of Key’s intent, his desire to make a show which elicits an array of emotions. Yet when I ask him if reads much poetry he simply says, ‘nope.’

However, Tim Key hasn’t just spent the last two years touring his Slutcracker show and attempting to write the perfect poem, he’s been busy with a variety of projects. He recently starred in friend and fellow comedian Tom Basden’s ‘Joseph K’, an adaptation of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, and acted in and co-wrote the BAFTA nominated short film ‘The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island.’ November saw the release of his record, ‘Tim Key. With a String Quartet. On boat’, a venture which is pretty self-explanatory. He also stars as sidekick Simon in Steve Coogan’s ‘Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge’. With well over a million hits on Youtube in its first few weeks alone, this is perhaps Key’s biggest appearance to date.

‘It was completely bananas getting that job. I love him, obviously; pretty much everyone my age without exception loves Alan Partridge. He’s right up there in the pantheon of great comic creations, so I can’t really overstate how completely, utterly, fucking nuts it was.’

He describes the experience as ‘life imitating art. Simon’s a guy who’s been invited into a studio and is a little bit out of his depth trying to kind of deal with this gigantic monster, and then at the same time it’s me who’s been invited to do this job and a little bit out of my depth trying to cope with this humongous genesis. In the most recent episode (http://www.fostersfunny.co.uk/alanpartridge/) he really starts yelling at me. On the one hand there’s Alan Partridge barking at Sidekick Simon and on the other hand it’s Steve Coogan yelling at me. It’s pretty difficult to get your head round.’

With the show airing on the Fosters Funny website and the lager giant now sponsoring the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier), I wondered if Key was getting any free cans. ‘Well unfortunately the Edinburgh Comedy Awards wasn’t sponsored by Fosters when I won it. It was the only one that wasn’t sponsored, so I had a very clean, pure award. Over all, mine was the best award so far – completely untarnished by any sponsorship.’

Now that his Slutcracker show is on its final run it seems pertinent to ask what’s next. ‘I did a play a few years ago, a one man play, and enjoyed that. I kind of have a vague idea of the kind of thing I could do. I have plenty of stuff going on so it’s difficult to find the time to write a play. Maybe a year down the line.’

The last ever Slutcracker (we promise) will be at The Lyric, London on April 4th

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