The American comedian, 54, on why the world is running scared, his realisation that sunburn is a real thing and the reasons he prefers British policemen to those back home.
You’re headlining the third episode of Pico’s first VR comedy series, Stand Up At The Comedy Store. Did you have to adapt your material?
I opened my set with the rules they had for doing VR . They didn’t want you to talk about anything racist, homophobic or , or anything that could offend anybody from a lower class or immigrant status. They didn’t want you to make jokes about VR. In my first five minutes I read this list off and said, ‘I’m going to talk about the first time I had a glass of milk. Much colder than titty milk.’ We were off to the races after that.
Has everyone become too PC?
I think the world in general has just become scared. You’re scared to turn left and right. You’re scared to say anything other than what’s the safest, and so it’s a time when bullies rule. It’s a great time to be a bully.
Comedians live in a time when people feel much more of a right to end your career if you say something they don’t like.
I’d be lying if I said it was of no concern to me. In order to be edgy, you have to know what the edge is.
What can people expect from your comedy shows this year?
Constant, relentless, hilarious demon-dog pressure. I believe in keeping the audience under a little pressure. If you apply pathos, rhythm, and humour, eventually somebody’s gonna laugh at something – or somebody’s gonna get mad. Either will do sometimes!
How were the lockdowns for you?
I had to pretend I wasn’t enjoying it but the first two lockdowns were the holiday I’d never have taken for myself. The third one got a little sticky – I had a nightmare when I thought I was cracking up but I went to sleep and it turned out I wasn’t.
So were you excited to get back on stage again?
The world felt different, like you step outside again and somebody had shaken up a snow globe and the flakes hadn’t settled. I was like, ‘What’s my responsibility here?’ And my voice of clarity said, ‘You’re a comedian – go and comede’. At a certain point, you start wondering how much you’re like those musicians on the Titanic distracting people. ‘Don’t worry: just have a cup of tea and enjoy this tune!’
You’ve been popular for a long time. How do you stay relevant?
It’s not hard – you just have to talk about things that people are currently talking about. You’re a person out in the world and you read things, you feel things, you hear things. It’s one of the things I like about Britain. When I first got here, I found that when I speak, generally British people know what I’m talking about. And when they speak, I know what they’re talking about. And I can’t say that for most of my family.
Is that one of the reasons that made you decide to live in the UK?
And also how non-shooting British police are. I’m a big fan of the non-shooting. In America particularly, there’s a growing sort of lawlessness. And that’s what can get you really depressed. You look at your home and it looks like it’s going apes***. And the things that come up in American media to distract us, it’s like people are hungry, they’re having their houses repossessed. It’s a very troubling time.
You’ve also done TV presenting with your series on music from the American South? Sounds fun…
Don’t get me wrong, there were aspects of it that were very interesting and very fun, but remember you’re driving for ten to 16 hours a day with the top down in the heat. Sunburn I thought was just a white-person myth – I was wrong! I was in Georgia and had to put on sunscreen. I never had to do that before! But then I didn’t travel around with the top down in the middle of a summer day.
Who do you find funny?
Have you seen Chris Rock’s latest special? It’s the best stand-up I’ve seen in years. It’s more than an hour long, and in the final 20 minutes he tells us about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. But the whole set is about them. The way it’s constructed is genius – it’s great stand-up.
Is your happy place on stage?
(Laughs) I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve never been asked something like that before. My happy place? Well, it’s my third greatest happy place. The other two are much too private to say!
What else have you got going on this year?
There are a couple of discussions with some projects at the BBC but nobody’s signed anything yet, so I don’t want to jinx it. I have the Edinburgh Festival in August and then a tour. I have lots of jokes lined up but who knows what’s gonna happen between now and then that’s gonna make me rewrite the whole f***ing thing!
Reginald D Hunter headlines the third episode of Pico’s Stand Up At The Comedy Store, picoxr.com/uk/products/pico4
