I Eat Music

Staying focused
Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler talk to ThreeWeeks Features Editor Andy Malt about bringing their Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show, ‘Double Down Hearts’, back to the Fringe

Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler came to the Fringe for the first time as a double act last year, having made their solo debuts the year before, and left with an IF.comedy main prize nomination for under their belts. The show in question, ‘Double Down Hearts’, loosely centres on a fictional play about a gambling addict with a hair-lip as a hook for their intriguing line in surreal sketches, and returns to Edinburgh for a second run this year.

The pair met through the People’s Improv Theatre in New York in 2004, thanks to a shared desire to launch a new show. “I wanted to start a variety show and heard that she did too”, explains Kurt. Kristen continues, “We’d never really hung out or had a conversation before, but that brought us together and it was a good match”.

Given the synchronicity of their performance styles, I ask how they both came into comedy in the first place. Schaal seems to have arrived at it almost without noticing. “I started in high school”, she tells me. “Maybe a bit before that. When you’re younger people find out you’re funny without you realising and you just run with it”.

Kurt, on the other hand, comes back with a clearer memory of his route to the stage. “I was homeless for the first four years after I moved to New York”, he begins. “So I would tell jokes on subways and I eventually saved up enough to get an apartment. I thought it had worked well for me so far, so I just carried on doing it”.

Receiving the Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination last year was “a thrill”, says Kristen. But, adds Kurt, they were glad when the prize went to David O’Doherty. “We wanted someone from the UK to win because the difference it makes to your career if you’re in the UK is much bigger than if you’re primarily in the States”, he says. “It changes the game for David O’Doherty. It was much more useful for him and he’s a friend of ours, so it was great to see him win. I didn’t expect the nomination, but it was great to get one”.

The duo are bringing the same show back to the Festival for a second time, so you’d expect everything to be highly polished. And it should be, says Schaal, but they need to be careful not to let their tendency for improvisation get the better of them. “We’re really looking forward to doing the show again, because it was so much fun last year. We just need to stay focused and not accidentally do a whole new show”.

Kurt adds, “Once we get on started, who knows what will happen. Ideally it should be word for word the same, but we might do something new”.

This year, too, Kristen explains, they will be more prepared for what will meet them when they hit Scotland. “We perform the same everywhere”, she says. “But Edinburgh is more challenging physically, doing so many shows back to back. Edinburgh has been a bit of a test, as well. It helped us learn what American things aren’t received. And the Festival’s great because there are so many enthusiastic theatre lovers there”.

For those new to the Schaal and Braunohler experience, what should we expect from the show? Kurt has a succinct response. “This show is like if a brother and a sister wanted to have sex with each other but didn’t know it and put on a show for their town fair”, he announces with a touch of mischief in his voice.

As for their comedy influences, Kurt is equally sure. “There’s a show called ‘Mr Show’, which I don’t think has really been shown in the UK”, he starts. “It starred David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. It was on in the early 90s and is probably one of my biggest influences. People in the UK really should be watching it, especially as David Cross is known for other things now. It’s amazing. It’s straight up sketch comedy but it all flows from one piece to the next. That’s something I’ve always strived to do”.

Kristen and Kurt came to the UK earlier in the year to film a TV show of their own, a one-off episode based on their internet comedy show, ‘Penelope Princess Of Pets’, for Channel 4’s ‘Comedy Lab’, featuring guest appearances from Daniel Kitson, Julian Barratt of ‘Mighty Boosh’, and ‘Peep Show’ star Isy Suttie.

“We reworked it so the story takes place in the UK, says Kristen. “All the characters are now British and it’s set in London. But we wanted to keep the same sensibilities, keeping it fantastical, with the same jokes”.

And it was all thanks to the Fringe that it got made at all, adds Kurt. “That all happened in Edinburgh. Our producer saw ‘Penelope Princess Of Pets’ and loved it and got it to Channel 4. We shot it in May and now it’s airing in October”.

They are also developing a TV show in America, but much preferred the experience of making a programme in Britain.

“We’re perpetually working on selling a TV show in the States”, sighs Kristen, who is, of course, best known in her role as stalker-fan Mel in ‘Flight Of The Conchords’. “We have a deal, but it’s whether or not what we come up with is lame enough to fit the parameter. TV companies are lame in America. They’re very uncreative. They’re just interested in what they know will make money instead of taking risks. They want another version of ‘Two And A Half Men’, which is the top rating comedy show over here, but isn’t what we think is funny”.

She continues, “Channel 4 was a joy to work with, it was a lot more free. We hope that it’ll be a series, that would be our dream”.

Hopefully that won’t remain a dream for long. But right now, the reality of Kristen and Kurt on stage is something you should be experiencing.

Kristen Schaal & Kurt Braunohler – Double Down Hearts, Assembly/Avalon, Assembly @ Assembly Hall, 21 – 30 Aug, 10.05pm (11.05pm), prices vary, fpp69.

Justifying notoriety
ThreeWeeks features editor Andy Malt talks to Jim Jeffries about false starts, Hollywood and being more than just a punch to the head

Jim Jeffries has earned himself a bit of a reputation. With his often anger-fuelled jokes, covering topics such as rape, disability and drug abuse, he has, perhaps understandably, had the tag ‘offensive comedian’ regularly attached to him. And while it’s an image he’s undoubtedly courted over the years, it’s not the be all and end all of his comedy.

“I don’t know why I’m seen as more offensive than other comics”, he says on the phone from LA, where he has been living since February. “I don’t even say these things that much in my shows, but they stand out and people focus on them. In the UK it got to the point where people were coming to see me in order to be offended. Some would come up to me after shows and tell me I wasn’t offensive enough”.

Born in Australia in 1977, Jim was a fan of stand-up from a young age, although his early experiences of getting up on stage nearly put him off altogether. “I was always just a fan. I used to watch a TV show called ‘The Big Gig’ with my brother every Saturday when I was about 10 years old. It was a show intended for adults, but that was the big highlight of my week”, he remembers. “Then when I was 17 I did two open spots in Sydney. They went really badly, and I got booed off at one of them. I didn’t do it again until I was 24”.

Things went better on the second attempt and after a year he moved to London to have a proper go at telling jokes for a living. “There are no comedy clubs in Australia, so you can’t really build a career over there”, he explains. “You can only do about one gig a month. In London you can gig every night, and that’s how you get good – by trial and error”.

Through that process his act has become more focused, meaning that while he may still be able to deliver a killer line, he’s not firing off in all directions. “My early material had stuff about hating women and things like that because I couldn’t write anything better”, he observes. “But as you do more, your material gets more personal and my personal life isn’t that bad. When I live with other comics, their friends all think I’m there killing hookers and stuff”.

Jim’s recent move to Hollywood came as his career started to take off in the States, aided by an hour long HBO Special, “The biggest thing you can do as a stand-up in the US”. And what do Americans make of him? “I don’t get called offensive so much”, he says. “But I’m the only comic saying ‘cunt’ in America and getting away with it. I think they think I don’t really know what I’m saying. Every now and then a story seems to carry but then it turns out it actually doesn’t, but I don’t change words or anything like that. They’ve seen Austin Powers, they can work it out”.

There are many people out there whose first contact with Jim was seeing him get punched on stage, via a video which has now been watched more than 15 million times on the internet. It’s something that Jim is nonetheless quite dismissive of.

“A lot of comics have been punched in the head”, he emphasises. “We just happen to have got some good footage. It wasn’t as bad as it looked. The only thing that really bothers me is that sometimes people imply that’s what made my career. I was already booked for big shows, and doing television like ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ and ‘Have I Got News For You’. I still had to back it up by being good. If notoriety was all you needed then Aaron Barschak, the guy who invaded Prince William’s 21st birthday party, should be the biggest comic ever”.

It’s certainly not just notoriety that has caused Jim’s career to take off. With so much going on already, his Edinburgh run this year won’t be as long as he would like. “I’m ducking my head in for five shows, to say ‘don’t forget about me’”, he tells me.

“The show will be the best stuff from my last four shows, and then half new stuff”, he continues. “HBO made me do the same set over again for six months before we recorded it, so I couldn’t get an hour of new stuff ready in time. But I’ve just written the best 20 minutes I’ve ever written and I want to close the show on that. I’m going to do this new routine about taking a very good friend of mine who’s disabled to brothel. It was one of the most spurious and funny days of my life. At times quite sad, but funny. Those are the stories I like telling. I’ve got better at telling stories over time”.

And there’s that development he mentioned earlier. Okay, the subject matter still touches on areas others might shy away from. In fact, how many of us have even taken a disabled friend to a brothel? But Jim is keen to show a bit more of the man behind the reputation. For one thing, it might help his love life a little.

“I think a lot of the image around me has been devil horns and me with my throat cut on posters. I always really enjoyed doing that stuff. Recently a newspaper wanted pictures of me with some porn stars. I was like ‘yeah cool,’ but my management said, ‘Jim, we’ve told you we’re trying to get you away from this image’. I understand why they don’t want me with my arm round porn stars; I don’t want to be that guy either. It’s hard for lasting relationships with women. I’ve been a pretty good boyfriend over the years, but most girls’ friends point out the porn star pictures, the rape jokes, the ‘I hate women’ comments, and think I’m a complete arsehole”.

And, when he puts it like that, you can see why they might. But in the hour we spent on the phone, he was not that guy. Nor is he really that guy on stage. Like with much, if not most comedy, there’s a context that is lost when displayed in snippets and soundbites. All you really need to know is that Jim Jeffries is devastatingly funny.

Jim Jeffries – The Hits, Jim Jeffries, Udderbelly’s Pasture, 17 – 22 Aug, 8.35pm (9.35pm), £15.00, fpp64.

Giving the people what they want
Mark Thomas talks to ThreeWeeks Features Editor Andy Malt about his manifesto

The term ‘political comedian’ can strike fear into people’s hearts. I blame Ben Elton. But Mark Thomas has been bringing the two worlds together for over twenty years to great effect. And, far from just talking, he really puts his money where his mouth is. Over the years he has campaigned on numerous issues, from the arms trade, to attacks on trade unionists working for Coca-Cola in Colombia, to UK inheritance tax. Along the way he’s caused laws to be changed, been arrested, got into the Guinness Book Of Records (for the most number of demonstrations held in one day) and kept audiences laughing at the same time.

But, says Mark, he’s not here as either a comedian who campaigns or campaigner who tells jokes. “You just use whatever you’ve got,” he says. “People always ask whether I’m predominantly one or the other but they both come together. It’s all linked.”

Both comedy and politics, at their best, he says, are driven by ideas; the less willing either becomes to push things forward, the less value it has. “The point of all my shows is to say what you think and then talk it out”, he continues. “The point is that comedy can be a force for change. People talk about politics being boring, and they’re right, because of the convergence between Labour and The Conservatives and The Lib Dems – you couldn’t really get a Rizla paper between them in terms of a lot of their policies – and it all becomes a pasteurised lump of shite. And at the same time, a lot of comedy becomes about making the least offensive gag, but the most interesting comics are the ones who say what they think and put forward ideas.”

Mark’s latest show, which makes a stop at the Festival for two weeks during a wider UK tour, is a collaborative effort between him and the audience. “I ask people to come up with policies, we go through them, discuss them, vote on them and create a manifesto,” he explains. “Each audience decides on one policy, and this is the basis for the manifesto at the end of the tour. Then I’m going to take that and actually see if I can put some of it into practice.”

So is this democratic comedy? “No, because I’m in charge,” he says wryly. “Every comedy show has an element of benign dictatorship.”

Policies put forward so far range between the serious and the ridiculous. One audience decided that the Benny Hill theme tune should be played during arguments in the House Of Commons, while another decided that the UK should introduce US-style protection of free speech.

“Some policies that have come out of the show are brilliant. Some are really odd, but they’re all interesting,” says Mark. And, he reveals, they can spark further debate once they have been included in the manifesto. “One of them was that OCD sufferers should be employed as cleaners in the NHS to get rid of MRSA. But, in fact, only a small percentage of OCD sufferers clean obsessively, so by putting that out and discussing it we can break stereotypes.”

True to his word, Mark has already started putting some of the policies into action. “One thing that’s already happening is that we’re creating a SATs-style rating system for MPs,” he explains. “Hopefully it’ll launch in September before MPs go back to Parliament. It’ll be like a school report for MPs, based on things like how often they attends debates, how often they speak, how often they vote, how often they get on select committees, how much they get in outside money, and it’ll give them a grade of A, B, C, D or E, E being the lowest. It’ll be a way of finding out if your MP is really doing the work they should be.”

The original inspiration for the show came from a series of podcasts Mark recorded earlier this year, in which he asked various experts to help explain the economic problems facing the country.

“When recession started to bite I thought, ‘You know, I just don’t know enough about this,’” he says. “I have friends who know a bit, I know someone from the New Economics Foundation, and have friends who are NGOs, and I know a guy who used to be the chief economist for Jersey who now works for the Tax Justice Network. We talked about it a bit and decided it would be great to get people who know about this stuff on stage to discuss what’s going on, and try to find what we can do about it. So we had people like Hugh Wilmott from the Cardiff Business School, Vince Cable from the Liberal Democrats, who was amazing and talked about nationalising the Post Office, Caroline Lucas from the Green Party, who told us how to put social policy through, and Richard Wilkinson, who’s an amazing academic and explained how wealth disparity creates problems in society. It’s really exciting talking to all those people and saying, ‘Where do we go? How do we fix this?’”

At the end of his Edinburgh run, Mark is hoping to get the Festival’s policies implemented in Scotland straight away. “At the end of it we’re trying to get a meeting with a group of MSPs and put forward the policies that come out of this run of shows and say, ‘What do you think? Can these work?’” he reveals, adding “It’s great to think we could have a comedy show that could have an idea that gets into the Scottish Parliament”.

Sounds like he’s going to be busy, but who would Mark see at the Festival if he wasn’t performing? “Will Hodgson,” he says instantly. “He’s just my favourite comic. I was lucky enough to have Will supporting me at the start of the tour, just as the show was getting up on its bandy legs, and he’s brilliant. And Daniel Kitson. Will and Daniel would be the people I’d go and see.”

Mark Thomas – The Manifesto, The Stand Comedy Club, 5 – 18 Aug (not 12), 6.15pm (7.30pm), £12.00, fpp75.

They may draw on an eclectic range of influences but Yeasayer’s Luke Fasano tells us why his band are really just a pop group

Bursting forth last year with their debut single 2080, Yeasayer merge sounds from around the world with Western pop music, creating something fresh and exciting that has captured the heart of many a music fan. Their debut album, All Hour Cymbals, was released in November to high acclaim.

The band was formed by school friends Chris Keating and Anand Wilder in 2005. Quickly inducting Wilder’s cousin Ira Wolf Tuton on bass, the band played for a year, experimenting with live drums, drum machine and iPod to provide percussion before hiring Luke Fasano to complete the line up. However, the drummer had reservations about joining after the band attempted to explain their sound to him.

“They described it to me like, ‘Well it’s like this world music, hip hop influenced, kind of like Indian, Gospel, Asian, you know, pop, it’s pop music.’ I was like, wow, this could be the most terrible thing that I’ve ever heard,” says Fasano. But the description was enough to at least peak his interest. “I listened to what they were doing and I was immediately like, okay yes, I wanna do that.”

So, it’s clear from the outset that this was not an easy band to pitch, but Fasano insists that the key to Yeasayer’s success is down to a love of good, old-fashioned pop music.

“That was what they told me from the get-go. We all listen to pop radio and we all try to draw as many other things into that as possible because who wants to hear the same song you’ve heard for the past twenty years?” Explaining the Yeasayer ethos, he continues, “We’re trying to take all those elements that would make an interesting pop song that are in some Iraqi folk song, or in some Moroccan song, or West African song, or Indian song. These can be a Western pop song, there’s no reason why they can’t.”

When he speaks about his and the rest of the band’s musical influences, it’s clear the passion that Fasano has for music. Sitting in a well-worn Velvet Underground T-shirt, he talks excitedly about everyone from Pixies to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It’s this genuine love of music that led him to seek sounds from outside his own cultural background.

“You grow up here or in the States and you hear a lot of Western pop music and so the second I heard all that it was just crazy – what is that sound? What’s making that sound? What is he hitting? What is he playing? All these people are really doing it as part of their own culture and it was really exciting for me to hear a kind of music that I had not heard, just the thrill of the unknown.”

Being able to absorb all this and work it into something that is relevant to them and their listeners, rather than their music being, as Fasano puts it, “some white guy who’s been there playing it for me” is key to their sound. “None of us are pretending to be members of those cultures – hopefully people don’t think that we think we’re part of that,“ he says. “But it’s just music, so you can borrow from it, you know, if I’ve been affected by it, I can borrow from it.”

And with such a wide array of music available to borrow from, the band are already stockpiling new music. “Honestly, this group of people is really the most musically ambitious group that, I think, any of us have ever had the pleasure to work with,” explains Fasano. “Everyone has written material for the next album, enough to have two albums already. It’s very prolific. I’ll write something on keyboard or Chris will put something together on his computer. Ira will write guitar parts, as well as clarinet and saxophone parts. Anand plays the cello and like five different things, he can kinda play everything. Then we take samples of other things and just put as dense layering as we think the song will support.”

With such an array of sounds on their recordings, performing the songs live does mean the band have their work cut out. Fasano explains, “There’s just four of us, but everyone is singing – I do the backing vocals and the three across the front are pretty much always doing harmonies. Chris ends up doing some main vocals, but then he’s also playing a keyboard and a sampler. Ira has about ten different pedals for his bass, sometimes it sounds like he’s playing a flute and sometimes it’s like an organ. Anand has a keyboard and a sampler, as well as his guitar. Then I have the drum set and an electronic drum pad, which is a sampler, as well. So, we’re all doing two or three different things.”

Despite this, Yeasayer are keen to give their audience something special live and have various different versions of each of their songs to choose from each night. “We still rewrite our songs to play them live,” says Fasano. “When I see a band live and there’s no change I’m sort of like, well why did I come here today? You don’t feel like there’s any interaction between the artist and the audience.”

On paper, Yeasayer’s mix of so many different sounds may seem confusing, but the music does the talking. Because of this, word of mouth support has always been important for the band and has brought them a great deal of success. The speed by which news of this band can spread was apparent on the band’s first trip to the UK.

“We did just London the first time we came over, which was really weird but a great experience. We were here for maybe a week and a half and played seven or eight shows and things got better every time we played. By the end [we played] a couple of sold out shows.”

Add the internet into that mix and suddenly there’s an audience of millions, rather than hundreds. Fasano is very positive about the power of the World Wide Web to break new bands. “I’m not a big blogging, internet kind of person, but it’s undeniable the impact of that. I mean, I basically joined the band, they had just put stuff up on MySpace and then within a month we were signed to a label. Just being on MySpace is such a great tool. It’s not a totally equal playing field but it does equalize some of those forces.”

Moving onto the subject of how this is changing the music industry, he continues, “It’s just a different paradigm; the music business is really changing. Really large labels are losing their legs a little bit. I love that all these big powerhouse labels are just getting fucked because they’ve had such a stranglehold on the industry.”

At the same time, he’s careful not to get caught up in the hyperbole that precedes bands in the MySpace generation. “I don’t have a good perspective on this, none of us do,” he says. “When people are like ‘There’s a buzz’ or ‘You’re blowing up’ or whatever we’re like, ‘Huh? I’m still poor!’” He laughs.

They may not be rich yet, but with a punishing tour schedule and an outstanding album in the bag, things can only keep getting bigger and better for Yeasayer.

The album, All Hour Cymbals is out now on We Are Free. A new version of Wait For The Summer has also just been released as a single.

This interview originally appeared on Subba Cultcha. An edited version also appeared in ThreeWeeks‘ Brighton Festival edition in May 2008