People won’t let me stop doing the hospital radio DJ
TV COMEDIAN Tom Binns will be bringing two old friends and one new acquaintance to his Southport Comedy Festival set this October.
He promises the return of his popular hospital radio DJ alter ego Ivan Brackenbury and his ventriloquist act, as well as a new take on his psychic act, at The Bold Hotel on Lord Street on Saturday, October 13.
He said: “It’s going to be a mixture of one brand new character that you’ve not seen before and two of the bits that people won’t let me stop doing. I really want to move on – but I can’t!
“I’m doing the hospital radio DJ that I’m still doing, I want to stop but I can’t see that ever happening, I’ll still be doing it when I’m 70.
“But I’ve got a new psychic character that’s taking over from Ian D, Montfort, it’s a slightly different take on it but it will be familiar to people who’ve seen the old act.
“Then I’ll be doing my ventriloquist act as well.”
Tom is a regular at the festival, having played here every year since its inception, and is looking forward to his return to the North West.
“I can’t speak for other comedians,” he said. “I’m always the other two acts on the bill in a comedy club so I’m a proper hermit now as a result of being greedy.
“It’s one of the things I love doing the most, I’ve done it every year since its been on.
“I used to do a gig at the end of the pier, in that arcade, I used to love it there, I was there for at least three years then they gave me a proper venue last year.
“I’d get that model train to the end of the pier and used to think it was a bit weird, but then last year I had to drive myself there like a normal gig.”
He spoke particularly highly of the event’s organisers, Brendan Riley and Val Brady.
“They’re great, they’re really passionate about it and it really comes across. They really care about it, it feels like Brendan is at every gig introducing it.
“It’s a great event, run really well.” He added that the reception he has received on his previous visits makes him especially pleased to keep coming back.
“Thankfully the locals have taken to it really well, otherwise I don’t think I’d be going back.
“When I first started doing it I was living in Liverpool, I’ve always enjoyed doing comedy in that part of the world.
“I think I get away with it because I do characters, obviously the rule of thumb really is if you’re doing comedy in and around Liverpool, you kind of have to be from Liverpool.
“Weirdly, if I get a complaint or upset someone they’re going to be under the age of 23, I was looking at the comments of an 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown clip I put on Facebook, and somebody said this is offensive.
“About a billion disabled people piled in and said no it’s not, I’ve got this or that and I think it’s hilarious.
“I guess the joke is the character being inappropriate and putting his foot in it rather than me being mean.
“It’s not obvious, but I do situation comedy.
“What drives it is the funny situation I engineer rather than the character, it makes the characters funny.
“If you look at the engine on each act it’s situation stand-up comedy.
“With the psychic I’ll create the funny situation and then look at other psychics and if they do anything that makes me laugh I’ll nick it.”
The inspiration for arguably his most famous alter ego, hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury, is very close to home.
“I did a lot of radio in the early stage of my career.
“The hospital radio DJ, a lot of that is actually based on how bad I was at the beginning of my career, but the thing is I learned from my mistakes and growing out of it and ending up doing quite well on the wireless, but sadly I don’t think Ivan ever will.
“I did a breakfast show for XFM; Chris Moyles does it now.
“I did a few other bits on talk shows in Manchester and London as well, I learned from my mistakes but I started off probably worse than Ivan.
“Some of the sad things I make Ivan do, I did as well.
“I did hospital radio when I was 15/16, and go in on a Wednesday night doing a show with no listeners.
“I’d put on The Smiths and The Clash and The Cure, for made up patients who I’d pretend had requested this stuff, otherwise there’s no way I’d have been allowed to play it.
“I used to take a cassette into sixth form common room and put it on the cassette player and pretend I had a radio show – I’d think I was the coolest man alive because I had a radio show.”
Book tickets at the Comedy Festival at www.southportcomedy festival.com
TO win a pair of tickets just tell us: Which radio station did Tom Binns have his breakfast show on? a) Radio Caroline b) Sandgrounder Radio c) XFM
Email your answer, with Tom Binns Comedy Comp in the subject line, along with your name, address and phone number, to: seftoncommunities@trinitymirror.com
Closing date is Monday, October 1. Usual competition rules apply.