It’s a great honour to do Love Island. It’s changed my life...
IAIN STIRLING, THE VOICE OF LOVE ISLAND, TELLS MARION McMULLEN ABOUT HIS DEBT TO THE TV DATING SHOW
Love Island’s ratings have hit a record high this year. What is the secret of its growing success?
(LAUGHS) Well, my Dad is watching. He’s a retired lawyer from Edinburgh and he is absolutely loving it. He’s not the usual demographic, but, hey, I’ll take it.
It’s a great honour to do it. I’m lucky to do it. It’s changed my life.
Is it difficult to avoid all the attention?
BEING in Spain helps. There is absolutely huge interest in Love Island and a lot riding on it, but the pressure is kind of off me. I’m out in a hub and I’m not exposed to it all. If I was in London there would be a lot more pressure. People would be on the Tube going to work watching it on phones and talking about it and I don’t really have that.
We’re also in a German tourism area so we don’t really get British tourists around talking about it either.
But it’s two months of your life. It’s two months of the summer when friends in London are having BBQs and you think ‘that would be lovely’. I am doing the Edinburgh Fringe in August when it will rain without fail and then it is back to London in September and the summer is gone.
How is the tan coming along?
(LAUGHS) I AM tanned from the Spanish sun. I’m the most tanned man from Scotland right now – it’s official – I’ve checked the colour chart and everything.
Are you looking forward to being back in Edinburgh ahead of your Failling Upwards tour next year?
IT’S a very different vibe this year. I’m just going up and doing a 50-seater room for a work in progress basically to get ready for the tour.
There is no pressure on me whatsoever. Edinburgh can be amazingly stressful but I always love going home. I’m Edinburgh born and bred ... which is rare to come across on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I always have a great time.
No-one really bothered about me when I started and I was happy with that. It was alright.
A lot of people still don’t know me as a stand-up comedian. A lot of people coming to the show might have seen Love Island or Taskmaster. (Laughs) But the stand-up is definitely different from Love Island and a lot less angry than Taskmaster.
What did you learn from your stint on the comedy TV challenge show Taskmaster?
THAT I can’t tie a balloon together. The card memory thing got to me as well. I enjoyed the creative tasks the most. I never realised I was so competitive though. It was sometimes hilarious and sometimes I just hated myself.
I used to be flatmates with Phil Wang, who was on Taskmaster a couple of years ago, and he told me ‘You’ll really find out about yourself’ and I was like ‘stop it, it’s a TV show’, but watching it back I didn’t like what I found at all. But my mum and girlfriend were saying ‘that’s exactly what you are like.’
I was never good at sport. I’m OK, but I was never at athlete level so I wasn’t competitive and never expected to win, but with Taskmaster I thought ‘I might win this’ and it drove me. It obsessed me.
Having to make a puppet played to my strengths. I lived with a professional puppet builder for five years. We lived in London and we were skint and bored so we would make things just for something to do.
You did cut a striking figure in your Greg Davies decorated outfit?
THAT was fun. It could have gone badly wrong though. I just thought ‘If no-one finds this funny I will be sitting in Greg Davies leggings and top for the whole show’.
Another task saw three of us in bin bags and we had to get a banana inside a bin. It rained that day and motor oil covered the drive. We were crawling over rough ground and creeping along and we got covered in oil, muck and water. It wasn’t ideal.
What can you tell us about your new stand-up tour?
I’M a storyteller and I’ll be talking about life and big ideas, the world and social media.
The whole idea, the whole positive spin about this ‘live your best life’ sort of thing, puts incredible pressure on young people. I went to a yoga class and a man stole my shoes – that’s going to be in the show. I’m now looking for inner peace and my Crocs.
Iain Stirling will be appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 5 to August 17. Failing Upwards tours from February 21 next year. Go to IainDoesJokes.com for the latest ticket information.