CENTRE STAGE a sound ‘I started reaction talking about my parents at the start of my comedy career and here I am still talking about them’

Man Down anti-hero Greg Davies is returning to stand-up with a brand new show, You Magnificent Beast. Coping with the loss of a parent and the onslaught of middle age, he tells MarkWareham that he’s gradually facing up to the terrifying prospect that he m

With stand-up, do you throw it all together relatively last-minute compared to writing for TV?

I just find it so much less stressful. Especially now people know who I am.

You’ve got a willing audience who are prepared to listen to you saying half-formed things and still be honest if something’s not funny.

I did a week in a small theatre in Maidenhead and it was perfect – just keep talking and hope for the best.

So you actually enjoy writing stand-up?

I like the writing process with stand-up cos it’s incremental and the feedback is tangible.

With TV if you write a script you send it to a handful of people who have an opinion, but with stand-up you go to a group of people who are out for a good night and if they don’t laugh it don’t work.

I remember you saying writing for TV is torture.

Writing Man Down is torture. Less so now cos it’s found an audience and I know that people like it, so it’s more about quality control now.

I find that structuring a narrative is not the way my brain is wired… So it’s tortuous.

When I saw you do a warm-up show in Walthamstow in July you said the theme was that you didn’t . have anything left to talk about.

I think the theme is emerging as I’ve done more gigs… something else is bubbling up that I haven’t quite got my head around.

So the content is there and I know the stories I’m going to tell and I know where the laughs are but I think it’s taking on a life of its own… I don’t know, that sounds awfully pretentious.

But I think I might be trying to say something [roars with laughter].

Though I’m not quite sure what it is yet, but I find that exciting… the fact that I’m saying a load of things I find funny and they’re connected in some way I haven’t quite worked out yet.

It’s a terrifying thought that you might be coming out with something momentous…

I don’t want to build it up too much [laughs again] cos I doubt very much I’m going to say anything especially profound.

What do you think it is bubbling under? Is it to do with your father?

Well, I do talk about Dad, and I’ve never talked about losing someone on stage before and I am addressing that this time, and I never thought I would.

I did feel conflicted about whether I was exploiting him. Am I talking about him for healthy reasons?

And then I came to the conclusion that he was such a huge part of my life, and comfortably the funniest man I ever met, so why on earth wouldn’t I talk about him.

And you ask yourself the question, would he want to be talked about, and the answer is 100% yes.

He’d be furious if there was anything else in the show!

It saves talking about your mum again…

Well she gets it as well the poor woman. I’ve put so much of my life into comedy.

I started talking about my parents at the beginning of my comedy career and here I am still talking about them.

And that is throwing up questions for me. So does it worry you that you’re still banging on about your parents?

Well, it’s interesting to me. Other things have happened but it interests me that they are my go-to place.

As the show’s developing, I do talk about that. I haven’t quite worked out what that means but I’m enjoying talking about them.

One of the other themes is the ageing process and how you hate young people.

I’m trying not to do just a list of moans about being middleaged but I am fascinated by it and the denial of it and the physical collapse.

Again I’m not sure what I’m saying about it. At the moment I’m just going, ‘What? I’m 49? What?’ A lot of the show is going to be incredulity.

But it does all tie in. Losing a parent is something that hap-