Stone on a roll
And football – on TV combining two of his big loves –comedy JOHN LYONS chats with a man
Comic Ian Stone’s dream job
ASK Ian Stone how long he would like to continue presenting BT Sport’s The Football’s On and he doesn’t hesitate: “Into retirement would be nice.”
For the fervent Arsenal fan, the show is his “dream job”. In a nutshell, he gets his comedy pals to come on and chat about football for an hour on a Friday night. Names like David Baddiel, Micky Flanagan, Frankie Boyle, Clive Anderson and Omid Djalili aren’t bad either.
Chelsea fan Baddiel was an obvious candidate for the first show.
“I’ve known David since he was about six,” he said.“I thought him and Frank Skinner were very funny on Fantasy Football, though I just used to tune in once in a while. Saying that, I think Three Lions is the best England song ever.”
One of the reasons why Stone wasn’t a fervent fan of the TV show was that he’s never got into the Fantasy Football craze.
“I’ve got enough things in my life to think about without having to worry about Fantasy Football,” he said.“Anyway, football has overtaken Fantasy Football now. Barcelona have got Messi, Neymar and Suarez – you can’t get those guys in a fantasy team because you’d have to have ten-year-old defenders!”
Rather than out-and-out jokes, it’s Stone’s reflections and observations that make him an entertaining comic. And he’s a shrewd cookie because he’s managing to combine two of his great loves – comedy and football – to carve out a living.
He’s a busy boy, too. Aside from his BT Sport show, he’s a co-presenter of Rock ‘N’ Roll Football on Absolute Radio with Arsenal legend Ian Wright, a founder of The Tuesday Club podcast with comedian and fellow Arsenal fan Alan Davies and writes a regular column for the Arsenal magazine.
The latter has earned him the nickname of ‘The Company Man’, but he scoffs at any idea that this affects his ability to speak out.
“I think it’s funny,” he says.“Every time I refrain from criticising the club, I get loads of abuse and people saying ‘he can’t say anything’.”
Working with the exuberant Wright is something that Stone hardly would have thought possible when he was starting out on the comedy stand-up circuit in the early 1990s.
“It was a huge thrill for me,” he admitted. “It’s Wrighty, and I loved watching him and the joy he played with. I also like the joy he lives his life with now.We have a lot of fun.”
We’re speaking a few days after Arsenal’s 2-1 derby defeat to bitter North London rivals Tottenham. Spurs are known for having Jewish fans, but Stone opted for the boys in red and white.
“Why be a Tottenham fan?” he asks,“I think the Jews have suffered enough. My dad took me to Arsenal – thank heavens – and that’s it.”
Although he suggests he’s not rankled by losing to the Harry Kane-inspired Spurs, one or two little digs hint it hurts.
“I’ve been around long enough to be able to cope with losing a North London derby,” he said.“They deserved to win, we didn’t turn up. However, I don’t like the way they celebrate – but they rarely beat us, so it’s understandable.”
Stone first started going to watch the Gunners in 1970 and the Irishman Liam Brady, a star of the late 70s, was his favourite player growing up. Later, he mentions the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Tony Adams, Wright, Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira as players he’s admired.
You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s all football, football, football for Stone, but he admits that when he performs stand-up he tends to give it a miss.
“Sometimes people come along and expect me to be funny about football,” he explains. “When I’m banging on about politics, I think they’re thinking ‘isn’t this the football guy?’
“The problem is often that when people don’t like football, they have a vitriolic hatred of it, so you can lose part of your audience. On BT Sport, the show’s about football, we just chat about football for fun and that’s the subject.”
With his profile on the rise, Stone can expect more offers to start flooding in, but he’s not one for sitting round twiddling his thumbs.
He’s been to Kuwait, Kosovo and Afghanistan to entertain British troops and was the first British stand-up to perform in Moscow.
“Afghanistan was a thrill,” he said.“When you get flown out, put a helmet on and land in the dark, you think ‘this is a bit different from Saturday night at the Comedy Store’. But the troops are very grateful you’ve come and we’re very grateful they are there. I’m happy to help out.
“Moscow was a one-off trip. I would do a joke and then my interpreter would do a joke – it was all a bit surreal.”
With that,‘The Company Man’ signs off. He’s got his Arsenal column to write today and plenty of other things to keep him busy.
The Football’s On, hosted by comedian Ian Stone, will be broadcast on BT Sport 1 every Friday at 10pm until the end of the season.