How comedian Andy Parsons went from law to lawless

IN the middle of his very first five-minute set, Andy Parsons was gripped by blind panic.

Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, he dropped the note he was using as a prompt for his next joke.

If a kind stranger had not stood up, picked up the piece of paper off the floor and urged him to carry on, he may not have pursued stand-up.

“I was so nervous I chucked the piece of paper on the floor and a woman picked it up and said: ‘Carry on, you’re doing very well’,” says the award-winning comedian, most famous for his spot on panel show Mock the Week.

“I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t. I’m not sure I would have carried on. One lovely member of the audience and then I got my second gig.”

A law graduate desperate to “get away from law” and yet employed by a law firm in London, he took redundancy after six months. But with a tiny redundancy package, he had to find a way to pay the bills. In other words, he had to make comedy work for him and pronto.

“I had managed to get my boss to let me write at lunchtime as a non-commissioned writer for Weekending. I was desperate to get away from law.

“Then they offered me redundancy and I took it with open arms. But you’ve only got three months’ redundancy, so you start throwing things at the wall and see what sticks. I did some writing and some stand-up. It’s rather nice now I get to do both.”

His latest tour, Live and Unleashed but Naturally Cautious, will allow him to break loose from Mock the Week’s box-ticking game and an army of politically-correct commissioners.

“It’s an unrepeatable experience. Who knows what may happen in two hours? You’ve got no editing process and you’re totally in control. That’s the great fun of it. You don’t get people telling you what to say. It’s entirely possible that you’ll be a bit vulnerable.”

And he has experienced just that performing at the Wyvern Theatre before, in the form of an inebriated spectator who certainly gave him a run for his money.

“We’ve had some exciting experiences in Swindon. You walk in the Wyvern and there is a vibrancy. I seem to remember a lady that the rest of the audience didn’t take to. Maybe she had had quite a lot of wine and not enough tea,” he says.

But for Andy Parsons, it was just another day at the office. At least touring means he doesn’t have to fight off other funny men for his turn at the microphone.

“We record Mock the Week for three hours and they only show 30 minutes of it. In terms of editing there’s times when you think that bit was brilliant and when you watch it it’s been edited out and you think: ‘Why has it not gone in?’.

"It’s slightly frustrating. We have a decent laugh on it but after three hours, there is only so much of the week you can mock.

“And it’s nice to have just one person when you do a show, not six rushing to the microphone.”

The title of the show, which premieres at the Wyvern next week, reflects his self-deprecating nature. It is also a passing quip at stand-up shows’ hyperbolic titles.

“You get all the tour shows called dangerous or unrestrained. You go to America and, when a comic is introduced, they say ‘They’ve done this and that’.

“In Britain we downplay this. There’s a strain of British humour that’s self-deprecating and I belong to that.”

In keeping with this philosophy he will proceed to undercut himself at every turn in Live and unleashed but naturally cautious.

“The first half of the show is deconstructing what I think I’m good at and realising I’m not good at it. I thought I was good at driving and I’m realising I’m even s*** at that. We look at every aspect of my life and as you come towards the end you think ‘Is there any point going on?’ But in the second half we come together as a team and, if we’re all crap individually, you realise that when we come together we can power a bus.”

Andy Parsons will be at the Wyvern Theatre on Wednesday, February 18, at 8pm.

Tickets for Andy Parsons’ show cost £16. To book visit swindontheatres.co.uk or call 01793 524481