http://www.scotsman.com/news/it-s-kevin-kevin-eldon-is-out-on-his-own-1-2822594
Kevin Eldon's CV is so festooned with riches, it borders on the ridiculous. His instinctively funny bones have blessed practically every outstanding British comedy of the last 20 years, including I'm Alan Partridge, Brass Eye, Blue Jam/Jam, Big Train, Spaced, Fist of Fun, Look Around You, Nighty Night and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
And
yet despite his reputation as one of the most versatile comic actors
in the business – and the only person ever to nail a stunningly
accurate impersonation of Beatles producer George Martin - only in
the last couple of years has he decided to tip his malleable fizzog
into the solo limelight. The putsch began with his critically
acclaimed, sold-out live show, Kevin Eldon is Titting About,
followed by his début TV starring vehicle, the delightfully silly
sketch extravaganza It's Kevin. So what took him so long?
“I
did the [live] show in 2010 as a bit of a personal challenge,” he
explains, “just to see if I could. It was to stop me being so lazy
for a whole year. And because it was actually quite scary, I thought
it might therefore be worthwhile trying to get it right. I was very
nervous about doing it, and very relieved when it generally went down
okay.”
Despite
having his name in the title, he's keen to stress that his
show is a collaborative effort. Indeed, it's rather heartening
that, having given invaluable support to so many great
writer/performers over the years, he was able to call upon many of
them to support him for a change. With a cast including such
luminaries as Julia Davis, Simon Day, David Cann and Simon Munnery,
not to mention core script assistance from Father Ted/Big Train
co-creator Arthur Mathews, It's Kevin is delirious catnip for
comedy nerds.
“It's
just a marvellously fortunate coincidence that some of my friends
happen to be really good comedy actors,” he smiles. “But I never
took it for granted that they would say yes. They're certainly not
doing it for the dosh.”
A
naturally self-effacing sort, Eldon is happy to let his co-stars
dominate certain sketches. “I didn't want everyone to be staring at
my stupid mug for half an hour non-stop every week. It's about giving
the audience some time off. Tomato coriander soup is very nice, but
you wouldn't want three courses of it. Not that I'm saying I'm a
soup.”
Like
most comedy of a surreal, offbeat nature, It's Kevin is
unlikely to become a huge mainstream hit. But does he worry that a
starring vehicle on BBC2 will still manage to compromise his relative
anonymity? “I honestly don't know if it'll slip under the radar or
whether it'll do brilliantly,” he says. “I think it'll probably
do okay. I don't think it's going to be a complete life-changer. The
recognition thing is a double-edged sword - I have a number of
friends who are instantly recognisable and quite famous, which can be
very nice. But from what I've seen it can also be very intrusive and
wearing.”
Although
born in Chatham, Kent, Eldon spent much of his childhood in
Dunfermline, where his father worked in nearby Rosyth Dockyard.
Following three years at drama school in England, he quietly emerged
on the early 1990s stand-up circuit, mostly in the guise of his
pompous, deluded poet character Paul Hamilton (a Hamilton book is in
the pipeline, which Eldon regards as another late-flowering personal
challenge). It was there that he became friendly with comedy duo Lee
& Herring, who harnessed his talents as a prominent supporting
player in their cult radio and TV vehicle Fist Of Fun. And
from there he's never looked back, having caught the eye of every
major British comedy player from Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris,
to Simon Pegg and Graham Linehan.
He
concedes that his impressive body of work is largely thanks to his
careful selectiveness. “I do think that good comedy is hard to get
right, and that's why it's fairly rare, in my opinion. So I've got to
really like it to be in it. I've made a few mistakes along the way,
but I think mostly I've done a pretty good call on it. If it doesn't
get me at script stage, then I usually knock it back. Or if it isn't
my style, because there's certain stuff that is funny but just isn't
really me. So I am quite selective. I think I'm a bit of a snob
actually.”
Welcome
to the club. So does it upset him when he sees the art of comedy
being mistreated?
“I
get furious about it,” he says, without hesitation. “I get very
angry about lazy comedy. But when it comes down to it, it's
absolutely a matter of taste. It's very easy to judge, but it's a
subjective thing. Stuff that I'd label as lazy gives brilliant,
genuine pleasure to lots of people, and you can't knock that. If
people are enjoying it, then fair enough, I'll just sit and brood in
a corner. But I've got be careful, as there's no mileage in being
negative. And yet weirdly enough, there's a lot that I feel extremely
negative about! But brilliant stuff is being made all the time, which
makes me a happy man. As long as there's stuff like Charlie Brooker
or Rev or The IT Crowd, then everything's fine.”
It's
hardly surprising that his high standards and passion for comedy
bleeds into his creative process. “I'm a perfectionist to the
point of slight obsession,” he admits. “It's almost bordering on
OCD. So my poor girlfriend, if I'm getting ready for one
particularly intricate bit, she will hear it said around the house
literally hundreds of times. Especially if it's word-based and fast
delivery, you first of all have to learn the muscle memory, and then
you have to get the comedy out of it. And you can't really relax
until your mouth and brain know it off by heart. Otherwise I feel
uneasy. But that doesn't always work in a positive way. By
over-rehearsing you can sometimes wring the life out of it.”
All
artists are neurotic to a degree, and while the avuncular Eldon
hardly embodies the bogus “sad clown” cliché, he's clearly aware
of his faults. “I'm rarely completely happy with what I've done,”
he says. “But I've tried to change that because someone formed the
theory that that's actually a form of massive egotism, that you have
this need to be absolutely perfect. But why should you be perfect?
Not many of us are perfect. So I've tried to transform that into just
doing the very best I can.”
IT'S
KEVIN begins on Sunday 17th March on BBC2 at 10:30pm.
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