Have you ever met a genius? Is there anyone in the wide world right now that qualifies for the title? Stand up Simons Evans feels that this illustrious term is very much misunderstood and that real genius is rarer than we think.
It’s all about realising the collective sanity among all the insanity
The 53-year-old comedian is a veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has frequented both good old Radio 4 and our television sets, once even winning Celebrity Mastermind. Now he is embarking on a new tour, bravely titled ‘Genius 2.0’.
With such a title, it is worth asking some more interesting questions. So here at BroadwayBaby, we try to be interesting ourselves when we spoke to Evans:
So Simon, you are often thought of as a smart comedian. Would you go as far as to call yourself a genius or an artist?
"Well, I think for comedians it can be tempting, almost too tempting, to think you have a platform. To think it is your job to pivot towards something serious and unknot tangled issues. The role to be provocative is there if you want it.
"I suppose I spend my life studying, observing and analysing but I do that to make jokes. I love that but some people go do the same thing and make policy that changes the world. I have to remind myself that I am there to make people amused. I just focus on being funny, it is a great cure for the illnesses of modern life to have a little laugh.
"Who knows where the borders of comedy are? What can or cannot be said? The audience needs that fear that something transgressive can happen to get a laugh. It is just tickling the edges. I don’t have some insight that no-one else has. It’s dangerous to think that is what I’m there for. In a way, it is more like people get to sit down and laugh at the sheer impotence of this little man who is trying. I’m like John Cleese in Fawlty Towers whacking his car with a tree branch."
You have an image of being a ‘clever comedian’. Does your family think you are clever?
"Not in a useful sense! I am drawn towards abstract ideas and conversations. I like that exchange of ideas without fear. Paradise for me is sitting with other intelligent people, sitting, eating and drinking. If you sit around on your own all day then you go mad and I think it is so important to have open discourse. I suppose in some ways that might make you clever. However, in other ways, I am utterly useless. Chores, deadlines and all of this. It might be an arrogant tendency to be concerned with loftier matters and think that makes me clever."
You said being a comedian lets you analyse, study and observe. If you weren’t a comedian, how would you scratch that itch?
"If not a comedian I think I’d like to be in academia. Then again, any novel I’ve seen set in academia makes it out to be filled with envy, competition and resentment. In a way those Oxbridge systems are great, things like tenure. You get to wander around in a cloud of your own thoughts. Almost a system of self-indulgence!
"Then again, I did law at Uni thinking I could be Rumpole of the Bailey. Demolishing arguments with flourishes and wit. Within a few months, I knew it wasn’t for me, I just couldn’t do all that reading. I could have gone my whole life penniless.
"I used to enjoy sales. I got to build an argument and talk with people but I always used to hear I was a good salesman but people weren’t interested. Thing is, if I was actually a good salesman I wouldn’t have heard that.
"I stumbled into stand up. I know I’m so fortunate because I had proper jobs but I was so bad at them. That capacity to be all gloss like a salesman is fine if you are a comedian.It's that Bob Monkhouse style."
You’ve been involved with a lot of TV and Radio, which do you prefer?
"Well, being entirely honest I love the experience of radio. It is less mediated by all other things. TV breaks up the experience, sometimes it can feel like being smashed by a hammer and built back by a committee but I’ve made more money from one appearance on Live at the Apollo than all radio work put together.
"Apollo is such a successful way of highlighting comedy and radio is a powerful medium as well. Before Apollo, they tried to capture the heart of comedy. You know, those low rent comedy clubs where it all happens. The crucible of comedy. The dim lights, the close space and the cigarette smoke. Thing is, it didn’t work. Just felt like something great happened and you weren’t there.
"The lights and glamour of Apollo made it work, it’s the same with Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. So many people got their start from that so you have to give it credit. It is a wonderful platform."
Let’s brighten things up a bit. Comedians and geniuses are witty types, what would you want for your epitaph?
"Epitaph? Wow, I’ve never thought about it. I always loved Spike Milligan’s epitaph: “I told you I was ill.” Brilliant. I’ve always loved Robert Lewis Steven’s Requiem. It gives me little shivers, so simple and powerful. I wouldn’t want something funny. I want to get all the wit out of me while I’m walking and talking.
"It reminds of an opera I saw recently, Der Rosenkavalier. The stage was so big that anytime someone had to leave the stage, they would bow, click their heels then skip off the stage. Could be a solid 20 yards or so of walking but you are meant to assume that the second they click their heels then they are gone and people would act as they disappeared. Otherwise, it would be a terrible wait for them to go. I think last words are like that clicking of the heels. I may still be here but I want to be remembered like this."
Time for a good old generic question. Why should someone see your show?
"I think laughter is enormously beneficial. It can stay with you for days or weeks, clearing out the system. Also, the show is a bit more bracing than what you currently hear in the workplace and that can be a good mental cleanse. It can let you know you aren’t the only crazy person in the world. It’s all about realising the collective sanity among all the insanity."
If you want to catch the poshest voice in comedy and see Evan's unique brand of humour, you can catch him at the Komedia in Brighton on Monday 26th November.
