A little while ago, Joseph Morpurgo found a wholly unremarkable, two minute VHS lying around featuring a clip from a Texan local news station. Using all the characters and locations from that, he’s written a fantastical cop procedural about a mysterious fire at a chemical factory.
Right: I love Mulligan Peters - his use of language, his turn of phrase, that balance of elegance and confidence. His ‘the last berry’ routine is, in my book, perfect. I don’t think a week goes by when one of my flatmates doesn’t drop that ‘ands off me basket!’ line.
“The show is called Odessa. There are, by the current count, seventeen characters. It’s all very busy.”
Tell us about your involvement with The Invisible Dot.
“I’ve been a committed fan of a lot of their output over the last half-decade or so, and was lucky enough to perform my first Edinburgh show - a collaboration with a great young theatre company called Truthmouth - at their venue a couple of times late last year. The relationship’s developed from there, really.”
How do you describe your comedy to people who haven’t seen you before?
“Tentatively.”
For you is stand-up a career choice or a calling – and why?
“Can I sidestep the question slightly? It’s certainly too haphazard and provisional an industry to ever be called a bankable career choice - but I also think there’re a lot of problems nested in that word “calling”, too. I guess you have to try and navigate some crooked path between the two. Let’s just say that, on the the career-to-calling spectrum, I’m probably a 7.8.”
If you were curating a stand up show for television, who would be your guests?
“Right: I love Mulligan Peters - his use of language, his turn of phrase, that balance of elegance and confidence. His ‘the last berry’ routine is, in my book, perfect. I don’t think a week goes by when one of my flatmates doesn’t drop that ‘ands off me basket!’ line. Ross Lister would certainly provide a welcome bit of energy, and I think you’d definitely need a proper old-school raconteur too - that new-ish American comic Alison Greene would be great, as would Phil Fitz.”
Broadway Baby Listing and Edinburgh Fringe Box Office: http://www.broadwaybaby.com/shows/joseph-morpurgo-odessa/699664
