Phil Kay

Dave noticed your blog hasn't been updated for months! Is that because you are:
a) too busy
b) too lazy
c) something of a wizard who could see back in December 2008 that blogging was so last year?
d. Dave - a cunning hybrid of truly wanting to do it then suddenly after trying it I felt that it is not right for me. I want closeness - I want to smell the people who read it and be able to sit in their lap. Not this soulless approximation - the blog. Their numbers and shapes are unknown to me. When I perform I have the lights up a bit and wish to see the whites of the eyes of front rows.

How did you first get into comedy?
All in one evening. I did my first four minutes of an expected eight to win a heat of a new comedy competition in Edinburgh then went to see Sean Hughes and Corky and the Juice Pigs at Late and Live and then my eyes were open, my head wet, the umbilical severed. I was out and into it: comedy could be a receiver of truly great wild bountiful presence of mind and ideas and smashing funny too. Christ, what a birth - laughter is lube.

Who are your comedy heroes?
My comedy heroes are the ones I value most highly and see as doing the great brave works of mirth in the field.

How would you describe your comedy style?
Good point I see what you mean.

What's the latest show at The Crack about?
Just ever so stylishly pushing the comedy boat out from a velvet lined marina with a scarlet glove into waters not fully charted, the people on board the boat from all walks ands persuasions and the rigging a most curious maroon.

Do you enjoy being naked on stage more than most comedians?
Because it seems to happen more I simply must do. Last time it happened I just stood with my trousers down pressed against a man in cork who couldn't stop laughing and, holding tight, I felt his every honk and wheeze.

Right Phil. Explain this Wikipedia quote: "Phil married for 6 weeks, he then lost his home and ended up living in a caravan in the middle of Glasgow. This dwelling was then targeted in an arson attack and burnt out leaving Phil homeless. " This needs more explanation please.

Two things to what is essentially a very neat and frank summary: All I retrieved from the fire was a black porcelain plate and a bag of photographs. Secondly the interesting thing was that the caravan was parked on a bit of unmarked road by the park, except when I got back from Glastonbury they had turned the area into a pay and park zone and they had to paint around my caravan making the whole street lined up with where I was.

David in the office reckons he heard that you were loving performing and writing and then you had a creative block. Is this true? And if so what happened?!
Nothing happened I have been doing gigs exactly how I want to for the last ten years. Just me on my own with two hours to fill in little art centres or pub basements all over Scotland and Ireland while I lived by the seaside and raised kids and had a better and better Edinburgh festival every year.

Dave's witty question: What's the wittiest thing you've ever seen or heard?
Some Like It Hot, or His Girl Friday or Kitson at Late and Live or Muhammad Ali held up in Zaire, or Hegley with kids, or lLetterman with adults or maybe it was me when the police pulled me over on my bike: "Did you see that that was a red light you just went through.?" Me: "Come on lets not start this way. We both know my ignorance of the law is no excuse. Have you ever been to Shanghai where the traffic lights are a mere suggestion and the cyclist move like big old flocks of birds...?"

What's next for Phil Kay?
Lunch, publish a book, get screenplays to be loved by directors, change nappy, do more improvised skiffle-rock gigs in London town that grow, water the potatoes, cycle, do festivals in summer and invent games.

Get more Mr Kay at philkay.co.uk