6 hours ago
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How did you get into comedy?
I was submitting sketches to Spitting Image when I was 17 and making my own sketches pre-internet. But I guess in terms of my actual break, that didn’t happen until [online political sketch series] The Room Next Door.
Was that an overnight success?
I was watching a particularly bad interview with Boris Johnson and jotted down the concept of an adviser next door who was pulling his hair out over what was being said. I then filmed it after dinner, posted it before I went to bed and the next morning it was in the millions. So that is literally an overnight success, isn’t it?
There were other disastrous interviews taking place that week which got highlighted on social media and I realised the character could be in the room next door to literally any situation at any point in time, anywhere. There was some longevity in it, as opposed to other sketches I’ve done in the past that went viral.
Have you ever had any indication that a public figure has enjoyed being the subject of your sketches?
I get very sneaky follows. For instance, if I’ve criticised somebody in the cabinet, I’m often then followed by somebody else in the cabinet. As if to say: “Yes, she’s awful, isn’t she?” People like Keir Starmer follow me because of what I was doing several years ago when the Conservatives were in charge. But these are all sort of surreptitious, never engaging with me. And I must admit, it annoys me that I haven’t got to them because to them it means that it’s just a game. But it’s not because, you know, lives are at stake sometimes. And I just want people to be held to account, not to be joshing with them in some sort of weird celebrity fantasy.
Have you always seen yourself as a satirist?
Not really, no. It’s a bit like the way Peter Cook was labelled a satirist – that’s unfair because he just found the whole world funny. But it always seemed to me that satire was a very fruitful place to go for comedy.
What’s the best piece of trolling you’ve ever experienced, if such a thing exists?
It doesn’t. I find trolls so absolutely abhorrent. They are motivated by their toxicity and their poisonous behaviour towards you. It’s what makes them get up in the morning. I once did a sketch where I spliced two public information films together - one was “Be careful on a boat with your petrol” and the other was “Don’t over-boil a kettle”. I spliced them together and made “Don’t boil a kettle on a boat” which was a kettle boiling over and then a boat exploding. It went viral because people thought it was real. Two people got into a really heated argument about why you shouldn’t actually boil a kettle on a boat. And they went back and forth for the best part of 24 hours, always CCing me in on their argument. I had nothing to do with it. Eventually they started attacking each other about their education, their upbringing. That’s when I thought that internet commenting has really contributed nothing to society or culture. It’s just dragged it downwards.
Do you have a comedy hero?
I have lots. In terms of comedians that shaped my view of the world, I would say watching repeats of Monty Python in 1987 on BBC One after Match of the Day just changed my whole life. It made me look at authority figures and realise that they need to earn our respect. They shouldn’t be respected just because they’re wearing a tie and a suit.
What can audiences expect from your forthcoming show, Hope All’s Well?
Hope. I thought that it would be an interesting spin on things if I actually addressed all the terrible things that are going on in the world and found some light at the end of the tunnel. So it’s quite a positive and uplifting show … as well as being a funny one.
Any bugbears from the world of comedy?
This is probably grumpy old man speak, but I don’t like how comedians, when they get their break, don’t do comedy. They present TV shows or they appear on panel shows. They don’t do sketch comedy and they don’t really do standup. A lot of the opportunities are to bake cakes or answer questions on Mastermind. I find that uninspiring and boring. When I was a child, if somebody was a big success in comedy, they would usually get their own comedy show.
What’s next?
Making sure my travel is booked for an upcoming episode of Father Brown which I’m appearing in. I’m being murdered. I’m looking forward to that.
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Michael Spicer: Hope All’s Well is on tour across the UK from 5 September until 21 November.
