Perfect timing

(Morning Star, Monday 08 September 2008)

INTERVIEW

SHOW TIME: Dan Atkinson

Interview: DAN ATKINSON went down a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here, the exuberant stand-up comic talks to the Star about what his future has in store.

Almost everyone who has been to see a stand-up comic has a vague pretension to the skill.

"I could do that," you think, as you watch some tubby know-it-all bat away hecklers like flies, grinning toothily from a slightly raised platform which offers no personal protection whatsoever.

Being a punter at a Dan Atkinson gig, however, is a slightly different affair. While all the visual cues suggest a shambling nonchalance, Atkinson regularly cuts hecklers to figurative ribbons with such ease and timing that it seems as if they must be plants in the crowd.

Make no mistake, Atkinson always gets his man. Or woman, it seems. "I had loads of kids in at a show at the Edinburgh Fringe and I told a 15-year-old girl to fuck off half-way through, which was fun. You know it's been a good day when that happens," he grins.

One would ask what the said 15-year-old would have hoped to find at Atkinson's Edinburgh Fringe performance. Running throughout August at the Pleasance Courtyard, the shaggy-haired comic's performances were regularly sold out and were some of the most sought-after tickets in town.

'Reviewers have called him a "shambles" and "unkempt," but it is truly the work of a showman.'

Their popularity could be put down to many things, but it has to be said that the show's attention-grabbing title did the comic only favours. The Credit Crunch And Other Biscuits takes the audience on a fraught journey through a difficult world - from Atkinson's comfortable existence up north to the pillage that living in London has wrought on his finances.

When talking about the impending economic doom, the affable comic admits to feeling left in the dark.

"I find it a bit confusing when newspapers just paint it with broad brush-strokes. It doesn't actually mean anything to me. All the news about the banks, how does it affect me?"

Personalising the economic anguish of the country so succinctly was a bit of pot luck, he says.

"I got lucky with the title. It was a bit of a panic, because I just had to name it early so I've been really hoping that the economy would crumble - and it really played into my hands."

One man's misery is another man's triumph, it seems, and, after such a successful run, Atkinson is holding the championship belt aloft for all to see.

The excitement of any of his shows comes from his child-like exuberance for his subject and his often arcane observations on a world which alternately amuses and baffles him.

Reviewers have called the 28-year-old "gawky" and "shambolic," appearing, as he does, bearded and unkempt, but his is truly the work of a showman. In making his living as a stand-up for 10 years now, Atkinson's supposed "shambles" is actually carefully designed.

How else could he run a successful comedy club for five years in York? Now ready to hit the big time, it seems that maybe the big time is braced for the punch. Atkinson's successful Edinburgh appearances have brought him a spot on the Edinburgh And Beyond tour with Glenn Wool, Isy Suttie and Joe Wilkinson, all accomplished comics who have garnered critical praise.

Having had three weeks off since Edinburgh, which he has labelled "a month-long works outing," his new shows promise to capture his natural vibrancy and hilarity, not to mention a little audience interaction. Consider yourself warned.

See www.dansdesk.co.uk for more information.