Paul Foot: A Retrospective

Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Friday, December 4, to Sunday, December 6

“I’M probably about a quarter of the way to my 10,000 hours,” admits Paul Foot referring to journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s definition of how long it takes for someone to become an expert.

“If you count thinking about it and writing I must have done 10,000 hours.

“When I used to do comedy people didn’t think I knew what I was doing – then they would realise I did know. It took a long time both for the audience to get used to it and for me to perfect walking that fine line between disorganised shambles and being in complete control. Then something intangible happens where the audience knows you know what you’re doing.”

That journey might be visible as Foot looks back over three of his past Edinburgh shows over the course of three nights at Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.

These aren’t traditional comedy shows – in 2009’s By The Yard (performed tonight) he spends 34 minutes building up a joke on how to take revenge on a B&B landlady.

And in tomorrow night's Still Life, from 2011, he spends the first 37 minutes talking to the audience from offstage.

“I wanted to choose three very different shows,” he says. “There are a few little links that flow through them – I make reference to my cheddar collection in Still Life, and a collection of different types of cheddar in [2012]’s Kenny Larch Is Dead! [being performed on Sunday]. Those who watch all three will notice a few little connections.

“With Still Life I didn’t actually come on stage to start the show for 37 minutes – whereas with the next show [Kenny Larch Is Dead] I went straight on talking about nonsense without warning. It was almost the opposite approach.”

But as well as looking back through his past Foot will also be giving an indication of what might come in the future – with a second half wholly devoted to improvisation and audience Q and As.

“It’s quite an anarchic style, similar to my secret shows,” he says referring to the intimate shows announced through his website that he holds in secret locations generally in and around London for his fans – referred to generally as connoisseurs.

“It will bring a different flavour to the retrospective. I can take people on a silly journey every night and make things up with them – some of the secret shows regulars get really involved.”

It links into the way he writes. Favourite routines, such as the extended shire horse humour routine from 2010’s Ash In The Attic, began life as onstage improvisations. The Youtube favourite – which was originally directed by Noel Fielding - allowed Foot not only to explore the minutiae of the 1980s village fete experience but also give vent to the homophobic thoughts of a shire horse sick of being told he will never win the Derby.

“The improvisations often revolve around the personalities there in the audience,” he says. “A lot of improvising groups get stuck in the same themes or come back to the same ideas over and over again. This is real proper improvisation in the sense it can never be done again in the same exact circumstances in which it was born.”

Keeping things fresh is the central link between these retrospective shows.

“I think sometimes improvising comics get too carried away with the freshness of improvisation,” he says.

“There’s a freshness about doing a show many times and making it feel fresh. Those comics who just want to do improvisations are sometimes missing the point.

“The audience aren’t thinking about what is improvised and what isn’t – if it feels fresh they will enjoy it in the same way people listening to Bohemian Rhapsody aren’t thinking about the process of creation.”

As for the future Foot is already working on a new show for autumn 2016 – which will be different from all the other shows, but may include some of the material from these improvised sections.

And there is also the option of more retrospective tours – drawing on the more than 4,000 shows he has already performed in his career such as 2008’s Off The Top With His Head, the aforementioned Ash In The Attic or 2014’s brilliantly named Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon # Major.

Prepare to be confused.

Starts 8pm, tickets £15.50, £37.50 for all three shows. Call 01273 709709.