Andy Parsons

Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Church Street, Wednesday, December 9

LITTLE more than a month after he announced he was leaving BBC One’s satirical panel show Mock The Week, stand-up Andy Parsons brings his latest show Live and Unleashed – But Naturally Cautious to Brighton.

He tells Duncan Hall about his new monthly podcast the Slacktivist Action Group, which sees MPs, political activists and comedians come together to discuss topical issues at the Soho Theatre, and his plans for 2016.

The Guide: So why leave Mock The Week now?

Andy Parsons: Ten years is a pretty good round number. By the time What You Wouldn’t Hear In A Superhero Movie comes around a fourth time it felt like a good time to move on.

What inspired the new podcast?

It seemed like a good thing – more what I wanted to do. I’m more in control as I’m hosting it.

On Mock The Week the subjects are somewhat curtailed, especially given the BBC sensitivity with the charter renewal and the current Government not being a friend to the BBC. Mock The Week is now edited 48 hours in advance, which is never great for a topical show.

Getting people to talk who are passionate about what they’re doing is good – I’m trying to get that to rub off on me and the listeners. It’s all very easy to sit in your armchair and criticise – nothing’s going to change until people get off their bums and try to do something. Hopefully we will get some little victories along the way.

Bringing together guests from outside the world of comedy, and talking about up-to-the-minute issues must have made it quite a nerve-wracking thing to put together?

Maybe it would have been if I’d thought about it more. People have asked me how many pilots I did, but we didn’t do any. For the first one Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, came along and got really involved in talking about trade union legislation. He told us there was legislation that the Government wanted to introduce meaning striking unions should have to give two weeks’ notice to use Facebook and Twitter. The next day that was announced the business secretary [Sajid Javid] had backtracked on putting Facebook and Twitter in the proposals.

Do you think there’s a disconnection between what politicians say and the reality of what’s going on in society today?

You only have to listen to the politicians talking about tax credits – they keep using that phrase “hard-working families” which is one of the most hated political phrases ever, but every politician seems unable to talk about tax credits without mentioning it. I know every single family has at least one dosser in it…

Do you think satire is in a good place again with the return of the Tories?

I’ve never subscribed to the view that there are fallow periods in satire. I think the public is more interested in politics as it is affecting them as austerity bites. If a government has a slim majority it does influence what is going on.

Under the Coalition George Osborne had the budget to forget in 2012 – where they taxed granny flats, pasties and caravans. They had to backtrack on all three of them – I can’t imagine any future government will stop us enjoying a Ginster’s with an elderly relative on a p***-poor holiday park.

How much has the rise of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader changed things?

Nobody can argue that the political parties are all the same anymore – or what’s the point in voting as the same party gets in!

Satire is very much about the moment – but what about when something like the Paris attacks happens? Do you feel you have to hold back?

In some ways those moments, when people aren’t sure how they feel about stuff, they’re the most thrilling times to be on stage. That moment can cause people to think ‘that’s exactly how I feel’ as soon as you get it out in the open.

With the decision whether to bomb Syria there was a moment last night where I was talking about how David Cameron didn’t get the bombing vote in 2013, and now it looks like he might in 2015. The only difference is this time we want to bomb the other side to the one we did last time.

How has the rise of the internet helped the satirist?

I think the advantage of the internet is there’s an awful lot of people out there pulling stuff apart. It means politicians have to be more careful about what they are doing. George Osborne had to do a complete U-turn in terms of his thoughts about tax credits, and it’s great that people have that power within two weeks to get that changed.

What’s interesting is that nobody gets news from traditional news sources. Young people are getting it from television shows and comedy shows – so there’s some obligation to deal with those topics rather than talk about a monkey sanctuary in Cornwall or something.

I think people are realising if they get enough pressure behind something things can change. The internet is a good way of getting in touch with people and galvanising them to turn up and do stuff.

Is this part of what the Slacktivist Action Group is about?

The good thing about the podcast is I don’t have to go through a terrestrial broadcaster to get a radio show – I can just make a show and put it out there.

Is it good to get that extra depth?

You can’t get everything down to one sentence – if you’re putting the world’s problems down to one sentence you’re not doing them justice.

The Slacktivist Action Group podcast seems to have a much closer connection with the audience – each show ends with the audience deciding on a course of action to be done that month. How are the actions going?

It’s only been a month or so, but I’ve loved inviting the guests along and talking to them. Trying to do something to get noticed requires everybody to be playing the same game – we need everybody to go with it.

Interacting with the audience is very much a part of it – I’m trying to get everyone to suggest things, questions for the guests, actions we can get involved in. Hopefully the whole will become less about me and will spiral off into other things.

We have made a small start with the actions – we attracted a very hardy group of people to go along to the Royal Geographical Society. The first time you get a handful, then two handfuls, and then more and more people doing more and more stuff.

Were you worried about what direct action you might get hooked into?

Not really – my feeling was if enough people want to do it, let’s do it and worry about it afterwards!

How are the podcast and the current tour working together?

The second half of the tour was very much along the lines of the podcast – it gave me pleasure to get such a great reaction. I felt it was more what I wanted to do. In Mock The Week inevitably there were topics that came up which I had no interest in talking about – I didn’t want to talk about a panda escaping from a zoo in Russia.

The DVD has just been released – how does that compare with the tour as it is now?

I filmed the DVD in a theatre in Margate which is the second oldest in the country – I didn’t realise the oldest theatre was the Bristol Old Vic which I’ve also been to on this tour.

The show is always changing – it has the same bare bones structure, but bits have got jumbled up. The way things have been changing, with Syria, Corbyn battling with the shadow cabinet have all changed it.

If anyone had seen the show in spring and watched it now it would be virtually 100% different.

Do you ever wish the news feed would slow down a little so you could focus on a particular subject?

I have a very limited attention span – I’m always happy to drop stuff and throw new stuff in. There’s a real excitement in getting new stuff to work.

What are your plans for 2016?

I’ve booked up guests for the podcast until June – MPs, journalists and fellow comedians, there’s a real variety. I’ve been doing more than 100 shows on this tour, so I might get a couple of weeks of holiday after Christmas!

Starts 8pm, tickets £16. Call 01273 709709.