Ivo Graham: ‘My best heckle? Can you get money back from Eton?!’
Who inspired you when you were first starting out?
This is not the first time I have given the answer Simon Amstell to this question. But if the Donny Tourette and Preston episodes on Never Mind the Buzzcocks aren’t a panel show imperial phase, I don’t know what is. And then I watched his standup and it turned out he was actually sad?! This guy had everything!
Do you remember your first gig?
Doing observational material about the Varsity Ski Trip at Oxford’s Turl Street Kitchen in December 2008. Truly hateful stuff, and yet a record I can’t really be said to have changed much in the decade and a half since.
Can you recall a gig so bad, it’s now funny?
I did a tour show to 12 people in Falkirk, five of them friends of my parents, three days after a pretty top-tier breakup and I’m in marginally more of a position to laugh about that now than I was then.
Best heckle?
“Can you get money back from Eton?” (Jenny Eclair, Taskmaster series 15) has already been shouted once at a gig since and I fear it won’t be the last.
What’s your current show about?
Quite worryingly, the only thing I’m really certain will feature is 10 minutes about Top Trumps.
Any preshow rituals?
Seal my iPhone in my iDiskk lock box in an attempt to cleanse my mind and get in the zone, before immediately realising there is something I need to Google for the set and asking the stage manager if I can check it on their phone.
Is there any comedian on the circuit who makes you jealous? If so, who and why?
There are all sorts of reasons to say Mike Wozniak in answer to this, but I’d really like to emphasise his dancing.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Don’t read the comments!
Worst advice you’ve ever been given?
Do read the comments! Get in there, absorb every bit of negative feedback, the legitimate critiques, the ones with clear axes to grind, the ones where you can’t tell if they’re being supportive or sarcastic, feed them all into your self-doubt and let them hang over you for ever and whisper menacingly in your ear as you lower yourself into the stocks for the next Q&A. Was I right to pick A Fish Called Wanda as my “funniest film” in 2017 on the grounds of how many times my dad played it at home when we were growing up? Probably. Does it matter either way? Of course not. Do I still want to seek out every BTL legend who disagreed and apologise for being so gauche/crass/thick/posh? Absolutely!
Any comedy industry bugbears?
Being strongly advised to hammer the socials while trying to preserve what remains of your sanity/attention span is a well-documented tightrope, and one it’s not really fair to pit on “the industry”.
What are you currently excited about?
Watching Pulp at Latitude with Alex Kealy and getting to do an episode of our Gig Pigs podcast about it the next day. I am extremely lucky to have that man in my life (Alex, not Jarvis, although obviously Jarvis, too).
One of three shows you’re taking to Edinburgh this year is Comedians’ DJ Battles. What should audiences expect?
A furiously complicated combatting of people’s entirely subjective musical preferences, honed over various road trips to gigs this year. What three songs by artists beginning with B would you play in the club at 1am? (Rasputin, Toxic and Smalltown Boy for me). Why relax and enjoy life when you could turn every bit of it into a game?
Ivo Graham: Organised Fun is at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2-27 August. Then touring.
