Joe Thomas is probably best known for his role as Simon Cooper - the unlucky in love schoolboy from hit E4 show, The Inbetweeners. But aside from his acting, Joe is an ambassador for The National Young Volunteer Service … I caught up with him to find out about the vinspired National Award 2009, The Inbetweeners Movie and stand up comedy.
Hey Joe, how are you?
I’m good thanks… how are you?
I’m okay, ready to go home and sleep! It’s so dark and cold and miserable today!
Haha! Are you in a cave, or a basement or a dark building?
No, but you know, we’ve got all these lights on the ceilings but none of them work…
Oh, are they those posh ones that look good but are a nightmare to replace?
Yes, exactly! I have to stand on the desk and everything… anyway, it’s been a while since we saw you on our screens, what have you been getting up to?
I’ve been writing a sitcom with my writing partner Simon Bird who plays Will in the Inbetweeners, I am just starting to do a few little bits of stand-up because I used to do comedy before I began - oh hold on I do do comedy - I used to do live comedy before I began is what I mean! it’s very, very early days though, but it is quite exciting.
My mum always told me to go for funny men over good looking ones…
Yes! They will be funny for their whole life you see whereas some people might become funny as they get older, but only because they look weird. As long as the funny people don’t go mental then you’ll be okay. Although if they go mental, then they’ll probably still be funny.
Anyway, I think I’ve gone back to my roots - without wanting to sound pretentious - I just want to go back to live comedy which is always what I set out to do. I got into the Inbetweeners from a live comedy show I was doing, so it’s great rediscovering all that.
I heard you and your Inbetweeners co-star Emily have gotten involved with the vinspired national awards, what exactly are they?
Well they were actually new to me too until I asked my dad (who works in a sixth form college) and he knew a lot about them and they looked like a good idea and obviously I trust his judgement.
Basically vinspired is an organisation which connects young people with charities and projects which they can get involved in based on the skills they have to offer. On the vinspired website you can type in your interests, and then the site will connect you with a charity where you can get involved in something you’d be interested in.
I think it’s good because it’s less daunting, it’s not like you have to turn up at a soup kitchen and say ‘I want to help’ you just say what you are interested in and they will pair you up with something which you should enjoy.
It has connections to loads and loads of organisations.
What a great idea!
It is a really good idea, it’s like a social networking site really - which are bit at the moment - so always a winner.
What kind of things have the short listed people been doing?
They are just people who have given up a unusual amount of time and they have had a real vision - I think a lot of them have done a lot of quite unusual stuff. I’ve been talking to this guy who produced an educations DVD for schools but he used a giant puppet in the DVD and he’s been working with the guy who makes some of the puppets for the Billy Elliot musical. It sounds bonkers but it’s so unique and I have no idea how people come up with things so off the wall….
It’s stuff that just wouldn’t have ever have happened if these kids hadn’t had thought it up, but those are the kind of people we want to honour at the moment.
Aww, I like it when people do something good…
Yes! Some people have to be doing good things for the world to function!
Now obviously you’re well known for playing Simon in The Inbetweeners, do you think that as kids see someone they love being involved with such a good cause, it will inspire them to get involved too?
Well I hope so, I hope that I come across as someone who is relatively normal and isn’t like a zealous enthusiast for self-sacrifice… I hope that because The Inbetweeners is about normal people, and I’m relatively normal… I’m just so impressed by all the things that these people have done, and I hope people can share in my admirations for that and then they will give up a small amount of their time for something they think is worthwhile.
So, to talk a little bit about your acting career, we LOVE The Inbetweeners here at FemaleFirst, myself and the other girls spent a whole afternoon doing the quiz on the Channel 4 website when series two came out…
Was the quiz really hard?
Yeah! It was so hard, but this girl Laura knew ALL the answers, she was really good… so what’s it like being a part of such a great show?
It is really fun to be honest, they’re lovely people doing it, the cast is great, the writers are lovely and I look forward to doing it! It’s just like going to school and seeing all your mates. It’s great! I’m very privileged to be involved in it.
When we’re working on it it’s marvellous, then when we’re not I am just writing my own things…. I spend a lot of time writing and I know from experience that writing is such a graft, so with The Inbetweeners, we get the fun bits - when it’s all done and dusted we just turn up and stand in front of the camera.
So how involved are you in the writing processes of the show?
Erm, we ‘offer’ our opinions sometimes, and they listen to us… and them we move on! Haha.
By the way Joe - whilst I remember - that thing, in the boat, with the fish…. Not cool! I felt sick, I had to cover my bunny’s eyes!
Haha! It’s a bit gory that bit isn’t it?
Geoffrey has this fish they he drags around the living room so he was really upset.
Well, it makes you think about where your food comes from doesn’t it! Haha, but beyond the fish, why not, we’ve all done that haven’t we?
No! no I haven’t Joe, the worst thing I’ve done is sprayed a daddy longlegs with Mr Muscle because I couldn’t catch it… anyway finally, do you have any other projects on the go at the moment?
Well we may be doing an Inbetweeners film which might be exciting, that should be fantastic. We’re doing series three next year and other than that, I don’t really know… what I really want now is to go back to writing something for myself - that was what I set out to do, so it’s still the dream for me and that’s what I’m hopefully in the process of doing!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison.
Joe Thomas is probably best known for his role as Simon Cooper - the unlucky in love schoolboy from hit E4 show, The Inbetweeners. But aside from his acting, Joe is an ambassador for The National Young Volunteer Service … I caught up with him to find out about the vinspired National Award 2009, The Inbetweeners Movie and stand up comedy.
Hey Joe, how are you?
I’m good thanks… how are you?
I’m okay, ready to go home and sleep! It’s so dark and cold and miserable today!
Haha! Are you in a cave, or a basement or a dark building?
No, but you know, we’ve got all these lights on the ceilings but none of them work…
Oh, are they those posh ones that look good but are a nightmare to replace?
Yes, exactly! I have to stand on the desk and everything… anyway, it’s been a while since we saw you on our screens, what have you been getting up to?
I’ve been writing a sitcom with my writing partner Simon Bird who plays Will in the Inbetweeners, I am just starting to do a few little bits of stand-up because I used to do comedy before I began - oh hold on I do do comedy - I used to do live comedy before I began is what I mean! it’s very, very early days though, but it is quite exciting.
My mum always told me to go for funny men over good looking ones…
Yes! They will be funny for their whole life you see whereas some people might become funny as they get older, but only because they look weird. As long as the funny people don’t go mental then you’ll be okay. Although if they go mental, then they’ll probably still be funny.
Anyway, I think I’ve gone back to my roots - without wanting to sound pretentious - I just want to go back to live comedy which is always what I set out to do. I got into the Inbetweeners from a live comedy show I was doing, so it’s great rediscovering all that.
I heard you and your Inbetweeners co-star Emily have gotten involved with the vinspired national awards, what exactly are they?
Well they were actually new to me too until I asked my dad (who works in a sixth form college) and he knew a lot about them and they looked like a good idea and obviously I trust his judgement.
Basically vinspired is an organisation which connects young people with charities and projects which they can get involved in based on the skills they have to offer. On the vinspired website you can type in your interests, and then the site will connect you with a charity where you can get involved in something you’d be interested in.
I think it’s good because it’s less daunting, it’s not like you have to turn up at a soup kitchen and say ‘I want to help’ you just say what you are interested in and they will pair you up with something which you should enjoy.
It has connections to loads and loads of organisations.
What a great idea!
It is a really good idea, it’s like a social networking site really - which are bit at the moment - so always a winner.
What kind of things have the short listed people been doing?
They are just people who have given up a unusual amount of time and they have had a real vision - I think a lot of them have done a lot of quite unusual stuff. I’ve been talking to this guy who produced an educations DVD for schools but he used a giant puppet in the DVD and he’s been working with the guy who makes some of the puppets for the Billy Elliot musical. It sounds bonkers but it’s so unique and I have no idea how people come up with things so off the wall….
Tagged in Joe Thomas