Micky Flanagan chats Comedy and Grand Designs

16 November 2011

If you didn't see Micky Flanagan's first live tour this year, where were you?

With fresh material and a great on-stage presence, Micky Flanagan has quickly become one of the most popular comics on the circuit. 'The Out Out Tour' DVD marks his first UK tour and his best work.

"People can expect all of the best stuff that I've come up with over the past five years, bolted together. It's basically a recording of the 160 date tour I've just done," Micky tells FemaleFirst.

While it may be exhausting to be on the road for a long time, the performing makes it all worth it for Micky.

"Ultimately the performing is the best part [of touring] but it also allows me to sort of see the UK really.

"I know it sounds like a same thing to say but the amount of people you meet in London that have never been to Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Blackburn and it's just nice to arrive in those cities at sometimes two in the morning, get up at 10 and go for a walk around for a few hours."

I'm climbing Mount Kilamanjaro and then I'm swimming the entire length of the Thames and then I'm going to dig a hole to the centre of the Earth with a tooth pick.

Comedy wasn't always the the path Micky intended to take having started teacher training. In the middle of this he started to do stand-up comedy above pubs, describing this as a 'last gasp attempt' at doing something he thought would be fun to do.

"I'd always enjoyed watching stand up, always. And I think it's a bit of that good old fashioned thing of having a go," he enthuses.

Having made regular appearances on hilarious panel show Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You and QI - Micky has become a familiar face on television as well as the stage. Seemingly living every comedian's dream, Micky explains the best and worst thing about his industry:

"I think the best thing is that you're ultimately your own boss. Everything that you achieve, largely is down to you getting up off your arse, writing good material and going and performing it.

"And the worst thing is that you're your own boss! And at any given point have a day off and that's the thing you're managing, you can do as much or as little as you like and that's a difficult thing to manage in comedy."

Being on the road a lot, comedians are alone for a lot of the time. Micky recommends always having a good book and plenty of DVDs to watch when touring as you need to be 'self sufficient.'

"If you need your friends and family around you on a daily basis do not get into stand up comedy," he advises.

With increasing numbers of comedians becoming household names, it's important for men and women in the trade to have an individuality to their material. However timeless talents including Billy Connolly still prove inspirational for those on-stage today.

"I saw a documentary once with Billy Connolly on it. I think in the morning they showed him going out on his bike, the afternoon he did a bit of salmon fishing and in the evening he strolled off to the theatre to do his show.

I looked and thought 'that would be quite a nice life, that would do for me, any version of that would be very, very nice.'"

Despite being a famous face himself, Micky admits that there have been a few occassions where he's found himself a little taken aback when meeting certain celebrity personalities.

"A couple of times I have been a little bit 'blimey...'.

"I met Kevin McCleod the other day, from Grand Designs, which was a bit odd. It's not so much starstruck but just thought 'I've been watching you on the telly...' and just to be sitting there with him and I kept thinking, 'do not ask him the question he's probably been asked a million times' like, 'what's your house like?' 'What's your favourite window?' 'How do you feel about Mosaic tiles?'" Micky laughs.

"He's like 'Oh shut up, I live in a caravan, it's all a ruse.'"

Comedy is notoriously a difficult industry to make it big in. Do it right and you will have just finished a 160 date tour, or more often than not it's an endless line of comedy clubs and bad venues until you're spotted.

Micky's advice for comic-wannabes is not to expect it: "First of all, you have to get up on stage and do it. You can do a comedy course, yeah there are a number of them around the country where you meet up with stand ups and you do various things, but ultimately you have to get on stage with a couple of ideas and start talking about them."

So what's next for Mr Flanagan?

He jokes: "I'm climbing Mount Kilamanjaro and then I'm swimming the entire length of the Thames and then I'm going to dig a hole to the centre of the Earth with a tooth pick.