“All my heroes have an unwavering commitment to the absurd”

The only Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Show AND Best Newcomer winner presents his latest stand-up show: an hour of “richly idiosyncratic comedy, frequently compared to Tony Hancock” (The Guardian).

As seen starring in BBC3’s Top Coppers, guesting on C4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats and heard on his own BBC Radio Four series and following acclaimed, sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and at London’s Soho Theatre, John dons his false teeth and monk wig for his debut UK tour. Olivier Award winner Jon Brittain directs.

‘A supreme stand-up – you’re in the hands of a master’ The Guardian

‘Funny and intellectually ambitious – Kearns could be your new King of Comedy’ Evening Standard

What’s with the wig and teeth, then, John? Do they represent a whole different character, or simply the comedy part of you? Help you to find your comic voice?
They represent everything and nothing I suppose. The wig is almost like a hat, part of a uniform which I pop on when at work. I don’t try and convince an audience that the tonsure style is my actual hair, it’s clearly a cheap wig from a joke shop. It’s the same with the teeth, they fly out at times, ascetically I’m someone who’s trying too hard, the desperate reach to try and do something, anything! Fake teeth in literature apparently has a history of representing pathos, insecurity, domestic disorder, which I quite like. It’s the ambiguity of it all that keeps it interesting, an audience’s answers are always different but the questions remain the same.

And, given that your comedy is quite confessional / real-life / intimate, is there ever a danger of them becoming a distraction from the material?
I remember when I first started doing it, a friend watching said it actually focussed them more on my eyes, as the wig and teeth didn’t move, as though I was peering through slits of armour. I believe they are a distraction but that is the point.

“Humdrum heroism” was one reviewer’s summing-up of the content ofDon’t Worry, They’re Here. What would you say about that description?
Bang on. The mundane, the banal, the humdrum are all rich pickings for comedians as everyone can relate to them. As for the heroism part, I always have an attitude of optimism on stage which against a backdrop of mundanity and how I look you wouldn’t expect.

What’s in the title, by the way. Who are here?
The title is tinkered and adapted from the Sondheim lyric “Send in the clowns/Don’t bother they’re here”. I thought “don’t bother” isn’t exactly what you want on a poster so I went with the more reassuring “don’t worry.” On one hand the ‘Who’ is me, and on the other the ‘Who’ is the audience.

Sounds like there’s a lot of poignancy to your comedy. Is that right, and is that for you an essential ingredient of comedy?
I’m naturally quite a sentimental, melancholic soul and so I’m always wary of it. The great thing about comedy is you can’t get too bogged down in poignancy as you have to find a joke somewhere, and so it’s actually been healthy for me in some respects that my career forces me to see the funny side of things. I feel now a gig is going well if I can hold a silence in the room, I know I can get a room laughing but to snap that and hold a silence is more rewarding.

You worked as a guide at the Houses of Parliament before going into comedy. Tell us about that job – its highs and lows – and how much of a preparation it was, if at all, for comedy.
I took the actual job very seriously as it leant against gigging in the evenings quite well. I was there for four years and it was a great experience not because I mined it for material but rather the opposite. I’ve wanted to be a comedian since I was in Primary School, it’s all I’ve thought about for most of my life. When herding school children around a palace eight hours a day, it allowed me to complete forget about the disastrous gig the night before or the usual tittle tattle and gossip that comes with any industry.

You’ve said that you enjoy “messing around with the syntax and playing with preconceptions of comedy”. Have any other comedians influenced you?
I guess this goes back to giving an audience questions, not answers. I don’t know anything. I can give my experience but I’ve never looked at comedy to resolve an issue, to educate me. If I think about Steve Martin, his aim was so pure in that he was going to play an idiot. That conviction was inspiring, especially to read in his memoir of that time. I think that’s what all my heroes have, an unwavering commitment to the absurd.

John Kearns performs Don’t Worry, They’re Here at the Wardrobe Theatre on Sunday, February 4. For more info, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/john-kearns-dont-worry-theyre/