Meet Charlie Montague, 1930s detective

What sorts of characters do you populate these stories with?
Charlie Montague, the central detective character, owes a lot to P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster and even more to Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Charlie Mortdecai, especially Johnny Depp’s portrayal of him in the critically panned (but I really enjoyed it) film adaptation. And then I’ve surrounded myself (so to speak: I play all the characters, and there’s only one of me) with the sort of high-society dames, military chaps and struggling gallery owners you would expect to find in Golden Age crime novels. They’re very knowing characterisations, though, and even if they’re not self-aware, they are more than happy to pull the other characters up on their mistakes or limitations. That’s always a rich vein for humour.

Tell us about the influences that feed into the Charlie Montague world.
A starting influence was the concept of the “gentleman detective”. It is a uniquely British thing. US authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett weren’t writing about well-to-do chaps (Poirot, Wimsey) or little old ladies (Marple) solving crimes because they were bored and fancied the challenge. I loved the idea that a bumbling gent – the sort that populated so many Wodehouse stories – would wake up one day with the idea that he wanted to be a detective and just go for it. Whereas if you wandered into a crime scene in 1930s America and offered your take on proceedings, you would be immediately arrested.
I also wanted to write a mystery that, if you removed the jokes, could still be taken seriously as a storyline Agatha Christie might have come up with. As someone who has always loved period crime fiction I never wanted to do a simplistic parody, I was always aiming for a pastiche which, at times, acknowledged some of the inconsistencies of the genre but always did so with warmth.

Wodehouse is a big influence, too…?
As a huge Wodehouse fan, I’ve tried to inject some of that wit and feelgood cheer into the stories. There are a few nods to Shakespeare as well which, in turn, is a nod to Wodehouse whose own work was peppered with nods to Will. I’ve also been very lucky that both Agatha Christie’s nephew and the secretary of the P.G. Wodehouse Society have seen the show and enjoyed it. Apparently Agatha would have laughed!

Pics: Marcus Avlonitis

You’ve talked about your love for the so-called Golden Age of murder mysteries and crime writing, of the 1920s-30s – Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers et al. Tell us more.
I love the escapism it offers. A lot of modern crime fiction is so dark – I’m looking at you, Scandi-noir – or heavily procedural. I’m not knocking those, they’re also great, but I love escaping into the 30s and soaking up everything that it has to offer, from the language to the characters to the Art Deco aesthetic. It’s also wonderful not to have to think about phones and WiFi for a bit.
I also love how the stories are constructed – with everything leading towards that Poirot moment when all the pieces come together before the final act in the drawing room. As a reader, we still have no clue what the jigsaw should look like even though, as the conclusion progresses, we realise we had all the pieces right there in front of us.
The use of motive is also superb. Any character could have done it (and in some instances they did all do it!). I am so impressed by that level of plotting and I’ve done my best to transfer as much of that into a one-man play as the medium will allow.

You also do straight stand-up. How does it compare with character comedy, for you?
I think there are very few stand-ups who are presenting a totally natural version of themselves on stage. To some degree we are all playing a character, my club set is certainly very character based albeit one character as opposed to the Charlie Montague Mysteries where I’m playing about eight characters per story.
So there are certainly similarities and, ultimately, in both forms I’m just trying to make people laugh. Very often, at a weekend comedy club, nobody has come specifically to see me so I am presented with the challenge of winning them over within my 20 minutes. Whereas for a tour show, people have read the programme blurb, decided it’s their sort of thing and come along so, to some degree, they are already won over and that is a lovely position to be in, you are allowed more time to explore things.
The reward is always the laughter, and a satisfied audience. I have been performing stand-up for a little while now, but this is the first time I’ve ever toured a solo show – so, theoretically, I should be more at home in the comedy clubs. But I still get far more nervous before a stand-up gig than before going on stage as Charlie Montague et al. I think part of that is not wanting to let down the comedy night promoter or any of the other acts. For the Charlie Montague Mysteries I am the entire cast. And the producer. It’s all on me and, bizarrely, I find that less stressful!

Tom Taylor performs two Charlie Montague Mysteries at The Room Above (The White Bear) on Saturday, Sept 30. For more info, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/the-games-a-foot

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