DVD: The Mrs Merton Show (Complete Series)

Sustaining a believable comedy character for half an hour can be tough going. Sustaining it for a series can be difficult. Multiply that series by five and you realise why Caroline Aherne was one of the biggest female comedy talents of the 90s.

Part comedy series, part improvised chat show, the Mrs Merton Show took Caroline Aherne from her blink and you’d miss it character parts in the Fast Show and placed her firmly on the road to success. Interviewing a selection of well known faces from the mid-90s about their careers and personal life, Aherne played the lovable Mrs Merton, a cuddly OAP with a penchant for asking the questions that other interviewers dare not ask.

Possibly the best way to describe the show to anyone who doesn’t remember it is to imagine Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, but with actual rather than made up guests (therefore constituting an actual chat show) or Al Murrays Happy Hour, but with more than one joke.

Despite being more than 10 years old now, the appeal for Mrs Merton stays the same. It comes not just from the fact that the character asks ridiculously risqué questions to the guests (think Jonathan Ross, but a slightly older female version), who are more than willing to answer them, but the fact that the character itself is so believable, it’s only when the credits role at the end of the show that you realise that it’s a character and not a real grey haired old lady.

Although some of the episodes suffer slightly from dated references, the quips from Aherne (sorry, Mrs Merton) are so sharp that such matters can be overlooked, and with a Northern vibe very much like Peter Kay, this DVD release could be seen as a convenient Mother’s Day gift.

The Mrs Merton Show is available to buy on DVD  now by clicking here.

INTERVIEW: Shappi Khorsandi

She describes herself as a 5 ft 2 and-a-half comedienne with straight hair, who’s freaking out because she has so much to do and so little time to do it in. The Void prefer to simply describe her as plain darn funny.

Currently performing her one-woman stand-up show in London’s plush (though rather small) Soho Theatre, The Void caught up with Iranian comedienne Shappi Khorsandi to talk about her life, her influences and of course, the new show.

What first made you want to become a stand-up?

I think I just have wanted to do it ever since I was a little kid really. Then when I got older, Saturday Live with Ben Elton was on the telly and that was when I realised that it was a proper job. Then when I left university I just started doing a few open spots around London and to be honest with you, everybody else I knew was writing CVs and filling in application forms to work in advertising or the BBC and I would rather hang myself than put together a CV. I just find it mind-numbing and I just didn’t want to take the proper job route, so I worked as a life model and made a living as a stand up. It’s a good enough career!

Your show at the Soho Theatre in London is called Carry On Shappi. Is it as it sounds; a homage to the great Carry On films of old?

Not at all. I won’t be wearing any ill-fitting bras that pop off half way through or anything. No, it has nothing to do with that. In fact the name is deliberately not saying what it’s about because in Edinburgh it was primarily about being nine months pregnant, and I’m no longer nine months pregnant, so I’m actually looking at it now and about half of what I did in Edinburgh I can’t do. It’s really just an hour of stand up and what’s been going on in my head over the last six months. A lot of it will be a lot newer than what was in the Edinburgh show in August, because I can’t really do stuff about life with a huge bump because I haven’t got one any more.

Your father, Hadi Khorsandi, is a well-known Iranian satirist. Did having a father involved in comedy have much effect on your career?

Yeah. I guess the effect it had was that it was very normal for me to do this job, but the negative effect was that I was expected to become very successful at it very quickly. I had those sorts of issues happening, but I think on the plus side, not for one second did my parents say, “Don’t you want to study for a PGCE?” or whatever it is, so it didn’t help, but it didn’t not help if you see what I mean.

I mean, expectations were high and it kind of got frustrating when my dad couldn’t really understand why at the age of 24 I didn’t have my own television show. It would be funny because we would be watching something and my parents would just turn to me and say, “Oh Shappi, why don’t you go and host that?” Do you know what? That didn’t occur to me! I’ll just ring the producers now and introduce myself to them! (laughs)

You grew up in the UK instead of Iran. Do you think you would have still tried to have been a stand-up if you hadn’t?

Well, I couldn’t. Not if Iran was like it is today. I don’t think it would have been a viable career option. I probably would have worked in radio or TV in some capacity, but no. It sometimes breaks my heart when you think of somewhere like Tehran and you think of all those little girls there who want to be stand-ups and they don’t have the chance to do so or even know what it is! They have these weird things they want to say and be able to make people laugh and they don’t even know that you can make a career out of that in another country. So no, it would have been very different.

You’re married to the comedian and musician Christian Reilly. Is it weird being married to someone who is in the same profession?

No, I think it’s much better, because if I had a husband who did a normal job I would never see them, and we probably see more of each other than a lot of other couples do. Plus I like taking my work home with me, because it’s not like plumbing; it’s all in your head and it’s nice to always have someone with you to be able to try your crappy jokes out on. Plus we write together, which we find a lot of fun but finding the time to do it is hard.

I think any two people that are in the same job have pros and cons. There are times where I want to bugger off to another country because something has come up and he’s got something here and we have to discuss who looks after the baby and it’s a matter of operating as a family and deciding what benefits all of us rather than just you and your fun.

So what’s next for Shappi Khorsandi after the London shows? Will you be returning to Edinburgh this year?

Oh I wish I could! I’ve had to cancel Edinburgh this year because I had a book commissioned. My book has to be finished by November, all the rewrites the lot, and so I have taken the sensible but frustrating decision not to go to Edinburgh this year, because I’ve got to write my book and unless I want it to be a pop-up book something has to give and unfortunately it’s the festival. Next year though, definitely! I have already written the show and already know the title. I fact some of next year’s show will be in the reworked show at the Soho Theatre.

Quick Fire questions:

Favourite films: The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin

Last CD you listened to: I think it was Rufus Wainwright. Yeah, I bought one of his recently so probably that.

If you had a choice, would you rather be in the A Team or The Ghostbusters, and who would you be: Ghostbusters, definitely Ghostbusters. I would probably be… the one who gets the girl. Is that Bill Murray or Dan Ackroyd? Whichever one gets the girl in the end.

Shappi Khorsandi: Carry On Shappi is on at the Soho Theatre in London until 16th February 2008.

LIVE REVIEW: Eddie Izzard

Work in Progress – Arts Theatre London 2/2/2008

Where do you start with Eddie Izzard? It’s a tough question this far into his career. Most people know of him, most people have seen him do stand-up or appear on TV (or maybe heard his voice on the recycling adverts). Reviews of his last stand up show in 2004, Sexie, were mixed to the point of bordering negative, and since then he has gone across the pond to celebrated success in films and the show The Riches.

Of course, it is the stand-up scene which will always be his home and so when he announced he was doing a few unannounced ‘Work in Progress’ shows in London at the Arts Theatre, the tickets vanished quickly, the stalls filled rapidly and the expectations were expectedly high; and with good reason.

Coming out to warm up the crowd while the audience was still flooding in, it was clear that Eddie Izzard loves the art of stand-up. It’s an art which takes years to learn and one that he has clearly mastered, holding the audience for a one and three quarter hour rollercoaster ride through his consciousness. Focusing on creationism, Apple iPphones, intelligent design and communicating giraffes, Eddie blends his trademark style of ‘umming’ and ‘errming’ with constructed surrealism and the occasional sneaky reference to his previous stand-up shows (to the delight of the audience) to form a highly amusing show.

Of course, with this being a work in progress some jokes misfire or are killed midway due to the audience not going along with the gag, but it’s clear that there was enough new material in this for Eddie to get back on the road. If only he would give an indication of when that will be happening…

DVD: Dave Gorman in America Unchained

The thinking man’s Danny Wallace returns with another high-concept vehicle for his talents. The conceit is simple: Dave Gorman, who rose to prominence finding other people around the world with his name (hey, it’s a living), has set himself the task of driving across the United States without imparting so much as a dime to the seemingly omnipresent faceless presence of ‘The Man’, the damning catch-all for everything that is corporate America. Instead, all he’s allowed to do is stop at the independents for all of his basic food, petrol and accomodation requirements.

With Gorman’s track record for finding the weird and wonderful in the most mundane of challenges (perhaps predictably so, there might even be ‘hilarious consequences’), you might think you’re on for a tale riddled with eccentrics and a modern parable about the advent and subsequent dominance of capitalism in American society. Well… almost.

Unfortunately the film feels a little repetitive when it becomes painfully clear that the biggest obstacle in the journey is going to be where Dave fills his car up next, which fast exhausts amusement. One might argue that this proves Gorman’s point, that America has virtually swallowed whole the family-run business. But has he never heard of OPEC? These little owner-managed enterprises aren’t getting their oil from a bunch of nuns.

The trip is rescued by Gorman’s winning personality which provides an amiable distraction from the hunt for the next service station. Dave remains compulsively likeable and though his adventure scarcely dares throw up the legion of backwater strangefolk one might expect, there’s a few touching moments of hospitality where Dave almost exhibits relief to have found evidence that family values haven’t completely been eradicated with the dominance of the McBurger.

Dave Gorman in America Unchained is released on 11 February 2008. Find out more about Dave Gorman here.

Normally we would put a link to a well known site where you could buy this DVD, but keeping in the spirit of the release, why not buy it from a local shop instead? … if you can find one.