Interview: Rarely Asked Questions – Tiernan Douieb
If anyone out there thinks comedians have an easy life, frittering away their days on Twitter and working for just an hour in the evening a few days a week, meet Tiernan Douieb. He is not only a hard-grafting comic, he also – with Tiffany Stevenson – organises the Phoenix festivals at the Phoenix pub every year. Though admittedly he also spends a lot of time on Twitter.
As a comedian he has got better and better every year. He is a stand-up who has been fired up by the current government. He is both angrier and funnier than he has ever been. And if you want evidence he has just released his first full-length live DVD, This Isn't For You, online, recorded at the Star of Kings in glamorous Kings Cross. Get it here.
1. What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies, check for spinach between teeth and check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt)?
Usually pace around trying to remember what on earth I'm going to say first. This is also what I do for the hour before I go onstage, changing my mind several times, and then the 2 minutes before my name is announced I make a decision. Then do something different when I get onstage anyway.
People. Selfish people who think they are better than others. People who stand still in the middle of tube stations, at the tops or bottoms of stairs or just anywhere I'm trying to get to. People who park badly. People who respond to my jokes on Twitter with their own shit version of that joke. People who complain to much about petty things other people do. Cars going on fire.
3. What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?
Go back to my car that was dangerously on fire to get my bag because I had my notes and a banana in it. I'm not really a dangerous person. I prefer to sit rather than throw myself into scary situations. So far, I've not sat anywhere that dangerous.
4. What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?
Learning what the word procrastinate means rather than doing some work I needed to do. Oh or having a car that would go on fire.
5. What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?
How easy it is to forget that in this business you are in charge of your own career and not promoters, agents or anyone else who pretends they are. Also just how endlessly lovely and supportive most comedians are of each other. Oh and that it took 11 years of driving around doing gigs before my car went on fire.
Read the rest of this interview here.
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