I interviewed Michael Smiley last week. If you don't know the name you will certainly know the face. And if you don't that's him on the left. This year Smiley has appeared in straight acting roles in, among other things, Luther, Utopia, Ambassadors and A Field In England. Comedy fans with longer memories will, of course, know him as Tyres, the raving cycle courier in Spaced. He is also a stand-up comedian - he came second to Dylan Moran in So You Think You're Funny in 1993. "Split decision," says Smiley.
The surname is so perfect for him I thought maybe he had chosen it. In the same way that Johnny Rotten or Rat Scabies worked so perfectly for punk, Smiley seemed to be the perfect name for a rave culture comedian. And the funny thing is that when I met him he was sitting quietly in a Brixton cafe reading a paper, glasses and hat on, collar up, as if he was an MI5 agent making a secret drop. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," I said. "George Smiley" he chuckled.
It left me thinking about the importance of names. A lot of our finest comedians and a few dodgy ones have changed their names. Johnny Vegas is the alter ego of Michael Pennington. Would Jim Moirs Big Night Out have been as big a hit as Vic Reeves Big Night Out? (no apostrophe their choice, btw). For a while, in fact, Moir considered changing his name to Craig Wildfoul. Craig Wildfoul and Bob Mortimer just doesn't have the same Eric and Ernie ring to it does it?
And then there is Paul Merton. Or should we say Paul Martin? The south London absurdist changed his surname to the borough he hailed from and the rest is history. Christopher Collins decided to choose the stage name of Frank Skinner which was the name of a bloke in his dad's dominoes team. And Roy Chubby Brown's passport presumably says Royston Vasey - his real name but these days forever linked with The League of Gentlemen after they chose to name the town in their BBC series Royston Vasey.
Some comedians change their name because they want to reinvent themselves, some may have done it because they were signing on at the time. But quite often they have to change their name because they are joining the actors' union Equity and somebody already has the name. Arthur Smith is actually Brian Arthur John Smith, but there was already a Brian Smith in Equity so that wouldn't do. Smith's first choice was Captain Wanker. Maybe that was already taken as he ended up plumping for plain Arthur Smith. Quite lucky in retrospect. I don't think Smith would get quite as much work on Radio 4 as Captain Wanker and I doubt if he would have ever been cast as the voice of Yakult either. Michael Smiley was surely born to play the probiotic yogurt's bacteria though – Smiley culture.
