Hal Cruttenden on orphans, Ebola and performing with his favourite comedians

Comedian Hal Cruttenden comes to Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday 8 November, holding a Funny Fundraiser with three other stand-ups of his choice.
Hal has worked in stand-up and on panel shows, such as Mock the Week, as well as written and starred in his own hit radio sitcom. The four comedians, including Warwick alumni Alexis Dubus, will join forces to raise money for Leamington Spa-based charity Thare Machi Education.

He got involved with the charity by providing a voiceover for a DVD on Ebola in Liberia, later becoming a patron.
When he was approached about holding an event, he was incredibly enthusiastic and agreed to turn his Warwick Arts Centre tour date into a charity night.

In preparation for this event, I spoke to Hal about the fundraiser, his career, approach to comedy and new tour Stright Outta Cruttenden. See the full interview below.

It’s based on the fact that, in my mid-forties, I’ve started listening to gangster rap again, maybe because I’m quite an angry person. Well, yeah, I am, but I’m using that to inform my comedy.

Where did your passion for comedy begin?
I would say it came very late in life. I basically started out as an actor and was working with someone at the BBC, not actually doing an acting job. I was struggling as an actor and was doing traffic reports. I never thought about it, I’d always loved comedy, I’d always really enjoyed it, being a big fan of Billy Connolly and Jaspar Carrott, people like that. I used to go and get albums, comedy albums, and I loved them. It’s wasn’t until someone suggested to me that I do it. This was late 90s, sort of [at the] beginning of the big boost in comedy that happened, and I just started going along to their workshop. It was completely random, I’d never really considered it, I’d never walked around thinking ‘I’m the funny kid’. I thought I was entertaining, I thought I was quite funny compared to my friends but I never thought I’d be able to do it professionally. It was something that, when I discovered it, changed my life – it was like wow. So yeah, it was something that came really quite late. I really was trying to be an actor, or a sort of actor-writer, but then I found stand-up – that’s my obsession and it’s ruined my life.

You’re a professional stand-up, you’re on a lot of panel shows and you had your radio sitcom that was very successful. What did you enjoy most?
I love doing the radio sitcom because I love the change of working with a team. It can be a lonely job this, so when you work with a team it’s a wonderful experience. What got me when I first started out I used to watch videos of stand-ups. I used to watch Eddie Izzard shows and I used to look at it and go, that is everything I really want to do, what I want to be, to hold an audience by yourself, to have all the glory, for it to be all your own work and your own jokes, that to me is the apex of it. Things like panel shows, yeah you do them and its OK, but it’s not what you got into the job for. Its funny when people call someone a panel show comedian or something, there’s no comedian I know that wants to go into comedy to do panel shows. Panel shows are a means to an end. All comics secretly take themselves much more seriously than other people do. We all want to be Stewart Lee, we all want to be taken seriously for our art, Stewart Lee but with a few more laughs.

All comics secretly take themselves much more seriously than other people do.

When you write jokes are there any subjects that you prefer to write about, or that you steer clear of?
Do you know what, as I’m sitting here, trying to write jokes – I’m meant to be, but I’m not being good – No, there’s nothing that I’d steer clear of. I think it’s what appeals to you, you don’t really want to censor yourself and you’ve got to trust your instincts really. I would censor myself if I knew I was a racist, if I hated women or gay people but I’m not those things. One of the things I find most offensive is when you do corporate gigs and they go ‘can you not do anything racist or sexist?’ and you go ‘yeah, because that’s not what I do in my everyday life’. So I would trust my instincts to know I’m not going to do that. I’ve got a real bee in my bonnet about things at the moment, there’s certain things I want to do jokes about and I can’t make them funny. The dream is when something’s really bothering you, a friend of your wife says something that really annoyed you and you think ‘I can’t come back and say what I really think of you now,’ but you can come back on-stage if you do it well enough, if you make it funny enough. It’s sort of a way that comedy can be a little revenge on all those things that annoy you.

How did you come to be involved with the – am I pronouncing it correctly – Thare Machi foundation?
I don’t know how to pronounce it either. We should get someone to say it before we go on. They bothered me on twitter and said ‘I hear you’re coming to Leamington’. Rachel who works there is one of the most brilliant people at annoying people. She said to come and see us if you’re in town for a cup of tea, so I said I’ll come and see you when I’m in Leamington Spa. I did a voiceover for one of their health education DVDs on Ebola in Liberia. It was really moving but also quite hard because it was health education advice, for example what happens if somebody falls ill with Ebola in your family. After being directly involved and doing the voiceover, they made me a patron, it’s like being a godfather where you can’t say no. I thought it’s a really good charity and agreed to do it. I’ve got brilliant comedians, some of my personal favourites, really unusual comics and very different, all of them. Alexis Dubus, who does Marcel Lucent a French character, I think that’s who he’ll be doing. Tom Binns, a character comic who is brilliant and then Terry Alderton who is just mad. Terry is the cab driver from Eastenders but he’s a brilliant comic. It’s going to be a mad evening and I’m the straightest stand-up of them all.

It’s going to be a mad evening and I’m the straightest stand-up of them all.

And all the proceeds are going to the charity?
Are they – I thought we were all getting paid? No, just joking. Yeah, it will all be going to the charity and it’s such a good charity because it’s giving people information. One of the things people need the most in areas affected by illness and disease is information, knowing what’s safe, what isn’t safe. A lot of work gets held up in these areas because of people doing the wrong thing. With Ebola, when they [locals] saw the people dressed in white suits with the big masks, they thought they were spreading it. Spreading knowledge is the best way of dealing with disease. We’re going to save the world on November 8 – all crises will be over. You know, they think it might be November 8 when we declare the world Ebola-free – I don’t know if that’s just luck.

Village children who have benefited from the work of the Thare Machi Education. Image: Thare Machi Education

Can you tell me a bit about your latest tour, Straight Outta Cruttenden?
Well, it’s not about gangster rap, I came up with the title before I even knew that the film was coming out. It’s based on the fact that, in my mid-forties, I’ve started listening to gangster rap again, maybe because I’m quite an angry person. Well, yeah, I am, but I’m using that to inform my comedy. Really it’s a show dealing with topics that have always bothered me. So, you know, being married a long time and getting older, kids, social media, being an orphan. I’ve got stuff about being an orphan, that sounds sad but it’s actually really funny. I wasn’t orphaned as a child, don’t worry, but I think there should be more consideration given to middle-aged people who don’t have parents any more. It’s generally me being very self-obsessed. Socially, I’m pretty self-obsessed, but thank God I have this job so I can have an outlet to talk about myself. It is mainly about me and it’s very, very good for my soul when I do anything for charity.

Catch Hal, Alexis, Tom Binns and Terry Alderton at the Arts Centre on Sunday 8 November. For more information visit the website: http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/2015/hal-cruttendens-funny-fundraiser