Harry Hill is heading for the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival and things are about to get silly… very silly indeed.
“In a way, it’s my silliest show, it’s basically fairly relentless silliness for about an hour-and-a-half,” said the much-loved comedian. “There are a lot of gags and stand-up and a lot of physical bits I’ve been working on.
“It’s escapism really, it’s playfulness and silliness at a time when everything is so serious.”
And that’s just your starter for 10 in his new show, Pedigree Fun, which will be at the Tivoli Theatre on Monday October 10.
Harry, who won a legion of fans with his TV Burp and You’ve Been Framed telly appearances, is delighted to be coming back to Aberdeen, a place where he cut his comedy teeth at the start of his career.
Harry Hill remembers his early days at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen
“I remember going to the Lemon Tree in the early days and opening for Bob Downe as a support act for him.”
Now Harry is coming back in his own right as one of the big-name headliners for the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival, which will see a slew of comedians – both well-known and up and coming – arriving in the Granite City.
He will be arriving as part of a UK tour, his first in almost 10 years – and we have the pandemic to thank for Harry hitting the road again.
“I’ve nearly toured a couple of times since, but in the end I backed away, often because I had something else on the horizon. Also, I enjoyed the shows, but the touring can be quite gruelling,” he said.
“But with the lockdowns, when they said ‘no, you can’t tour, you can’t do shows’ that made me want to do it more. Having not been able to do it for the best part of 18 months, when I got back into it, I thought ‘oh yeah, this is great fun’.”
And the award-winning comedian said he sensed audiences were up for it as well, because they had missed live shows.
“I thought, you never know what’s round the corner, so if I’m going to tour, I had better get on with it,” he said.
How will Harry Hill be different on the Tivoli stage to on the telly
There is, of course, a vast difference to comedy on the telly and playing live, so how is Harry’s stand-up different to what people know and love from watching him on the box?
“In a way, it’s a more extreme concentrated version of it,” he said. “It’s very gag-orientated, there’s no message and I don’t tend to linger on anything for too long. I just keep the show moving along. If you don’t like this thing, hopefully you’ll like the next thing.
“That’s what I used to do with TV Burp, I never tended to dwell on anything, I always want to get to the next laugh. It’s a high laugh count, well that’s the aim.”
Harry is one of the best practitioners in the art of comedy working today – a fact borne out by the slew of awards he has under his belt – three BAFTAs, eight British Comedy Awards and a Perrier Best Newcomer Award.
That last one was bestowed on him 30 years ago when he decided to give up being a hospital doctor and try his hand with comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe.
“At that time, when I gave up medicine I thought I’d give myself a year and see how I got on and it turned into 30 years. The last 10 years is where I wonder where that’s gone, time seems to pass that quickly,” he said.
“It’s a constant thrill to me that I have, if you like, managed to escape the rat race or the regular job.”
Hours of hard work go into honing Harry Hill’s shows
Not that Harry doesn’t put in the hours of diligent work to hone his act, ready for an audience.
“Nothing comes easy, but I do enjoy the process of putting the show together. It’s almost as much fun as the show,” he said. “Even if you have a bad night when you’re trying stuff out, but every now and then something surprises you and that’s a real thrill.
“Showbiz is a series of peaks and troughs, as long as you can play it like it’s a game and not take everything too seriously, then you can retain that enthusiasm for it.”
Three decades is a long time to be at the top of the comedy scene – especially one which is ever shifting in tastes, fashion and views.
“It changes every year, it’s a big wheel that goes round,” said Harry. “When I started the whole vogue was political humour, you know, Thatcher bashing, you had to be left wing – and I was sort of silly.
“Then it changed and everyone wanted dark humour, then they wanted observational humour. It is like fashion where things go round and come back. One minute you’ll be wearing flares the next you’ll be wearing shorts.
“But I’m really interested in the old kind of physical humour and slapstick stuff, so I’m doing quite a lot of that at the moment and no one else seems to be doing it much.”
How to see Harry Hill at Aberdeen International Comedy Festival
Harry hopes the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival audience will enjoy his show as much as he does when it arrives at the Tivoli.
“I’m hoping you will stagger out of the show at quarter to 10 thinking ‘what the hell was that all about?’” he said, laughing.
“I like the idea that people think ‘oh my gosh’ and that they’ve not seen anything like it before. That’s my aim.”
Harry Hill’s Pedigree Fun will be at the Tivoli Theatre on Monday October 10 as part of the Aberdeen International Comedy Festival. For information and tickets visit aberdeencomedyfestival.com
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