NEWS
EVENTS
Having Words With: Pappy's
Indie | Thursday 8th November 2012 | James
Being told that Pappy’s were ‘ready for you’ in their dressing room really gets imagination going, check out what Tom, Ben and Matthew had to say for themselves before their Brighton gig Last Show Ever (they weren’t naked by the way).
Easy one to start with. How is the tour going so far?
Tom- Loads of fun so far, fourteen dates in and it’s going great guns. Really nice crowds, lovely venues.
Matthew- Yeah this is our fourth tour and we’re playing a lot of the venues we played before but to full houses now. The last time we were here was 2007 (Brighton Dome) and I think we had about 19-20 people in, now it’s sold out and they’ve put in extra chairs.
Any good tour stories you can tell us about?
Tom- We stayed in a cottage in the North East with an attic room, and Ben climbed up to have a look around and on his way down got stuck and spent about five minutes just hanging there.
Matthew- Well you say Ben got stuck…
Ben-They helped me up and then just filmed me rather than help me back down (Tom shows me footage of Ben hanging from a loft conversion while the rest of Pappy’s laugh at him).
This leads me nicely on to my next question, who’s the naughtiest on tour?
Tom- The sad thing about tour is we always have to drive away, we never really get the chance to properly rock and roll hotel rooms, it’s always get in the car and head off.
Matthew- If we do stay in hotel rooms it’s usually Travelodge’s. They’re not very rock and roll.
Tom- We were in Sheffield the other day at the comedy festival, and the front row was all pretty girls who had all come to see us, and after the show they came up to us and said; ‘Would you come out with us in Sheffield?’ and we were like ‘We’ve got to load up the car and drive away.’
Matthew- We don’t even really drink cause we’ve got to get in the car you know?
Ben- Tom bought a whoopee cushion so it’s kind of like ‘school boy’ naughty.
Do you have a decent rider or is it just crisps in a bowl?
Matthew - In Chorley they gave us Chorley cakes, but most places we play don’t have a food named after them.
Have you played in Eccles?
Matthew - Exactly it would just be Chorley cakes and Eccles cakes. What other places are named after foods? Email us at…
Tom - Wensleydale? Chedder? Red Leicester?
Matthew - Basically our guts would be in ruins.
Will my personal favourite The Glove Song be in the new show?
Matthew -Yes! Right there in the middle of the show.
How did that one come about?
Tom - My housemate bought a pair of leather gloves.
Matthew - And the rest is history!
Tom - I was looking at them on the settee and thinking; there are certain types of people that wear leather gloves.
Matthew - They performed that song at an open mic night, but not a comedy open mic night, like a music open mic night. I think there was bemusement in the audience wasn’t there?
Tom - There certainly wasn’t laughter…
So who writes the songs? Is it a group collaboration?
Tom - I’m not musical at all.
Matthew - Tom will go the tune should sound like this: ‘Ba ba, ba, baa, ba, ba, ba, baa!’ and we’re like; ‘Tom, you do realise that’s all one note?’
Ben -It’s like decoding.
Matthew- Yeah you need the Enigma machine.
Congratulations on your BBC 3 sitcom. Can you tell me a bit more about it?
Matthew - It’s our last sitcom ever.
Tom - It’s a flat share sitcom, and the nature is we’re three best friends who made a pact to live together since we were ten, and now were adults we need to start living on our own and getting on with our lives. It deals with growing up and moving away from each other which is kind of what our lives are really like isn’t it?
Is it based around the Flatshare Slam Down podcast?
Ben - It didn’t come from that, but they do feel a bit like companion pieces.
Tom -I think we’re trying to build like a Pappy’s world and we’re hoping that all the things we do fit into that world.
Matthew - We’re not playing a sketch team, we’re just three normal guys.
Tom - That should be the title- Three Normal Guys. Viewing figures would go through the roof!
Matthew - Once you start releasing regular podcasts listeners become like drug addicts. I mean I feel the same way because I’m a big podcast listener, and if one doesn’t come out on the day it’s supposed to I’m like ‘Where is it?’ But I do not then contact the person who makes that podcast and have a go at them.
Can you recommend any other podcasts?
Matthew - Answer Me This.
You guys were on that weren’t you?
Matthew - Yeah I used to live in the house where that was recorded… but then they found out and I was kicked out.
Who or what influences your comedy?
Tom - Just hanging around with each other trying to make each other laugh.
Matthew - What we try and make for the audience is an evening where it feels like they’re hanging out with three funny mates. Admittedly three mates who don’t let them talk and insist on performing sketches for them.
Tom - In terms of influences The Young Ones and Bottom were like a gang of people taking on the world. Also Vic & Bob, and Python.
Ben - Even the Marx Brothers.
What do Pappy’s do in their spare time?
Tom - I had squash night the other night where we played squash, ate butternut squash and drank squash.
Ben - I had bang night the other night….we just bought starter pistols.
Any words for young aspiring comedians out there?
Tom -Don’t stop. We did an interview with Arthur Smith and he said ‘Oh you young bucks have just started out haven’t you?’ And we were like ‘Actually we’ve been going for seven years Arthur.’ He said ‘Yeah that’s what I said.’ You see all these great comedians like [Richard] Herring, or Stewart Lee or Simon Munnery and the key to good comedy is to never stop doing it.
Matthew - Yeah it was Herrings 25th Fringe and it was only our sixth. It think sometimes sketch comedy is tough to watch, or has a bad name because it’s hard for sketch teams to stay together, so it means that most sketch teams you’re watching have only been together a couple of years. So they won’t have got a chance to get good. We’ve gone through the stage of being awful, and are now at the stage of being ok.
Pappy’s are currently on tour in the UK. Check out www.pappyscomedy.com
By JDF
