Have you had any screaming fan-girl moments?
Yeah, I get some pretty squealy people. The weirdest one was this dude in Sydney called Will who just got so flustered and freaked out; it was weird. But yeah, I get girls coming up to me like you two when you first met me – fucking shaky – but you’re not squealy, you’re just shy, and you have an idea of who I am but then I just turn out to be a normal person and you can’t quite adjust to the reality.
The thing with being a so-called fan is that the very nature of it is all about distance and sometimes I wonder if my compulsion to engage with these my so-called fans is wise because all I do is normalise myself and therefore lose fans and gain friends, which is all very nice but I can’t do that forever. Now that I’ve got more people interested I’ve stopped engaging with them and they just stay as fans and when they meet me they freak out and when I remember their name they get really excited and I don’t have to go through the process of trying to normalise myself in the eyes of someone who’s decided I’m on some other level from normal people.
What projects have you got coming up?
I’ve gotta go to Australia to launch my DVD properly, then I come back to finish this tour, then I do a new Radio 2 show, which is going to sort of, probably have a bit of Timmy The Dog in it, that’s how much I’m scraping the barrel cos I just don’t have time to write.
Then America is the huge thing for me because as a comedian you’ve got to balance your exposure with writing new material so I made a decision because this show is a culmination of five years work, it’s a big piece and I can’t just churn another one out and the thing with America is it just allows me to keep expanding my exposure without having to write new material.
I don’t want to not write new material but I do want to take every opportunity to see every possible place it could be applied before I go back and write again. There’s no point going to America with new stuff because this stuff’s new to them.
Then I’m going back to Australia to do this boxing film where I basically just play myself.
Then I don’t know because I’ve left the next year open so I’m flexible to react to whatever happens in America.
What’s the next environmental issue you’ll be tackling?
I keep thinking about that and I think maybe I should never do it again. The good thing, with Canvas Bags, is that the intent isn’t really clear. People, depending on how they view it, think I’m taking the piss out of hippies or that I’m genuinely plugging the cause and that’s quite a hard balance to get unless you apply exactly the same style of dealing with the subject matter and that would be really unoriginal.
It’s always about the plastic with me though, I cannot stand the fucking packaging in this country; it’s worse than anywhere. I’m sure you’re only a couple of years behind but you have to wrap a cucumber in Glad Wrap, put it in a plastic packet and then put it in a plastic bag before you take it home.