REDHANDED

- Aren’t you too old for this?

- What’s the point?

- Have you put on weight?

These are questions I was asked by comedian friends
– and normal friends – when I said that I would be performing at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. To be fair only two people asked the last question, but it still hurt. Funnily enough, the last time I heard the question: ‘Aren’t you too old for this?’ in relation to comedy, was in 1997. I was in the final of the BBC New Comedy Awards alongside Justin Lee Collins and Peter Kay and we were all being interviewed by the Press. We were sat in a circle and the journalist went around asking everyone their age. I was the last one to be questioned. The journalist asked the person before me how old they were and when they said their age, the journalist said: ‘Oh. Aren’t you too old for this? That person was a year younger than I was. So when it came to me,I made myself eight years younger. And that age has stayed with me throughout my career. Of course some people know my real age-like school friends and one of my parents. But this was really my first insight into the potential ageism in my newly chosen profession.

I

n most jobs, the more experience you have and
the better you become, the more chance there is of advancement. Someone who starts off as a paralegal in a law firm, would hope to one day be an established lawyer and possibly a partner in a firm. A runner in a production company would hope to one day be a producer and possibly have their own company. These are seen as marks of success in one’s chosen field. is doesn’t always ring true for comedy. In comedy, success tends to relate to ‘being on the telly’. The number
of promoters who now only book comedians with
TV credits – even for low paid gigs – has increased considerably. It seems that being good at your job is not as important as having performed, however well or badly, on television.

The problem is, TV producers are constantly looking for the next new thing. ‘New’ clearly equates to ‘young’ of course. The problem is that ‘young’ does not necessarily mean experienced. Or good. In fact you generally can’t be good without being experienced. (I don’t think I need to give other examples, do I?)

When I was growing up my favourite comedians
on TV tended be the ones that people would have considered, ‘older’: Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Dave Allen. There was something comforting and safe about them. And of course, funny. they had worked for years around the tough working men’s circuit and had earned their place. Hence their longevity. But today, like your most comfortable underwear, they’d be considered a little too old and in need of some additional support.