Two years ago, the dry-as-a-bone Canadian standup Stewart Francis was about to pack it in and become a cartoonist, even though he was a Mock the Week regular, and had several national tours and two DVDs to his name. Yet here he is, back on the road with a new show, Pun Gent. We spoke to the 56-year-old about what happened …
Hi Stewart. Tell us about the Pun Gent tour.
I’m approaching it with less anxiety than previous tours. I don’t know if I’m getting better as a comedian or if it’s just confidence – however you describe it, there’s less stress this time.
What anxiety are we talking about here?
It’s the anxiety that I think a lot of performers get – of getting enough good material together, getting it tight enough to take to the people. I’ve been doing extended sets recently in Canada, so now I’m locked and loaded.
Are you still planning to quit standup after this tour?
No, I have no intention of quitting – I was misquoted on that – but I do have other things I want to pursue. Acting is something I want to focus on after this tour, and I’ve got a sitcom currently sitting on an executive’s desk. If that happens, my creative juices will be flowing in that direction. I’m a cartoonist, and plan A was to do that rather that standup – it’s still my lifelong dream to be a syndicated cartoonist, so I can revisit that. It’s all about doing something creative.
You’ve lived in Britain for nine years now. Do you feel you’re plugged into our sense of humour?
Yes, my parents are British and I was coming here professionally 20 years ago. I knew it was where I would end up. I don’t want to say I’m not appreciated in Canada, but the appreciation definitely increases as soon as I land [in the UK].
Does that mean there was lots of British comedy around you when you were growing up?
Yes, we got a lot of British sitcoms on Canadian telly – On the Buses, Last of the Summer Wine … We had Benny Hill’s show, he was huge in north America. I remember British comedians popping up on chat shows too, like Dudley Moore. It was always in my life growing up. In fact my first introduction to live entertainment was a show called London Palladium, which came to Toronto and my mother took me along. It was a variety show with lots of British acts on, and this might be a fabrication of memory, but as I recall Des O’Connor was the compere.
Do you think there’s a peculiarly British sense of humour?
Canada has a very British sense of humour, but British comedy is different to an extent – in very general terms, British audiences will connect the dots, they will finish the [comic] thought in their own heads. In the US, you have to spell it out. So over here my dry subtle humour seems to work, as the audience will do some of the leg work.
That must feel gratifying when that happens.
It’s glorious.
What’s your favourite gag you’ve ever written?
The frisbee joke is fantastic [“I was in the park wondering why the frisbee gets bigger as it gets closer, and then it hit me.”]. It’s the one of mine that gets quoted most, I did it on the Craig Ferguson show over a decade ago. So I was disheartened when I received [an American] cartoon recently, and it is essentially the same joke. The cartoonist changed a few things, so it’s a ball not a frisbee – well done him. I’d hate to think that a lazy cartoonist having a wee bit of a dry spell decided to hit the old YouTube. I do believe in “parallel genius”, so it’s possible that they had the same idea as me, but it’s been part of my act for so long. It’s ironic as [it was a company] that was one of the syndicates I approached years ago. I got six rejection letters, including one from them. My ego couldn’t take that type of rejection first time round, now they’re haunting me all over again. Luckily, the comedy industry polices itself very well, we’ve got some good cops out there. My material is so nickable – luckily it doesn’t happen very often.
What’s your favourite gag that someone else has written?
Oh probably Tommy Cooper’s one about the attic: “I cleaned the attic with the wife the other day. Now I can’t get the cobwebs out of her hair.” I love that kind of stuff.
You’ve been quoted as saying that most comics need to do it, but you’re not one of them.
Yes, there tend to be two types of comedians: those who want it and those who need it, and the second category is definitely in the majority – comedy is their life. For me, I like to make people laugh, but if I make my beautiful wife chuckle a few times a day, that would suit me just fine. I need to make money, though …
- Stewart Francis’s Pun Gent is touring until 12 December
