Harry Hill has Burped his last for now as he returns to a life on the road. The comedian tells Charles Hutchinson about getting match-fit again
HARRY Hill is touring for the first time in seven years, having TV Burped his last on ITV1 last year.
“I’ve been extremely greedy on the TV front,” acknowledges Harry, who has presented You’ve Been Framed too.
“I’m now taking a break from TV after 11 years of TV Burp; I did an extraordinary amount and it was always in the autumn and winter, which unfortunately is the traditional touring time for comedians.”
And so the uber-collared comedian is undertaking 40 dates on his Sausage Time itinerary as he returns to the stand-up circuit that first drew the former doctor to performing.
On Monday and Tuesday he will play the Grand Opera House in his first York shows since 2005, when he presented Hooves in March and October that year. Tickets are still available for both nights, incidentally.
During 2012, he road-tested Sausage Time material in a series of warm-up shows. “I ummed and aahed about doing it, putting my toe back in the water, but as soon as I did it, I really enjoyed it, building up from 20 minutes to 40, and so on, and it was freedom after all those meetings that were required for TV shows,” he says.
His long break from touring left 48-year-old Harry needing to shape up for the road ahead. “I did four days in Edinburgh last summer, two shows each day, and after the first show on the first day, I was knackered. I’d forgotten how much I move around on stage,” he says. “But doing eight shows in four days, by the end of it, I felt I was getting on top of it again.”
Does Harry have an exercise regime? “I’ve never taken exercise: an aspirin and a glass of wine a day is my recipe.
“But it is a little like being an athlete because you have to busk it. If you’re having a sticky night, the great temptation is to speed up when in fact you should slow down.”
Warmed up and road-tested, now is the time for Sausage Time, but why has Harry given that title to his “comeback” tour? “Well, it’s sort of based on when I used to have that thing Sausage O’clock on TV Burp… and sausages are just funny, aren’t they?”
Advance publicity announced that old favourite Stouffer The Cat would be appearing in the show, but Harry reveals: “Stouffer is not there at the moment. I kind of thought people wouldn’t remember who he was, but I know he’s seen the adverts and is disappointed he’s not in it – and people have been asking about where is he, so I’ll be bringing him along just in case.”
Definitely in the show will be Harry’s incontrovertible proof that God exists. Are you sure Harry? “Yes, I can prove it, though I can’t give you the information over the phone, but I am the first person to spot it and it’s frighteningly simple when you realise it,” he insists.
What else will be on Harry’s mind in Sausage Time? “I have a whole shtick about Broken Britain,” he says.
He wouldn’t be sending it up by any chance? “Maybe. There’s an element of that. It’s a mickey-take of Middle-England paranoia. I pick on someone in the audience and accuse them of putting their rubbish in their neighbour’s wheelie bin. Then I get really angry about it.
“Then I accuse someone else of throwing away a coffee cup without disposing of the grounds first. I extrapolate the consequences of their actions, which are that a baby ends up on a ventilator. By the end of the show, I’ve completely lost my rag.”
We have become paranoid about this country falling apart because it is falling apart, he says, and there is nothing we can do about it.
“I’m not saying why it’s fallen apart; I’m just taking the mickey out of that overreaction,” says Harry. “I get furious with the audience for their misdemeanours because there’s something really funny about people getting angry over something so trivial.”
Putting Broken Britain to one side, he is looking forward to his two days in Richard III’s favourite city.
“I have a very happy memory of York. I remember coming up there with Al Murray; we were staying in the Viking Hotel when we had a day off, just wandering around and then getting drunk in the hotel.
“So, if you’re ever in York, forget the Jorvik Centre, go to the Viking Hotel.”
• Harry Hill’s Sausage Time tour visits Grand Opera House, York, on Monday and Tuesday, 8pm, and Leeds Grand Theatre on March 27 and 28, 8pm. Box office: York, 0844 871 3024 or atg.tickets.com/york; Leeds, 0844 848 2700 or leedsgrandtheatre.com
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