FESTIVAL FEATURES | Helm & Key ➸ Nick: Exactly.
The List: Have the audiences at your shows changed since you’ve started appearing on TV and i lm?
Tim: It’s had absolutely no effect on them. The List: Really?
Tim: You worry that maybe the next show you make the people who come might just be people who think, ‘I’d like to see this guy who’s done this’ and then what they’re getting is something completely different. But I’ve seen no negative impact on my work. For me it just means that, with a bit of luck, more people will hopefully come to your show. Nick, you’ve done your own TV shows and stuff . . . Nick: Ever since I did Uncle all my audiences seem to be really nice. I have an audience that come because they like me shouting and swearing and being aggressive. Then I have people that come because they like the songs and the poems and stuff. And that’s a nice balance. They also can be really open-minded.
The List: What do you get up to in Edinburgh when you’re not performing?
Tim: You’re always just looking for somewhere to sit down, somewhere to eat. The worst is when you’ve got friends or family visiting because every day’s just about survival. They’re like, ‘Where are we going to eat?’ I’d eat out of a bin right now, I really don’t care.
Nick: All the rules go out of the window.
Tim: I’ve eaten many more pies in Edinburgh than anywhere else. Red Bull gets its fair share of attention too.
Nick: For the i rst week I don’t go out really, I don’t do anything. I’ll do the show and I’ll listen back to it and then I’ll get up in the morning and rehearse and rewrite bits. You’ve got to spend the i rst four or i ve days reworking. Tim: Those i rst four shows in Edinburgh are horrible. And June and July. Those are the bits that you avoid by not taking up a new show.
Nick: So you’ve just been taking it easy . . . not taking it easy, but . . . June and July are horrii c – but not for you right now?
Tim: No. Nick: Because you’ve got yours done. That’s fucking brilliant.
Tim: I’ve done previews though. Nick: Yeah, course you have.
Tim: I’ve gone through making sure that it’s all okay, but that’s not the issue. Putting in that time is not the issue, it’s the un-useful time when you’re just stressing about your show. Nick: Crying yourself to sleep.
Tim: And just not knowing. Actually with this show it was slightly more serene but I remember other shows . . . oh God! I mean just thinking about them makes me want to be sick. It’s those moments when you’re on a night bus after a preview where you have quite literally died and you’re now nine days away . . .
Nick: Not literally.
Tim: Yeah, sorry, okay. You’ve metaphorically died. You’ve survived. Nick Helm’s Two Night Stand in The Grand, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 11 & 12 Aug, 11pm, £15.
Tim Key: Single White Slut, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 14–25 Aug, 9.40pm, £12–£16 (£10–£14). Preview 13 Aug, £10.
18 THE LIST FESTIVAL 7–14 Aug 2014
NICK HELM’S BEST BITS
1997 Made the voyage to the festival for the i rst time as part of a school play.
2001 Nick formed Bad Ash Productions, a theatre company in which he went on to direct and perform a number of plays. 2010 Brought his i rst solo show Keep Hold of the Gold to the Fringe, which ended up being a surprise hit.
2011 Won the prize for best joke at the festival with a gag from his show Dare to Dream. (For those interested it was: ‘I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’.) The show also received a Best Comedy Award nomination.
2012 Helm made numerous TV appearances throughout the year, including playing Santa on the 8 Out of 10 Cats Christmas Special.
2013 Received his second nomination for the Best Show Award for One Man Mega Myth, where he channelled Evel Knievel. It got a 5-star review from this fair publication. 2014 Starred in BBC Three sitcom Uncle, playing a depressed man-child who forges an unlikely relationship with his offbeat nephew.
TIM KEY’S KEY MOMENTS
2001 Made his i rst appearance at the Fringe in the Cambridge Footlights show Far Too Happy, which received a Best Newcomer Award nomination. 2004 Key’s solo debut at the Fringe saw him performing a one- man tragicomedy, Luke & Stella, that was subsequently made into a BBC Radio 4 series.
2005 As well as appearing in Alex Horne’s When in Rome, Key was in four-man sketch group Cowards, which also included comedians Tom Basden, Stefan Golaszewski and Lloyd Woolf, at the Fringe.
2007 He brought his i rst solo poetry act, The Slut in the Hut, to Edinburgh.
2009 Key won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for his show Slutcracker – an amalgam of poetry and physical comedy. 2010 Appeared as Alan Partridge’s sidekick – ‘Sidekick Simon’ – in Mid Morning Matters and went on to reprise the role in 2013’s Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
2011 Key completed his Slut Trilogy with
Masterslut, blurring stand-up and performance art and getting a 5-star review from us in the process. (Colin Robertson)