FESTIVAL FEATURES | Pappy’s
be and what it became are two quite different things. We’re big fans of a band called the Spook School, who are kind of an Edinburgh / London- based band. So we got the rhythm section of it in London, those two guys did the theme to the second season of Badults, so we got to meet them through that. So basically, we’re a bunch of guys in our 30s who had a breakdown and formed a band. Ben: [laughs] Matthew: So we’ve written all these songs, they are not comedy songs but they are funny songs. It’s going to be us with our friends, in all of the Brixton shows we have friends coming to perform...Hey! Look who it is! [A red-cheeked, pufi ng Tom bundles in, fresh from an overrunning BEASTS rehearsal] Tom: I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Matthew: So the next question is for Tom...
So: Badults. Did you enjoy making a sitcom? Tom: It’s the most fun to do! Right from the very start to the very end of it, it was joyous. Ben: We had, like, a proper job which felt lovely. Get up every morning, go and write together, that was great. That was a really lovely process. Matthew: I had a funny thing the other day...I was at a friend’s wedding and a guy came up to me and said ‘Oh you’re in that show with the World Cup thing’. And I said ‘Yeah, Badults’. And he said ‘Well what’s your name? Oh Matthew? Like in the show! Was it autobiographical?’ [Ben & Tom laugh] Matthew: I mean, it kind of was. Tom: Yeah, it kind of was. Do people recognise you when you go places now? Matthew: I was with Isy Suttie and someone came up and was like ‘You’re Dobby from Peep Show!’ and she said ‘Yeah I am’. And then they looked at me and said ‘You’re someone as well, aren’t you?’
12 THE LIST FESTIVAL 20–31 Aug 2015
Tell us about Live at the Cabaret Bar! – how’s that different from Secret Dudes Society? Matthew: Those are our actual sketches. So if you’ve seen our Fringe shows before, Live at the Cabaret Bar! will be a collection of shows, a collection of sketches. Hopefully there will be stuff from almost every show we’ve done at the Fringe. Ben: That’s our plan. Tom: We always promised ourselves that we’d never come and do a ‘Best Of’. Matthew: I think the distinction we’re making is we never had such i nancial difi culties as we’re having now. [Ben & Tom laugh] Matthew: No, the distinction we made is, because we’re all up, it seems churlish not to. I think what we didn’t want to do was be sat in London and going ‘Oh on the last weekend we’ll all go up on the train together, do three shows and come back’. That’s not it. And also the Cab Bar was dark [at 9.20pm, due to Romesh Ranganathan’s cancellation], and it’s such a good venue. As soon as we found out the Cab Bar was dark, we put in our l yers that we were doing the Pleasance a massive favour. I mean, we’re not really but if there’s a dark theatre at 9.20pm, you’ve got to go and do something. Ben: Yeah and we love the Cabaret Bar! Matthew: We did our 2008 show Funergy there, and we just had a complete ball. It was just wonderful and the chance to get to do it again was brilliant. Matthew: But yeah it won’t be a fully narrative sketch show, it’ll just be some of our favourite sketches. There’ll be some bits that we literally won’t have done for i ve years, so that’ll be quite fun. Are you enjoying doing your solo shows? Tom: I’m having fun. I don’t feel like it’s a stand-up show. It kind of is really, I’m just I guess shying away from saying I’m doing stand-up, I just think it’s me shit-talking for an hour and having fun [laughs]. It’s fun to be able to talk for an hour without having people [ie – Ben an Ben and Matthew] trying to stop you. Matth Matthew: It’s funny that when you do a solo show it reminds you w you what is good about Pappy’s. You always have to do things to mak to make up for the lack of the other two. Like in my solo show I take I take my shirt off and dance around, which is pretty much being being Tom. But in a very controlled way. [Ben [Ben & Tom laugh] Matt Matthew: We’re already making up for having two years away away. We now just go ‘We’ll just do everything.’ I’m also doing doing ten nights of a game-show, The Humble Quest for Univ Universal Genius, so literally there will be days I’m doing four four shows, pretty much back to back. It’s going to be a real exer exercise of stamina, but I just love the Fringe so much, why not? not? If you get the chance to do as much as you can, see as muc much as you can, why not? It’s only a month. (Int (Interview by Yasmin Sulaiman)
Pappy’s Presents...The Secret Dudes Society, Pap Ple Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 24–25 Aug, 11.55pm, £7 (£5). (£5
Pappy’s Live at the Cabaret Bar!, Pleasance Pa Co Courtyard, 556 6550, 27–29 Aug (9.20pm), £9 (£7). To Tom Parry: Yellow T-Shirt, Just the Tonic at The Tr Tron, 0330 220 1212, until 30 Aug, 6.20pm, £5.
M Matthew Crosby: Smaller than Life, Just the Tonic a at The Mash House, 0330 226 0000, until 30 Aug, 7 7.40pm, £5.
M Marriage, Assembly George Square Studios, 623 3 3030, until 30 Aug, 2pm, £12–£13 (£11–£11.50). T The Humble Quest for Universal G Genius, Assembly George Square Gardens, 623 3030, 21–30 Aug, 2pm, £12 (£11).
BEASTS: Live DVD, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug, 4.45pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9). Max and Ivan: The End, Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 30 Aug, 8.20pm, £9–£12.50 (£8– £11.50).