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Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
Stand up comedian, author, actor, TV and radio presenter and the large face of Channel 4ââ¬â¢s many ââ¬Ë100 best... ââ¬â¢ list programmes, Ji
"I think the hedonistic, consumerist lifestyle of gay men is something to be envied"
Have you ever used comedy to get someone into bed?
I’m always expected to get laughs in bed and I think it’s a matter of personal pride that it has never let me down. They will always laugh at some point. ‘Look at that, it’s like a penis but smaller!’ I don’t think that really works. There’s a weird thing… I really don’t think it does.
Girls always say sense of humour’s the most important thing, don’t they?!
They always say that but I never seen evidence of that. I’m a funny guy for a living. I’m funnier than Brad Pitt. I’m funnier than Brad Pitt and yet there’s no posters of me on bedroom walls. There’s no Jimmy Carr calendar. ‘Oh yeah, I’ll tell you what I like, funny men with fat faces’. Come on! I don’t think I’m anyone’s pin up, but I think it’s more like within a relationship making your partner laugh is the most important thing. The great test of a relationship is Sunday morning papers. If you can get the papers with someone on a Sunday morning and happily read them together and occasionally look up, drink your coffee, check in and have a laugh about something, that is a winner. That is a keeper.
We hear you’re a big fan of Brighton…
Yes, Brighton what an amazing town to hang out in and one of my favourite places to play in the UK. Fastest growing city in Europe, how are they doing that? The gays aren’t breeding! That’s my favourite opening line to do in Brighton. I love The Lanes, I love wandering round. There’s a great tailor there called Gresham Blake that will rung me up a shirt and it’s just a wonderful way to hang out for the day. Just the quality of life, having a wander down the beach, everything about it is perfect and great food as well. There are so many good restaurants in one town. I absolutely love it.
Are you straight acting?
That’s a leading question! Well, I go to a lot of musicals and enjoy them but I’m not in any way gay. I wish I was; it would be an easier life I think. My theory on why I like gay men is that they’ve all had to question authority at a key age. They had to look at their parents and go, ‘I love what you’ve done, but it’s not for me’. It causes gay men to have more interesting personalities and think for themselves and not to conform. As a result of that I think there’s an aspirational quality to gay life. I also think the hedonistic, consumerist lifestyle of gay men is something to be envied. I don’t have children and there’s a part of me that likes to think that I’m in a heterosexual gay couple. We have a great time, we go on lovely holidays, we look after each other, but we don’t want to live vicariously through little tiny midgets.
What is the best thing about being straight then?
I don’t know if there’s an especially great thing about being straight. I mean, I’m a great fan of vaginas. I can’t understand how you’re not more into that. Boobies as well. It’s that simple. I always think if I was a gay man, who would drive. It would be, ‘I’ll drive’, ‘No, I’ll drive’, whereas with a man and a woman you’ll go, ‘I’ll drive and she’ll go, ‘Yep, you will’.
While she sits there doing what? Eating Murray Mints?
Of course eating Murray Mints, you know us so well.
Who or what is your guilty pleasure?
I think Britney Spears is incredible. The last couple of singles she’s made have been the best pop in the last ten years. Good pop music is just universal. Also I think those lyrics “It’s Britney bitch, I’m Miss Bad Media Karma, another day, another drama” from the last single were genuine. I also think she’s the perfect pop star, in terms of the amount of interest and column inches she gets. She’s just a more interesting character than most.
What’s your proudest moment?
Working on the stand up circuit was a ‘this is it’ moment. I left a job - a proper job job - to become a stand up comic and I think people assume that you left to become a famous comedian on TV which of course you don’t. You leave your job to become essentially a stand up comic making £80 a night. That’s when I felt a real sense of achievement when I started actually being paid to tell jokes. It was wonderful. It’s never really got any better than that. I’m so mawkishly grateful for the job that I have. I hate to be boring about it, but it’s a nice place to be and it’s such a cool job to have.
Do you ever feel bad about slagging people off in shows?
Baby, I’m in show business. If we still had our job description on passports that would be on mine. ‘Slags people off to mask the pain’. It’s not even slagging people off, it’s just putting the world to rights. I’ve got a couple of people who have got the same job, ‘Putting the world to rights’. ‘To rejoice in someone else’s misfortune’, the German’s call it Schadenfreude, we call it You’ve Been Framed.
Jimmy Carr is currently on a nationwide tour. For more information and tickets click here.
