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Jack Dee - a national treasure
by Conrad Astley14/ 4/2005
OVER the last decade and a half, Jack Dee has made an impressive
career out of being thoroughly miserable.
His trademark deadpan delivery and annoyance at some of life's most
inconsequential matters have earned him a special place in the
nation's heart.
So much so that after a three-year break from touring his
recently-announced dates, including two nights at The Lowry in
Salford Quays, have quickly sold out.
After a few warm-up gigs at smaller venues, he began the mammoth
tour this week, eventually ending in a summer stint at London's
Carling Apollo.
And he's glad to be back, saying: "Stand-up is something I'll
always want to be doing. Sometimes I'll leave it alone for a year,
but it will always be the bedrock of what I'm about.
"Nothing beats the thrill of live performance. When stand-up is
going well, it's the most exhilarating hit a stand-up can get. When
the ideas are flowing and you're improvising, it's like being able
to fly. It's the biggest buzz you'll ever have."
Such enthusiasm seems out of place coming from the mouth of a man
who has made a name for himself by criticising everything that
comes under his radar.
But it doesn't take long to see that not much has changed.
He said: "I do get very annoyed about things. My act is about me
working up a head of steam over the smallest subject. Being
unreasonably angry about the most minor point is very funny - and
it says more about the woes of the world than I could ever
manage.
"Road rage is a telling example - that's just people becoming
proprietorial about something they should share.
"If you blow that attitude up, it shows that so often human nature
is its own worst enemy. I don't have a problem hanging onto my
anger - that is actually how I think. It's not put on, it doesn't
finish at the end of the show!"
Audiences coming to see his latest tour will be treated to a whole
new set of topics for Dee to rail against, including - or course -
circuses.
He said: "I'm trying to introduce the idea of the English State
Circus. It would be held in a massive Burberry big top, and the
clown would come on being abusive, smelling of cigarettes and with
a betting-shop pencil behind his ear. `And now from Manchester, the
Fly Tippers!'
"I hope the government picks up on it. It's crying out to be done.
I feel circus workers must be having an awful lot of sex, why ever
else would you do that job? There must be some hidden
benefit.
"You learn to juggle just so you can live in an 8ft-long caravan
with the Kosovan hoopla twins.
"You can't stay that fit just by doing 20 minutes' trapeze a day.
They're up to something."
There will also be more typical suburban themes, such as neighbours
who try to borrow stuff: "You have to nip that one in the bud. They
come around and ask for greaseproof paper.
"I know I've got a whole drawer full of the stuff, but I'm not
getting into that game. If I wanted to get into that, I'd have
opened a corner shop. I don't want to do them out of
business!"
Much of the last three years have been spent in TV studios and on
film sets, where Dee has been building up an impressive actor's
CV.
Although he has been no stranger to TV screens since the mid 90s -
mainly thanks to John Smith's beer and those penguins - he has now
been turning his hand to more serious roles.
Whereas his appearance in Tunnel of Love, a comedy drama about
romance among fairground workers, was a more obvious role for a
comic, he has also played a government minister in The Deputy, as
well as appearing in Silent Witness, Dalziel and Pascoe and last
year's movie Spivs.
More impressively, this year will see the release of two more high
profile films. In The Last Drop, he plays an intelligence officer
alongside Hollywood big guns Michael Madsen, Billy Zane and Nick
Moran, and in Short Order, he plays a restaurant critic and
co-stars with no less a thespian heavyweight than John Hurt.
Jack Dee announced his ambition to do more acting after completing
his last tour in 2002, and filming a BBC documentary in Siberia -
an experience which led him to produce this priceless pearl: "The
rainforest has Sting. Now Siberia has Jack Dee. Someone had to draw
the short straw. In this case it was the rainforest."
Dee truly deserves to be a national treasure and it's good to have
him back.
Jack Dee is performing at The Lowry tonight and tomorrow
(Saturday).
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