TALK TIME:Eoin Butler talks to comedian and TV presenter, Andrew Maxwell.
Explain how the 'Fullmooners' started
It's a show I started doing at the Comedy Store in London about two and a half years ago. It was the first time a comedian had ever been given his own show there. We call it a 'Count Dracula Hip-hop Muppet Show' - the concept being that we make people howl at the moon and do all sorts of other crazy stuff. So before the show starts we'd make the audience look at a projection of a full moon or listen to a version of Thriller.
It has attracted a bit of a following over the years
Well, it starts at midnight and goes on until 3am on a Friday. So that attracts a pretty weird demographic to begin with. But we've had all sorts along: the Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Nesbitt, Goths, supermodels, drunken comedians . . . Once Jade Goody and her boyfriend tried to get in for free. She said "Do you know who I am?" And we were like "Yeah!" We've since taken the show to Edinburgh and Galway, so it's become a sort of a movable feast.
One of your more high profile guests, Russell Brand, recently found himself in a spot of bother elsewhere
That was complete and utter nonsense. The papers couldn't find any way to sell the financial crash. So they decided to turn this minor brouhaha into front-page news. At the time [the offending BBC radio show] was broadcast, there were two complaints. It took a solid two weeks of hysteria from the media to generate 30,000 complaints. With all that's going on in the world, the papers decide to pick on a couple of comedians?
Andrew Sachs is a comedian . . .
Seriously, Eoin, you're a grown man. Are you serious?
I'm just trying to put across the other side
There is no other side. When he eventually came out of hiding, Sachs himself admitted that he wasn't bothered about the whole fuss. And even if he had been . . . [pores over the ins and outs of the controversy at some length] . . . Come on, man. Look at the reality of the situation. It's all smoke and mirrors!
Speaking of which, you have a new show on RTÉ 2
Yes, Smoke and Mirrorsis essentially what the Fullmoonersshow has evolved into for television. It's set in a filthy abandoned fairground and each show features me doing a bit of stand-up on a given topic. There's also a guest stand-up and some other silly little stunt. I try a bit of kung fu in one episode. We do some escapology in another and try to break the Rubik's cube record in another.
You're still a regular on 'The Panel' too
Yeah, that's the easiest gig I've ever done. It's just a bunch of friends sitting around talking rubbish for a couple of hours. Then it's edited down to make us look funny! We've all known each other for a very long time. So there's no adversarial quality to it. If somebody else gets a big laugh you just laugh along - it's a collective victory. It's not a case of any of us pushing for the limelight. It's a good team spirit.
What are your plans for Christmas?
Why? Are you inviting me around? No, there's still a whole lot of December to get through yet. So until it's officially, religiously Christmas . . . I'm not going to get ahead of myself. I'll probably go on holidays with my family somewhere, but we haven't decided yet. The rest of you get to go on holiday in August, but us comedians are all in Edinburgh then. So we tend to do our holidays over Christmas and the New Year.
• The second episode of Smoke and Mirrorsseries is on RTÉ2 on Monday night. Andrew Maxwell is curating the Altitude Alpine Comedy Festival in Meribel, France, from March 28th to April 3rd, 2009. For further details, see www.altitudefestival.com