Lenny Henry: Appearing at the Bulmers International Comedy Festival
"The wife said 'Get up off your arse and do some work you lazy git'," says Lenny Henry, explaining the motivation for his new stand-up show, Where You From? "Lazy" is an unlikely adjective for the prolific 49-year-old who has had a frenetic 30-year career, interspersing regular stand-up tours with BBC sketch shows (Three of a Kind, The Lenny Henry Show), sitcoms (Chef!), dramas (Hope and Glory), documentaries and even a Hollywood movie (True Identity). He is also the most recognisable face of Comic Relief, fronts a funk band called Poor White Trash and recently completed a BA in English literature with the Open University.
Did he ever consider specialising in one area? "I like the idea of presenting a moving target and I think it's really important to constantly challenge yourself. If I had stuck with jokes and gags I would have been dead, professionally speaking, 20 years ago. My dad did the same job for 30 years and it killed him in the end. I love acting and I love singing and I try to infuse my live shows with as many different elements of that as possible."
The documentary Lenny's Britain provided most of the material for his current show. "The BBC sent me out and about around the country to see what makes people laugh and look at the different senses of humour. The shows are quite retrospective in that I talk about what I saw on my travels, I talk about Comic Relief, which I've never really talked about before, I talk about my mum and I talk about music and why I love it so much. I think it is more philosophical than my old shows, more like a chat. I don't tend to yell at the audience as much as I used to."
It's testimony to his enduring appeal that Henry can still top the bill at a comedy festival. "People never get fatigued by comedy and the fact that I can co-exist with younger comics is great. They up the ante for me."
Is a show about life in Britain in the noughties relevant to an Irish audience? "I love talking about the place where I am touring so while the show is planned out in advance, there's always lots of spontaneity. The last time I was in Ireland I was talking about the fact that there seems to be a pink house in every village here. Did Dulux have a special offer or something?"
Since comedians are allegedly so depressed in private, surely it can't be much fun with two comedians living under one roof (Henry is married to Dawn French). "We do alright," he says. "We've gone on this major-league journey together and we do fine. We both have a great sense of humour and we care about each other a great deal." In conversation with Michael Kelly.
Lenny Henry performs at the Olympia Theatre tonight and tomorrow night. www.bulmerscomedy.ie