We caught up with associate artist, Joe Wells, on his new comedy series ‘Think Tank’, which combines political debate with stand up comedy.
Joe is a stand up comedian who has been on the live circuit for five years over which time he has gained critical acclaim and supported Alexei Sayle on tour.
His work has been described as “Some of the most surprising and thought-provoking material coming from any comedian in his early 20s” – The Guardian.
We’d love some background on you, what made you decide to be a comedian? Where does your interest in politics come from?
I grew up being taken to see Mark Thomas who I still see as one of my biggest inspirations even though what we do is quite different. I had a poster of Mark’s Coca Cola show with a quote from a newspaper; “Coca Cola execs should be worried, Mark Thomas is gunning for them”, I thought that was so cool, that some powerful executive would be frightened by a man telling jokes on his own. It wasn’t until I went to university and started going to see live comedy that I realised that this was something I could do. Comedy has a real DIY punk rock ethos where anyone can get up and have a go without learning an instrument or going through any kind of training, so I guess the answer to the question ‘what made me decide to become a comedian?’ is ‘because I could.’
To someone who hasn’t seen you, how would you describe your style of comedy?
It’s stand up that’s loosely political but not the kind of political where I have to read the paper every day, I’m more interested in broader political ideas than what legislation is being passed this week. My first hour long show, Night of The Living Tories, was described by the comedy website Chortle as ‘much more than an hour of swearing at David Cameron’ although there was plenty of that to make sure that people didn’t go home feeling short changed. I wrote the show around the material I was doing in comedy clubs anyway which was very angry about becoming an adult and realising just how unfair the world is. It was quite an angry show that stuck two fingers up at people who say that life isn’t fair and you just have to deal with it. I’m now working on a new hour which is a bit more introspective, the show is called ’10 things I hate about UKIP’ but it’s actually a defence of UKIP voters, the message of the show is that it’s more important how you behave as a person than what your politics are.
What has been your most memorable moment when doing stand-up?
I supported Alexei Sayle on some of his warm up dates for his most recent tour, he’s an incredibly inspiring man, if it weren’t for him and a few other people then comedy as we know it today wouldn’t exist. Even though he’s in his 60s now he still has that anger that he had in his early work, he hasn’t been taken in by the establishment, he’s still an outsider figure which I think all good comedians should be.
What inspired your new show ’Think Tank’?
I love comedy that has an opinion, too much political comedy stands at the side and sneers without offering any solutions. The American comic Doug Stanhope is one of my favourites because when you leave the show you end up debating the ideas that he’s talked about in his act, there’s lots of comics like this; Jamie Kilstein, Mark Steel, Bridget Christie. I wanted to do a show where that comedy- inspired-discussion I would have with friends on the train home would happen onstage with actual politicians who have the power to put these ideas into practice.
What can people expect from your show?
Three of my favourite comedians (Romesh Ranganathan, Grainne Maguire and Andrew O’Neill) will spend 5 minutes each proposing an education policy of their choosing, then I will chair a panel with 3 politicians and debate these policies. The politicians who have agreed to do the show are Flick Drummond (Conservative), John Ferrett (Labour) and Tim Dawes (Green) so there’s definitely going to be a wide range of opinions. There’ll be points from the audience too, its basically Question Time mixed with Live At The Apollo. The show is being recorded and will later be released as an audio podcast online, we then hope to do more in the future on different themes, the next one will probably be ‘health’.
What do you hope people take away from your show?
I hope that the debate continues after the show and that people get a better idea about who some of their local MPs might be after the next general election and what they stand for.
You worked with New Theatre Royal on Think Tank – what does the theatre mean to you as a local resident and a performer?
Working with the New Theatre Royal has allowed me to pursue the kind of comedy that I can’t do at normal comedy clubs. Last year we did the world record attempt show and NTR also supported me with my debut fringe show. This year they are supporting Think Tank, if it weren’t for them it would be very difficult for me to put on this show.
The first episode of Think Tank will debut on 31 March at 7.30pm at The Square Tower, Portsmouth. Early bird tickets priced at £6 are available here.