This ‘in conversation’ event combined Fringe comedy with a book festival element. It featured the poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter Tim Key being interviewed by fellow comedian Nish Kumar.
The focus was on Tim Key’s new book L.A. Baby! in which he reflects, in prose and poetry on his time in the states working on The Paper. This upcoming American mockumentary sitcom series time is something of ‘sister show’ top the US version of The Office (apparently, according to Key, you’re not allowed to say sequel in US TV!).
Podcast-style chat
The steamy basement venue (Monkey Barrel 3 on Blair Street) certainly gave it more of a stand-up vibe. Key and Kumar with their many years of stand up, were comfortable interacting with the audience in a more informal way than you would get at a typical book event. Indeed they started in bantering mood, with Keys initially addressing Kumar as Romesh, implying that it was easy to mix up British Asian comics. This nicely set the tone for their gently probing podcast-style chat.
Keys read out some selections from L.A. Baby!, though struggled a little with the small print size. This was put down by Kumar to Key’s stubborn refusal to wear glasses (“the book is perfectly readable!!” he emphasised). The readings added a nice change of pace and tone and were accompanied with music on the keyboard from backstage. Keys’ use of language was clever and sometimes moving. A number in the audience will have been influenced to buy the book if that was the quality they can expect (there was a signing session at the close of the event).
The writing process
Particularly interesting was Key’s description of his writing process. He often uses poetry as a way of cathartically dealing with difficult situations, especially when in unfamiliar surroundings. In the case of L.A. Baby!, much of it was written in cafes and bars in LA, as he tried to deal with some of the discombobulating aspects of his life there. It was only after putting together a decent number of poems that the thought of turning them into a book started to emerge. As he noted, breaking down the big projects into small segments, is what makes them manageable. He thanked his collaborator Emily Juniper, who designed the book, for her encouragement with the project. Tailoring his words to fit her designs often gave him a focus, forcing him to limit the length of what he was writing.
Later asked about the editing process of his books, Keys related that he likes to do most of the work himself, and not involved a large team as is usually the case with publishers. However, he did a lot of editing of his own work and also many pieces of writing of his end up on the cutting room floor. It’s largely a process of selecting a narrowing down. This was similar to how he would shape a new comedy show, though in the case of stand up, comedians doing work in progress shows get very instant feedback on what works and what doesn’t. That sort of instantaneous feedback isn’t available with writing books.
Camouflage
They also discussed some of the perils have becoming reasonably famous, and getting recognised in the street. In Key’s case, his relative fame had been achieved ‘incrementally’, whereas Kumar had, particularly through the satirical comedy show the Mash Report, rather quickly become a recognisable figure. Both had taken to wearing baseball caps to give them some camouflage when out and about in London.
In general the show was engaging, though at times Kumar had a tendency to butt in, interrupting some of Key’s answers. Kumar’s loud guffawing was a little bit OTT at times. In general though, the session was entertaining, with interesting insights into the writing process and comedy techniques. The session ended with some excellent questions from the audience, which Key answered thoughtfully and well.
