Stand up comedian, Frankie Boyle, star of comedy panel shows such as Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, and 8 out of 10 Cats talks to Arts Hub's resident budding comic Sam Stone at the side of a busy roundabout about grief sex, fatherhood and writing jokes.
20 Feb 2008 12:00
Sam Stone
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Performing Arts
Stand up comedian, Frankie Boyle, star of comedy panel shows such as Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, and 8 out of 10 Cats talks to Arts Hub’s resident budding comic Sam Stone at the side of a busy roundabout about grief sex, fatherhood and writing jokes.
“I Reckon I Could Kill a Labrador” is the unsentimental title of the email that Frankie Boyle sends out inviting me to attend his new material night at Islington’s Hen and Chickens theatre. I enjoy the show despite having to stare at the floor. Boyle had asked me not to sit near the front because he would find it “distracting” to get eye contact from someone he knew while delivering a punchline. As a new act comic I find this admission of nervousness from such an accomplished entertainer comforting and disturbing in equal measure. Unfortunately, when I arrive there is only one seat left… second row from the front, hence the staring at the floor.
Sam Stone left school at the age of 14 without qualifications to support herself. She started working as runner on film sets. Quite glamorous, but she got tired after a few miles. She worked her way up the food chain and began producing tv commercials at the age of 18. She then decided to pursue a career in Media, discovered L.S.D and was found trying to fax herself to the Home Office muttering ... "Bill Hicks told me to kill myself. Bill Hicks told me to kill myself" Naturally, she quit her high powered job in advertising and her decent salary and started slinging plates as a waitress. She did other things too such as working as a cook on a cargo ship. Being the only English speaking person on the ship of Germans, she had to resort to war-film German. She didn't make many friends. She often had to mime what was for dinner. Chicken was her favourite. Spaghetti a bit more surreal. But the ship stayed in dry-dock and she started to feel she just wasn't going anywhere. She worked as a stripper for a number of years on and off, on and off - anything up to 30 times in a single shift. She also spent several years working as a Storyteller in schools, libraries and literature festivals - dabbling in myth, fairytale and a courdoroy waistcoat. She began writing comedy material in April 2006. [Photo: Claes Gellerbrink]
