HE’S been labelled “hysterically funny” and “the punchline king” by critics and fans alike. Fellow comic Rob Beckett even dubbed him “surprisingly ripped”. There’s no doubt that Andy Parsons is many things to many people.
The Mock the Week panellist, writer of sketches for TV’s Spitting Image and star of sell out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe is doing what he loves best this year- heading back to live stand up with his new tour Bafflingly Optimistic.
Andy will be gracing Kent audiences with his self-deprecating wit when he heads to The Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone later this month.
The 57-year-old is looking forward to sharing his talent in what he hopes will be a cringe-free gig.
As Andy explains, when he performed in Kent once before… well there was an awkward mix up over his birthday.
'I have performed at the Hazlitt many times and already on this tour I have done Herne Bay and Folkestone,' said Andy.
'In Folkestone, I played The Quarterhouse in the ‘Cultural Quarter’ which we had a laugh about on the night as when I walked outside the venue to have a look around, all I saw was four Chinese Takeaways, two Curry Houses and a Kebab shop that was closed.
'One of my favourite memories of gigging in Kent was doing a tour warm-up in Faversham and some people in the audience singing me ‘Happy Birthday’ and bringing me a cake.
'They had got my birth date off Wikipedia which had got it completely wrong and was several months away from the actual date.'
Andy added: 'For a time on Wikipedia it also said that I had Grade eight in playing the piano and a massive phobia for snakes, neither of which are true. So I went on this TV show and they had just done their research on Wikipedia and they produced a piano and said "would you like to play something for us" – and I said "I can’t play" so they produced a snake and said "If you don’t play, we’ll make you hold this" so I said "Ok" and I held the snake.'
So, what’s the show got in store? Well, imagine we’ve been visited by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the form of Disease, Death, War and overpriced Ketchup. What hope can there be? Andy is indeed Bafflingly Optimistic about this future.
In his unique way the satirist will take audiences on a journey through topics like quantitative easing, austerity, inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, broken banking system – and of course something that keeps us all up at night- overpriced Ketchup,
Andy began his career writing non-commissioned material for Radio 4's Weekending and went on to become one of the main writers of the original Spitting Image on ITV. Having had his own Radio 2 series for six years, he became a regular panelist on Mock the Week and has made numerous TV appearances on the likes of Live At The Apollo, The Comedy Store and QI.
He's won a swathe of awards and been labelled Time Out Comedy winner, New Zealand International Comedy Award Winne and the Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival Award winner to name but a few.
Things, however, could have been very different for Andy, who was born in Dorset, grew up in Devon and Cornwall and went to Cambridge University to study law.
After realising Law wasn’t for him, comedy beckoned, and he embarked on a path paved with laughter.
One not too wonderful memory in his early days occurred just across the river in Essex.
He recalled: 'The first time I played the Palace Theatre in Westcliff, I was very excited to see my name up in lights outside but the letter ‘P’ had fallen off so it read "Tonight: ANDY ARSONS".'
Surely Andy can expect a classier type of audience in the ‘garden of England’.
'I’m not so sure about that!' he said. 'I filmed one of my DVDs at the Theatre Royal in Margate and directly opposite the theatre somebody had spray-painted on their own concrete gatepost “Do Not Let Your Dog Sh*t Here” [minus the asterisk!] with an arrow pointing to the pavement below. They wanted to keep the area clean - but they were quite happy to graffiti their own wall with expletives.'
Andy will be at the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone on September 14. Tickets are £19.50
parkwoodtheatres.co.uk
