Chris Norton Walker is one of the hardest working and most travelled comics in the country, having performed the length and breadth of the country, and even recently performing at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. He’s performed numerous times for JUICE in Stafford and recently opened the show for us at The MET Studio. We sat down with ‘CNW’ to chat about all things comedy!
JUICE: How would you describe your type of comedy?
Chris: Ha, That’s a GOOD question. The straight answer being I don’t know. Or at least i’m not sure. I know what sort of show I want to give an audience but sometimes it can become what one audience member laughingly called ‘Like Fight Club, but with jokes.’ I’m not sure it’s quite like that any more. Maybe it was never actually like that, maybe it was just a good sound bite. Imagine that on posters. CHRIS NORTON WALKER – ‘Like Fight Club, but with jokes.’ That’s not a bad idea actually. Anyway, I am a big fan of ‘jokes.’ Short. Sharp. One liners. With Punchlines. And pauses for laughter. But I also love the theatrical ‘knowing’ arty Stewart Lee style. What I try to do is a mix of the two. Jokes and a ‘character’ (which is mainly an extension of me) but it could just be called a style. Maybe I need to watch more of myself on video to get a better idea of what the audience sees. Stand up at times can be a complicated mess. With every gig I do I learn something and the act/character/interaction becomes a little more into focus and a little more defined. It comes back to the saying about doing something for 10,000hours before you can call yourself an expert. I’m nearly up to 150 hours as a stand up.
JUICE: How did you get started in stand-up and why? What was your first gig like?
Chris: I have always loved stand up. It has oddly actually been quite a natural progression. I am an actor and always enjoyed comic acting. I found a London sketch and improv. group who I worked with for 2 years and eventually fell head first into stand up. I first started it at university, which might have been too old, even now. There’s are lots of young people doing stand up. It’s probably because of the accessibility of comedy especially on TV and that it can now be seen as a ‘career’. People are starting to do stand up very early these days, too early maybe. I’ve heard of some couples booking in their child’s pre-school and first open mic gigs at the same time. Possibly in the same venue. I’m surprised there isn’t a ‘BABY’s FIRST GIG’ toys set. Including a microphone, a ‘comedy’ backdrop and some cracker jokes.
My first gig was a great experience I can still remember the rush of adrenalin and nerves. For people who haven’t done it it’s probably like sky diving. Scary, unnatural and exhilarating. It went very well, surprisingly well. Although it was in a very comfortable environment. The audience was there to support their friends and all the others on the bill. A genuinely lovely experience. You always remember the good ones.
JUICE: What do you take with you to a gig? What’s in your gig-bag?
Chris: It has changed over time. Lets take a look. My gig bag contains the following:
A ‘joke book’ . It isn’t a joke book in the fullest sense of the word. It is filled with jokes, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also filled with notes and scribblings and promoters names and fractions of words and phrases that have struck a chord. More of a ‘gig’ book probably. As every comedian is unique so is their ‘book’.
I embarrassingly have a pencil case. It makes me feel like the new kid at school but It keep stuff in their that I’ll need. I want to lie and say it’s filled with cocaine and prostitutes phone numbers and wads of cash but it’s just 2 black pens in case I want to write something on my hand to remember it whilst i’m onstage and 2 mechanical pencils.
I have a set of business cards, of course. I think i’m known as ‘that business card guy’ (not quite as ‘American Psycho’ as it sounds). It happens in every other industry, why not comedy?
There is a smaller note pad to take onstage in case I get a heckle. I’ve taken to write heckles down in a book, not for a masochistic reason but it can buy me a bit of time when thinking of a ‘witty’ reply and I can deconstruct the heckle in terms of grammar and word choice and make the heckler seem even more stupid.
Also my battered iPod, some chewing gum and a few old receipts and any posters/flyers with my face on it that I have stolen. My mum loves that sort of thing!
JUICE: You’re reknowned for being one of the hardest working comics on the circuit. If you had to estimate, roughly how many miles do you think you’ve done over the years?
Chris: Thanks, its very tiring! Ha. There are so many people who are calling themselves the hardest working comic on the circuit. I’ve never said it about myself though. I know Jimmy Carr said if you aren’t doing over 200 gigs a year you’re not working hard enough. I’m not sure if he includes his TV work into that number. I’m not sure I can include my terrible TV appearances on late night adverts (not the sexy kind) into my count. I don’t how many miles I have done but I can tell you I have to get my car serviced every 4 months and have new tyres 3 times a year. Sometimes it’s not even about the number of miles it’s about the amount of hours of driving tedious motorway miles, sitting in service stations at 3am having a coffee. A 20 minute diversion off a motorway after a bad gig can lead people to think very bad things about the highways agency. Not me though, i’m a professional. To actually answer your question, about 120,000 miles in the name of comedy. Probably more. I’m yawning just thinking about it.
JUICE: What’s been your most memorable gig to date, for either good or bad reasons?
Chris: It depends what sort of memory you want. I can tell you about some terrible experiences which is what people love hearing about. Gigs where things have got really out of hand. Those places where crazy unique things have happened or been said, things you could never make up. Events that would probably sell quite well in a book, with a clever marketing campaign, purchased probably in an airport. It’s got to the point now where If you mention a town or city I can tell you about something crazy that has happened there even though most of them happen in tiny rooms in the back of pubs in the countryside with 14 people. It’s not all showbiz. Driving from London to Manchester and back for a gig with 1 audience member who left after the first of 9 acts. The gig continued after he left. Is always the first story I tell people. It’s kind of got in to CNW folklore in my own mind and pretty much sums up my first year or so in comedy. I was once peer pressured into kissing an old man on the cheek for £14 after an audience led whip-round. The less said about that gig the better. Although I think I keep bringing it up because it’s quite funny. Recently though I’ve gigged in a the basement of a student house with a recently released convict, a Subaru dealership forecourt. Oxford university was a particular delight. It’s often the gigs that you least expect trouble at that end up being the most memorable. For me this job is firstly about making people laugh but secondly to travel to and perform in places that you wouldn’t normally get access to… and then stealing things for your mum.
JUICE: Where’s your favourite place to perform?
Chris: There are of course several places that I love. The gig at the Stafford Gatehouse in the The MET Studio was a highlight of last year. Including the ‘extra’ encore at Joxers pub just down the road after the gig.
Oddly enough I think most of the best experiences i’ve had onstage have been clumped together in certain area. There are 3 or 4 gigs in the area around Worcester/Evesham that I have always enjoyed and would happily go back to. This also applies to Norwich oddly. All the gigs there have always have a fantastic reception. This also works in reverse too there are a couple of places around the country that I have done a few times and just been stared at without laughs and politely applauded off stage.
One of the gigs that has both been my most memorable and favourite was a gig at RAF Lakenheath for America service personnel. There was very tight security, we had to take our passports and 2 other forms of ID and the car had to be searched, we had to sign admittance forms. We were given a free steak dinner and then the audience of American airmen were an absolute delight. It was all very different to turning up to a pub gig doing your time and going home.
Honestly, even though the circuit is pretty small, it always fills me with a warm feeling when famous comics I have seen on the TV, either recently or when I was growing up, who know my name and say hello. Does that make me sound like an arse? Maybe but I don’t care.
JUICE: Which comedians have influenced you over the years? Who are your comedy heroes?
Chris: Every comedian I watch has an influence. I think it has to. Most of the influence is probably conscious. Just listening to what they say and how they work a crowd or how they put their own spin on their gags. But there
are some that i’m sure have a subconcous impact. There are comics I really love watching and listening to like Steve Martin, Eddie Izzard, Bill Cosby but how much they have influenced my work I just don’t know. Probably none. Maybe too much. I just don’t know. The same goes for Jimmy Carr and Ross Noble but i’m not sure you’d say I really resemble either of them.
I can get very boring and put on an academic tone when I comes to talking about comedy, and although I try not to, my geeky nature often comes out. Especially when asked questions like – Who are your favourites? who would I like to see live? who would I like to gig with? Who have I enjoyed gigging with? who would be on my ‘Perfect gig’?
I’m not sure I have a favourite really. There are certainly people i’ve paid to see and LOVED – Eddie Izzard, Daniel Kitson, Dan Antopolski and Micheal Mcintyre (at a small warm up gig of 150 people). There are also BIG comedians I have paid money to see and not enjoyed. Comedy is so subjective in that way, someone I would pay to see other people would hate.
There are people that I want to see live if I ever get the chance like Dimitri Martin and US late night TV host Craig Ferguson and Ken Dodd (just to see how long into the morning the gig would last!)
I’m guessing you just wanted me to say Peter Kay or The Office or something similar. Sorry.
JUICE: Who are your favourite acts on the comedy circuit right now?
Chris: There are certain comics I really enjoy gigging with and watching like Phil Nicholl, Noel James and Isy Suttie. Honestly I like all the comics I gig with, they are all very funny people both on and off stage. Comedy is such a small industry that everyone seems to get on. Just like with every job there are people you love working with, some you would rather avoid and lots you haven’t yet met. Comedy is a brilliant job. If you can call it a job, my friends certainly don’t think it is. No gig is the same, you get to meet your heroes, comics from such different back grounds and gigs in places that you never thought possible.
JUICE: Where can people find out more about CNW?
Facebook.com/ChrisNortonWalker
Hanging around the back of a pub avoiding crazy people.
JUICE Comedy 