Norwich resident, Adam Buxton has been flirting with major fame for many years now. In fact, heavy petting would probably be more appropriate, given his regular appearances on his own TV and Radio shows and prominent roles in some of the best British films and sitcoms over the last ten years, whilst staying on the fringes of mainstream comedy through Channel 4, E4 and BBC’s 2 and 3. With his weekly Saturday morning show on BBC 6 Music, he is now half of one of the longest running, high-profile comedy duos still performing on a regular basis. He is also the only comedian I have ever seen have his head smashed in by a church.
1) What do you think of Norwich and do you get chance to be involved in the arts scene there? In your opinion, is there anything missing?
I like Norwich a lot. I haven’t been out and about much yet but the couple of gigs I’ve done at the Playhouse were fantastic and I love the venue. There’s always interesting and non-twattish people in the bar afterwards so I try and stay for a few drinks when the gig is over. I did a gig ages ago at the arts centre and that looked like a good scene too. I look forward to getting more involved in it all if I can but I still feel as if I’m getting settled. My dream is to set up a little studio and get like-minded people from Norwich to help me make some films on a larger scale. There seems to be a lot of talent floating about here and it would be great to harness it somehow.
2) You’re a stand-up comedian, DJ, writer, actor, musician, director and TV comedian and personality. Which area do you enjoy working in the most and which do you think you are best at?
I’m also a very well respected rally driver and life coach. In fact I’m probably better respected in those fields than I am in the fields of music, stand up comedy, acting and directing for example. It seems unbelievable but there it is. I love hosting BUG (the music video show I present which will be at the Norwich Playhouse on 3rd & 4th of February 2010). We always have a few extraordinarily strange and inspiring videos to show and I usually crowbar a few of my own bits and pieces in there too. I’m not talking about my genitals you understand, I’m referring to my videos. I also take great pleasure in reading out the most addled and bizarre comments I come across from the You Tube community of which there are many. Someone once described Internet comments and reviews as the equivalent of scrawls on toilet walls, which I guess makes me a weirdo standing in the cubicle and jotting down those scrawls to relate to my friends later. I’d like to think I’m the king of toilet cubicle scrawl collecting weirdos though.
As far as what I’m best at generally, that’s not for me to say! There’s been a few moments with Joe on the radio that have been good I think and I’m proud of some of my videos, the You Say We Pay and Ratatoille clips being favourites but I’m pretty inconsistent. I’m trying to improve my consistency.
3) What makes you laugh the most? What annoys you the most?
Odd and irrational behaviour, my own or other people’s, makes me laugh when I’m sufficiently distanced from it. I enjoy poring over how wrong things can go when you’re doing your best to fit in. I even like it when people are making things wrong deliberately as long as they do it with flair (see Eric Wareheim’s music videos and TV work with Tim Heidecker as Tim & Eric). Rudeness and lack of empathy annoy me most. I’m not saying I’m the politeness and empathy king but some people don’t even try and they send me fricken mentile.
4) You have very eclectic taste in music and it’s great to hear some of those bands getting airplay on your radio show – particularly for little-known independent American bands like Spoon (check out Adam’s excellent alternate video for Spoon’s Don’t Make Me a Target on his youtube channel. Where do you go to find new music and art and what are you really into right now?
There’s a little cave in Southern Spain where an old man called Mungo lives and he digs out all the hot new music and art from a pit towards the back of the cave. It’s known as the Brad Pitt because it’s quite attractive but not very deep. I get a lot of my stuff from Mungo, but often it turns out that he’s given the best bits to Lauren Laverne and I just get what’s left over. When the cave’s closed I just get recommendations from friends or from reading reviews or hearing stuff in trendy record shops and DIY outlets, like everyone else. Since I’ve been doing BUG I’ve come across a lot of good music. That’s where I first heard Wild Beasts for example. I try to listen to whatever people send me too but it can take a while to get through it. Right now I’m into Wild Beasts, The Very Best, Mad Men, Dexter with some reservations, Up, Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne, Revels, doodling, sighing to myself and David Sedaris audiobooks.
5) What are you working on at the moment?
I’m doing the usual odds and sods that may or may not ever come to anything. Also I’m filming a few bits for a BBC2 end of year review show including a spoof of Alone In The Wild (Channel 4 doc about a Scottish guy trying to survive alone in the Canadian wilderness for no apparent reason and going mental). Mine is called Alone In the Shed. I’m also making some on line ads for the California Tourist Board that I’ll put on my You Tube channel to tell people about a competition they’re organising. I get asked to be involved with a lot of TV ads and I do a few voice overs but generally stay away from fronting stuff myself. In this case I thought I might be able to make something that was hopefully entertaining and make some money at the same time rather than just appearing in someone else’s ad. On the whole I much prefer the freedom of making work for the internet compared to the misery of getting stuff on TV but it’s not easy to earn a living from it so this is a welcome confluence of cake and the eating of cake.
6) What question have you never been asked in an interview and always wished someone would ask – and what would your answer be?
I know this is supposed to be a fun meta-question but to me it seems like an invitation to reveal a sense of dissatisfaction with how I am perceived but I’m not dissatisfied at all. I want people to enjoy what I do but I don’t really care, nor can I control how I am perceived. If some people think I’m funny and clever or even funny and stupid, then I’m delighted. If other people think I’m a tiresome sell-out micro mediocrity then that is their inalienable right although I’m less delighted. I can honestly say I’ve never wished someone would ask me different questions in interviews except when they ask things like ‘who would win in a fight between a giant badger and a prostitute?’ Then I just feel very old and tired and wish they wouldn’t ask me any questions at all.
Adam 30-11-09
Born in London, England on June 7th 1969, Adam met Joe Cornish when they were both 14 and began a partnership that still continues 27 years later. His first TV appearances came hosting Takeover TV from 1996 to 2002 and, with Joe, he co-starred in The Adam and Joe Show from 1997 to 2001, the edited best bits of which can be bought on DVD from Amazon. They then made ADAM & JOE’S WONKY WORLD OF ANIMATION in 2000 and the following year a series ADAM & JOE’S AMERICAN ANIMATION ADVENTURE. His next really big series with Joe was in 2003 on BBC3 and called ADAM & JOE GO TOKYO.
Their transition to radio came with XFM, initially standing in for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant on their amazingly popular show and then making the show their own from 2003-2006. They made a series of 20 new music podcasts in 2006 which can still be downloaded from the XFM site and are well worth a listen.
Meanwhile, on his own, Adam made a TV pilot and subsequent series that was reminiscent of The Office in how it squeezed humour from excruciatingly awkward situations. This series was about the attempts of an average working man to make it big in music with his band called The Last Chancers. As if this wasn’t enough, Adam took a notable guest role in Graham Linehan’s fantastic sitcom The IT Crowd, took an equally memorable key role in Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, in which Adam gets killed by falling masonry, he was in Garth Jenning’s equally superb Son of Rambow as a teacher who unfortunately gets stuck to a mug, and again died in Stardust, this time with an axe in his head. And if you want to see more, check out his youtube channel to get a free glimpse at some of his other projects, including the video for Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling into Place”.
He now lives in Norwich; is married with two sons; and co-presents The Adam and Joe Show on BBC 6Music every Saturday morning.
Words: Alasdair Kay
