The secret of comedy is don't grow up. That's why some comedians are a nightmare, because they never grow up.

Julian Barratt

Categorized in : Never Grow Grow Up Comedy

I can't do jokes. I've always come from left field and tried to subvert conventional comedy. I started as a rebellion against that - albeit a very soft and surreal rebellion. It's escapist.

always rebellion jokes comedy

When you're really laughing, you feel like a little kid, and nothing matters.

nothing feel like you

I miss quite major cultural signposts quite often.

cultural quite miss often

'Galaxy Quest' is a fantastic film.

quest fantastic galaxy film

Life without music would be a mistake.

without music mistake life

The profession is rife with fear about your age, about your validly, longevity, appearance. It's vanity, and it's hard to sort of avoid all those things; they come at you as an actor.

you appearance age fear

In comedy terms, usually when the weather's bad, it goes much better. When it's sunny, people don't come to see comedy gigs because they're all really happy and don't need cheering up.

better happy weather people

We're so insecure, comedians. 'Did you laugh? Do you think I was funny?'

laugh think you funny

I ran off stage at my first gig. Halfway through it, I forgot my lines and didn't know what to do, so I just ran out of the building down towards a lake. I was going to throw myself in, but the compere came out and said, 'No, it's going well, come back and finish the gig!'

down myself know building

We used to have to convince people we were funny, and it didn't always work.

always work funny people

Sport doesn't do anything for me. And I don't do anything for it.

sport anything me

I am a man who dreams of culture.

i-am dreams man culture

We have a need to make people laugh at things they'd never thought about, make them laugh at things that aren't logical.

laugh never thought people

People can see that we are part of a tradition of absurd comedy, stretching from Spike Milligan and Peter Cook through to Monty Python and Vic Reeves. We're not like Ricky Gervais's hyper-real cringe comedy. We're at the other end of the scale, but there's room for the sillier stuff, too.

end comedy tradition people

It's good to give people a jolt. If they're expecting one thing, it's important to give them something else. If you do something startling, audiences might at first freak out, but then they start to think, 'This is not going to be conventional. I'm going to enjoy this.'

good you enjoy people

This business is ephemeral, and you have to maintain a healthy cynicism about it. There's a 'flavour of the month' aspect to it, so you have to keep moving on and mutating.

you moving-on business moving

Most stand-up is incredibly boring. It's time for people to do something else.

something boring time people

I'm always trying to do anything between comedy and horror.

always comedy horror trying

I want to create a world where all the rules are different. It should be magical to enter.

rules create want world

Sometimes it takes you two or three seconds to get your head round a joke and laugh at it. With a snot-bubble laugh, it comes instinctively - almost in spite of yourself. It's caused by something silly - like when a little kid says something unexpectedly bizarre.

laugh yourself you sometimes