Comic is coming for a laugh and a break

Mar 15 2010 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal

Comedian Ben Norris is en route to the region to make up for lost time... and is looking forward to a slice of solitude when he gets here, as he tells SAM WONFOR

IF you’re an avid watcher of comedy-soaked panel shows like Mock The Week and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, then the face and/or name of Ben Norris will probably mean something to you.

If you’re someone who likes to limit your comedy fix to an in-person stand-up experience on your doorstep, then it probably won’t.

“I haven’t been to Newcastle for, around eight years,” says the stubbly comedian, who counts Irish comic Ed Byrne as a big fan and The Office’s Martin Freeman as a cousin.

“I’m not sure why it’s been so long,” he continues... as opposed to Liverpool, from which he purposely kept away for a long while.

“Every time I came away from Liverpool, I would always ask myself why I travelled for that length of time to be disliked,” he laughs.

“Mind you, recently I was back there and had a much better time.”

Let’s hope he has an even better one when he arrives here on Friday... it’s certainly going to be busy.

Ben is playing four venues over two nights, courtesy of the burgeoning Grinning Idiot Comedy Club. Audiences in Newcastle, Morpeth and Stanley will all be treated to a dose of Ben’s exceedingly good humour, as well as his ability to happily stray from any self-imposed show structure, should the chance to improvise present itself.

“I’m not one of those people who can just sit down and let stuff pour out onto paper,” he says. “I tend to do that much more on stage. I’m quite good at improvising in the moment, and try to do that whenever I can.

“But I perhaps rely on that a bit more than I should... plus, I’m a bit lazy,” he admits.

What he fails to also mention in his defence is the four-year-old triplet tornado, who are due in from nursery at any moment.

“They are all-consuming,” he says of his identical daughters and their brother, with an audible mixture of fatherly pride and total exhaustion.

“It’s like a constant sleep over. Luckily they get on really well.

“Their normal state is a state of general excitement, which is lovely to see, but can be utterly exhausting.

“The last four years I’ve been dividing my time between parenting and writing . And of course I got a big chunk of funny stuff out of the fact that I went from being an irresponsible teenager in his late 30s to a father of three overnight.”