Him off the Viz is back with some more funny characters. David Whetstone talks to comedian Simon Donald.
COINCIDENTALLY, just before ringing to discuss the business of laughter with Simon Donald, I bump into one of his biggest fans, cartoonist Geoff Laws whose work graced this paper for many years.
It so happens that if you ask for a picture of Simon, you are likely to get sent a caricature of him by Geoff. The appreciation, it seems, is mutual.
Geoff, who has read Simon’s book Him Off The Viz, seen him in stand-up mode and has booked up for his Newcastle gig this week, compares the comic – favourably, of course – with the late Bobby Thompson.
But the thing they always said about Thompson, the “Little Waster”, was that his comedy didn’t travel. South of Teesside it hit a Cheryl-in-the-States-style language barrier.
Surely times have changed now that we have Ant, Dec and indeed Cheryl as primetime Geordies?
Simon Donald, who helped to spread phonetic printed Geordie as co-founder of the Viz comic, doesn’t compare himself to Bobby but says: “There’s an element if what I do is specifically for the North East and wouldn’t work elsewhere.
“For a long time I’ve been doing a character called Bingo from Benton and I’ve learned over time where it works and where it doesn’t.
“He gets big laughs in the North East and they get on quite well with him in Scotland. But south of the Midlands they just look at you like you’ve committed some sort of indecent act against their family.”
For the record, Bingo is “a drunken, tattooed street philosopher”.
Rather than leave Bingo in the dressing room on his southern forays, Simon says he has learned to compromise. “South of the Midlands I talk in my own voice as if I’m talking about me. Then they think it’s really funny.”
The title of Simon’s book was astute. Viz, which Simon co-founded with brother Chris and schoolfriend Jim Brownlow, looms large even as he forges a career as a stand-up, plying his trade in an increasingly competitive business.
Looking back, he reckons he was always more of a performer than his older brothers, Chris and Steve, who died in 2008.
“We were all silly and had a silly sense of humour, and were very proud of it,” he recalls.
“That came from my dad. He liked the Goons and we all used to watch Monty Python but I was always the one who wanted to perform and was happy making a fool of myself.
“I always enjoyed making people laugh. Chris, and to a lesser extent Steve, had that in them, but Chris doesn’t seem to enjoy speaking publicly and I’m always surprised when he chooses to do it.”