Do you always tell original jokes?
Original jokes? That's a good question, because my question has to be, what is original? You can have an original point of view, or what appears to be an original point of view. But then, when you say "original jokes," that's a hard one to say, because if someone's talking about relationships, everybody talks about relationships. Therefore, that joke is covered. If you start talking about vehicles, everybody's spoken about vehicles, so in a way, that's been covered. If you talk about going to space, there's comics who have spoken about going to space, so in a way, that's been covered. So what is really new? I don't think there's anything really new out there that one could say is original. I think that what you can say is, somebody's point of view can be seen as being original, but I don't think there are any original comedy premises out there. I think everything just comes and goes, around in circles. I think it all goes around in circles. It's like, for example, when you read problem pages, you pick up the problem page and you'll go, "I saw that one last week!" Somebody is having a similar problem, but they're coming at it from a different way. It's like the same problems seem to be coming over and over again, but at the same time, they all seem to have their own little unique twist in them, because of the experience that the individuals might be going through. And I think to a certain degree it's the same with comedy. You know, when 9/11 erupted, who was the first to tell the joke, or who was the first to start talking about it? So because, let's say for argument's sake, Mark Steel started talking about it, because it's the sort of thing that he would do, or Mark Thomas, does that now mean that that's their area, that only they can go in there and make jokes about that? And I don't think that really holds tight, because everybody has been affected by it, so I should be able to talk about 9/11 from my perspective as well, so to speak. So I would say that it's wrong to recite something that somebody has already done, word for word, and claim it as your own. But I don't think it is wrong for somebody to come up with a premise, i.e. "Let's talk about Eastenders," and because somebody has spoken about Eastenders does not mean I do not now have the right to get up and talk about Eastenders, because I think everybody has that right.
