Words —
Jamie Christian Desplaces
For his is a childhood trauma that begins with the death of his mother when he was six years old, followed by sexual abuse by his dad that began when he was eight. Where do you even begin a conversation like that with one of Britain’s best-known comedians? Taking a deep breath, I tell Davies – an ardent Arsenal football club fan – that we’ll launch straight in and get the heavy stuff out of the way first…
“So, what’s going on with Arsenal?” I ask.
He laughs. Thankfully.
Our Zoom call takes place just days after his team’s long-awaited Premier League title win, ending a 22-year drought but followed soon after by a defeat in the Champions League European Cup final. The title parade through North London is already the stuff of legend, with up to a million people said to have lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the team’s open-top bus.
“It felt like something that had been building for a long time,” Davies says. “And then there were so many people there – it was just an outpouring, really.”
Davies has been a staple of British television for three decades, known for his lead role as the eponymous hero in the long-running comedy-drama Jonathan Creek, and as a regular panellist on QI. His talk show Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled recently reached its seventh season, and he hosts the podcast The Tuesday Club, “primarily concerned with all things Arsenal”.
He’s also an author.
Davies’ second memoir, Just Ignore Him, is a candid, darkly comic account of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. The follow-up, White Male Stand Up, was released last year. His Think Ahead tour has been shaped in part by revisiting that material.
“It’s really working well,” he says. “I talk about the various reasons why it’s taken me this long – writing volumes of memoir, dealing with issues in my childhood that were kind of hidden, certainly from the public. I’ve organised a show which I’m very proud of. It’s been well received.”
There are, of course, moments where the laughter drops away and something more reflective takes its place – “and there’s suddenly more at stake than there normally is in a comedy show”.
“But the audience hold that, and then laugh all the more loudly when the comedy returns seconds later. It’s a balancing act I wouldn’t have been able to do years ago.
“I think I’ve come to the point in my life, just turned 60, where I’m able to deploy the skills I have, such as they are, and manage this kind of show.”
Davies says he has always suspected there are people in every audience with life experiences not unlike his own.
I think I’ve come to the point in my life, just turned 60, where I’m able to deploy the skills I have, such as they are, and manage this kind of show.
“You don’t need to hide everything away or feel ashamed or withhold,” he says.
“I want to be able to bring people into a room and tell my story and know that people share some experiences. Human beings getting together in rooms and telling stories, particularly with the aim of laughing, goes back to the dawn of time.”
I ask if he’s had any reaction from other comedians to the nature of the material in the show.
“Oh no,” he chuckles. “Other comics only want you to fail!”
Does it still blow his mind to be selling out shows on the other side of the world?
“Yeah, it’s fantastic. Of course, I’ve got television to thank for it. And the internet.”
Davies first came to New Zealand in 1995, under very different circumstances. After performing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival – “which in those days wasn’t the big deal it is now” – his agent persuaded him to fly to Auckland, where he did eight nights – “was only supposed to be six!” – at the now-demolished Watershed Theatre.
“Having not wanted to go, I had so much fun,” he says. “And I remember someone came up to me after one of the shows and just handed me the most enormous bag of grass!
“There’s so much going on in New Zealand. On subsequent visits I became very interested in Māori history and made sure I went to Te Papa and other museums and sites. I love it there.”
Fatherhood, he says, has most reshaped how he understands his own past. Davies became a father in his 40s and now has three children.
“It’s hard to be utterly self-absorbed and self-obsessed, as most stand-up comedians are, when you’ve got these small people looking at you all the time.”
More unexpectedly, it has changed how he sees his childhood.
“Seeing them at the age of six, as I was when my mum passed away, and seeing my wife Katie at 38, which is the age my mum died, it really made me reflect on what I was like at that time.
“It made me want to reach back to the boy that I was and tell his story. And now he’s a grown-up, but he’s still a boy, right? And he’s quite angry, but he finds a way into comedy.”
Alan Davies’ Think Ahead tour comes to Auckland on 1 August at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, as part of a nationwide tour across Aotearoa. For tickets head to ticketmaster.co.nz
