Five minutes with... Jimmy Carr

Are you excited about touring?

Absolutely. I think, ‘how flattering that two thousand people have actually paid to see me.’ In some towns where I play, there are 50 different options for a night out; but they have booked a babysitter and organised transport and food and come to my show. Over two hours, you have a real opportunity to ensure that it’s their funniest ever evening – and that’s what I try to do.

What do you love most about performing live?

The buzz. Some people have only ever seen standup on TV or DVD, but it works so much better live. It’s good watching at home with two friends, but imagine how much better it is watching in a theatre with 2000 people. In that company, you get carried along and laugh more. Laughter is such a social activity. I love that thing where 2,000 people all get me at a level that even some friends I’ve known since the age of eight don’t.

You have a wonderful relationship with your audience. Tell us about it.

It’s wonderful. It’s such a special space when you’re on stage with an audience. You all share the same sense of humour - much more than you often do with members of your own family. The healthiest couples have the same sense of humour.

If you have the same sense of humour, then there’s nothing you can’t get through together.

In some ways, it’s a strange bond, being in the room alongside 2000 strangers with the same sense of humour. But when people talk about community spirit, that’s what it is.

During the warm-up shows, do the audience help you decide which jokes to put in the finished act?

Absolutely. They help me whittle 350 jokes down to 270. I do stand-up for a living – you’d imagine I’d know more than the audience about what’s funny, but I don’t. Lenny Bruce was right: the audience is a genius. There is this weird moment where the collective mind decides what’s funny.

It’s a very humbling thing.

You’re a popular comedian who has achieved an immense amount.. Do you still feel you have new places to go?

Yes. Looking back at my earlier stuff, I’m much better now than I was then. I’m very grateful I’ve had the opportunity to grow as a performer. I’ve learnt that the looser you are, the better you are – I like a bit of loose! Because you’re on TV, people think you’re the finished product, but you’re not. I saw Billy Connolly at the Hammersmith Apollo in January, and he was even better than he was in Montreal last year. Maybe someone reading this will think ‘I don’t like him much now, but perhaps in 20 years he’ll get the hang of it. I’ll give him a go then’.

So what helps you improve – is it down to experience?

That helps. If you talk to an airline pilot, he doesn’t talk about years in the job but hours in the cockpit. It’s the same for me – hours on stage are what counts. Everything else is a training ground.

What’s on your new DVD, out this November, entitled Making People Laugh Making People Laugh features the entire Glasgow show. I wanted to capture the feistiness of a Glasgow show, and there was certainly a really cracking atmosphere when we recorded the DVD.

There’s this great story from when Ken Dodd was playing at the Glasgow Empire. He was storming the gig when a voice in the audience piped up ‘it’s all very funny if you like laughing’.

That’s the definitive heckle. You can’t come back to that’.

How do you cope with a high public profile?

Let’s not get carried away. As soon as you need a bodyguard, it becomes another world. Comedy is a low grade of fame. We’re clowns and jesters. In the social standing of entertainers, we’re just one up from jugglers. We’re only two rungs up from those guys who spray themselves gold and stand still for a living.

Is there a downside to fame?

No not really. Being famous makes you a better person because you’re constantly being watched in a way that most people aren’t. It keeps you honest. I’m sure I’d be a terrible person if left to my own devices. But luckily, I’m being kept under constant surveillance by people who have Heat magazine’s number.

What do you have to say to people who claim you’re on TV too often?

You have to go out of your way to watch me on TV. I’m easy to avoid. When people say to me ‘you’re on TV too much,’ I reply ‘are you saving the batteries on your remote? There are 200 channels – watch something else’.

Do you still get the same thrill as ever out of touring?

There is no other job apart from entertainment where people just take a year off. Pop stars say ‘we recorded an album and then we took a year off’’. You did what? You’re a grown-up, it’s your job. A lot of comedians have acting aspirations.

On any given Sunday night, I could be a detective driving a vintage car with a personality quirk. I can’t decide whether to be divorced or alcoholic –- maybe both. But for me stand-up is enough.