Who’s the daddy?

"I’VE never really spoken about my father on stage before mainly because he only said six things to me throughout my entire life and they were: ‘Turn the TV over I want to watch the cricket’, ‘leave her alone she’s your sister’ and ‘stop the bloody noise’ although sometimes he’d ask you to go down the betting shop or the pub for a pint for him,” says Lenny Henry about part of the inspiration for his latest 67-date UK stand-up tour.

“Honest to God he was a very uninspiring, negative man and weirdly I was at a foundry in Dudley opening this new part of the factory for some reason, because I’m from Dudley and they wanted someone famous to open it, and I saw for the first time what a foundry is actually like. Do you know what, if I spent all my days in that place I’d be grumpy as well.

So I try and bring moments that will hopefully make the audience laugh and will also hopefully move people because I’ve realised since doing Othello that it’s possible to have an evening where you can be both moved and laugh as well,” explains the comic about his Cradle to Rave project which takes in Harrogate, Darlington and York.

The show will reflect the music which has inspired Henry from the age of 17 to 52 and, at one time, tempted him into considering a singing career himself.

“I’ll also be playing the piano, I’ve been playing since I was 40... and I’m still only grade 3. It’s really, really tough and the trouble with the grade system is that you spend the whole year learning three pieces and at the end of the process you never, ever, want to play those pieces again. Basically, the grade actually stop you from playing music,” says the comedian who is currently hosting BBC1’s The Magicians and Live At The Apollo.

Henry has recruited London music teacher Benedict Westenra to help him with his on-stage performance as “a bootcamp piano coach, but I’ll still be rubbish. It’ll be very funny, although I have learned some hand positions. Whether I’ll be able to reproduce them on stage is another matter. So there is some tension there, and I’ll be singing all the way through”. He hopes that the audience will want to get up and dance at some point to his choice of funk and soul and r’n’b.

His choice has been made all the harder by the fact that he was 28 days of listening on his MP3 player alone.

“It’s impossible, who has time to listen to 28 days worth of music? I have friends I hardly see and yet I have all this music which I’ll never be able to listen to. And I’ve also got music I hate on the Ipod. Why is Wombling Merry Christmas there?

Why is Shut Uppa Your Face there?

I’ve even got Donald Where’s Your Troosers? Never download when you’re pissed, that’s all I’ll say.”

The show is similar to a previous project Henry did called So Much Things To Say in 2005 which has a beginning, middle and an end with some surprises along the way.

“People like Elvis are referenced, Fats Domino, David Bowie. Steeleye Span, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Public Enemy are mentioned,” says Henry who feels that Sade is one of the few artists which both men and women jointly enjoy.

“When you’re married and draw a venn diagram of music you like and the music that your wife likes then on your side is ACDC, Tom Waites, Slade, The Ohio Players and all that nasty stuff and on the right-hand stuff is all her’s like Duffy, Adele, Handel’s Messiah and Joan Armatrading.

Then, in the intersection, there’s music you both like: Sade, Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy, Michael Buble or James Bloody Taylor. So that’s the music you’re playing when you’re doing the washing up, having a meal or sitting and reading a magazine because if you put on ACDC your wife says ‘why did you put that on for... why can’t we have something we both like?’ So you put on Sade’s Diamond Life. It’s the Gandi of couples.

I always find it’s the Kings Of Leon or something that we can both listen to... it’s not going to be Korn, it’s Eva Cassidy. The wife always wins,” he adds.

The churlish might have questioned these marital references with Henry as he parted company with wife, Dawn French, in October last year. But the comedian talks about French with great affection and mentions the impact she had on him as he switched from New Faces impressionist to stand-up performer and actor.

“She would come along to see my shows and give me notes and some people thought that was wrong, but it was because she was a strong individual and she cared,” he explains.

Henry doesn’t remember his parents singing to him as a child and says he then felt weird when he faced the same job as a parent to his adopted daughter Billie. “From the minute my daughter came to my house I remember singing every single day and telling her stories every single night. I don’t remember my parents singing lullabyes to me as a child, and I talk about that sadness on stage,” he says.

Not every comedian wants to open up that side of their life, but Henry says that is why US comedian Richard Pryor’s work endures because he documented his life and was unstinting.

“I’m not saying I’m as brave as him, but I’m prepared as a fifty-something man to try and go past Katanga My Friends, and that’s what counts,” he says.

After the massive tour, Henry is seriously considering another dramatic role similar to his critically-acclaimed title role in Northern Broadsides’ production of Othello.

“I talked to someone this morning about doing some more theatre because I loved working with Northern Broadsides because it was a wonderful life-changing experience and I’m anxious to do more Shakespeare and more theatre in general. I’m open to all kinds of things, but working with a team of people is so different to working on your own which I’ve done for 30-plus years. It’s time to be part of something.”

􀁧 Lenny Henry tour dates: Wednesday, Royal Hall, Harrogate, 0845-130-8840 harrogateboxoffice.co.uk February 24, Civic Theatre, Darlington, 01325-486-555 darlingtonarts.

co.uk April 29, Grand Opera House, York, 0844 847 2322, grandoperahouseyork.org.uj