Joe Lycett

0:00 [Applause]

0:06 yeah that was quite a reception how are you doing welcome to nice Tuesdays thank you so much I'm very good I feel I was a bit nervous. Anyway.

0:12 But I'm more nervous now after the first half cuz they were so good and I wasn't expecting everyone to be as funny as they were I was I thought it would be more serious. And I was like I've really got to up my game.

0:28 But I'm really thrilled to be here I've never been in this theater and it's stunning I didn't realize this was here absolutely yeah it's lovely well.

0:34 Anyway thank you very much for joining us tonight now this being nice of Tuesdays we've got a lot of graphic designers in the house but I don't think any of them or many of them these people don't have [Laughter]

0:50 jobs I'm not sure what I can say to that no one's saying they they do is graphic design a job I have to legally say yes for my job yeah just kerning isn't it King's not a job you're saying that to the wrong crowd here definitely did you see me on Laura cburg there's there's something on the someone on the with the wrong crowd I I read in the Sunday Times this weekend I'm being blamed for the fact that she's lost a million viewers I'm so happy with this shouldn't have drunk before this Matt yeah I'm I'm going to have to keep Pace all right do I need the questions I don't know I was going to ask you you obviously started your career at the beginning of your comedy career making po oh yeah that's that was the start of my career that's where it all started yeah that's that's a painting of a man having coffee poured into his very next question yes sorry I'll be I'll behave I'll behave no no no you you you do you you do you.

2:12 So we are obviously going to see lots of images of of Joe's work behind us on the screen so yeah that's might not necessarily the but you started by making posters for fellow comedians on the tour right yeah how did that start. So I was doing standup.

2:29 But I also did I love graphic design and I loved making weird little logos and animations and things when I was at school a sort of a child of the flash generation. And I miss flash I Lov to Doby flash Steve Jobs it for all of us because I think actually it was very good but when I started doing standup you don't earn often you're losing money when you're going to gigs because you're paying for your train fair and that doesn't cover the the gigs and so I was making posters on the side for sometimes for not for stand-ups I was making little things for people in Birmingham and whatever.

3:09 But yeah I did one I I found one I did for Rob Becket which I I'd forgotten I'd done and it was for one of his early Aden Bret and it's absolutely fine it's not you know no not groundbreaking work.

3:19 But it was a way of making a bit of extra cash while I was I don't know why I sent that to you I don't my early work there very profound work yeah.

3:32 So I I made some posters for like LC Sanders I did a poster for a brilliant comic called Dean Smith who I believe is playing here on Friday actually.

3:40 So yeah yeah. So but it was I loved and love doing that sort of thing. And I believe it or not I love kerning I'm a big fan of kerning there we go we won you round see yes yeah.

3:55 So I I did that when I did my first couple of Edinburgh festivals and then slowly the standup sort of took over but I always missed the design and I always felt that design was in comedy like a lot of the posters there's a horrible poster of John bishop and I love John Bishop but it's just him with a microphone and then a sort of weird sort of sand serif font that they've just put on. And it's so literal and it I was just it was just such a shame that all the design all the DVDs everything was just bad and I always thought it'd be really nice if people did good design for standup stuff for comedy stuff these two things don't need to be separate and then you get people like Simon amstell who's an artist and he actually has really beautifully designed things.

4:36 And it started to happen but when I started out all the kind of top names were just doing bad design yeah holding a mic I mean you still kind of see that sometimes on the tube and things you kind wasn't plugged in so he was just talking into an empty microphone basically I mentioned in the introduction that growing up you you grew up with with two designers for parents did you ever were you ever tempted by that as a career did you ever think that that could be what you wanted to do yeah I would have loved that. That's Boris Johnson on an egg that was on the one show and the one show said oh will you do a painting for us. And I don't think they're expecting that I yeah I would have I would have and would still love to do more design stuff yeah I sort of had dreams of having a studio with a you know sort of light wood floors and and sort of sliding glass doors that's sort of how I imagined it would be yeah and but Mom and Dad were designers not in like cool design that's available in John Lewis that cup it is distracting is know I added that photo not because of the mug but because I thought my skin looked good ♪

6:06 I think they'll start looping in a bit.

6:08 And then yeah yeah and then we'll get it out of our system yes Mom worked for cabri I from Birmingham live in Birmingham she worked for cabri in their Design Studio when they had one I don't think they have one anymore and Dad worked designing shopf fronts so he would he was a you know driving around the country a lot he now well he's retired now but he became a teacher.

6:28 But yeah it wasn't like sort of I suppose London design firms that were doing like kind of big campaigns it was more local stuff but there was a real love and respect for design right and the craft yeah yeah I mean your comedy career I guess started in 2009 it really took off to 2010 and beyond that I guess I guess the the poster designing kind of took a bit of a backseat which is fair to say very understandable but you've always kind of made things alongside right has that always been throughout your career you've always been kind of painting and drawing alongside your your comedy yeah and I it took me a while to realize that they're not separate things and that a lot of the stuff that I make is the paintings are jokes and I now in the last standup show there's a lot there's a lot of the punch lines are paintings that I've done there visual gags that there's a case in point that was in the last show it might need some content text that. Basically.

7:29 There was some. There was some homophobes saying they're teaching kids how to have gay sex in schools and I thought how would that book look.

7:39 So I created a as for anal I've only got to letter F thus far and F is not for fisting yeah.

7:50 So they become jokes and and I think they all filters into each other.

7:55 So I don't see them as separate really I see them as part of the work.

8:00 So yeah but it took me a while to work that out cuz actually standup. And I loved standup because of its Simplicity the fact that it's just a someone with a microphone and I always loved when you went to a comedy gig and it was just the microphone in the stand before anything happened and the sort of potential energy in that microphone was really exciting to me it still is and the fact that you can do anything with it.

8:22 And so I thought that that was the pure way of doing standup you have to just do it with stories and with words and with performance and that the screen is a sort of cheat almost but I realized I am a visual person and actually it's a shame to waste that. And it's really helped with the storytelling and I still love to do stand up without the screen but my last couple of shows I've really loved making visual stuff for the show because it really enhances it I think yeah that's a lovely way of putting it and when you're I guess in the process of making something do you feel like the comedy helps with the art and the art helps the comedy as well like in the process of actually writing something or crafting something yeah I I always feel like if a painting is too Earnest it's a failure I'm I'm much happier if it's funny if it looks a bit off and a bit silly or like I've tried and failed at something. That's funnier than if I've done like a genuinely good portrait of someone and that.

9:17 That's the goal for me weirdly is not to be good at it yeah yeah I mean I guess it's I love the way you put it as kind of like two sides of the same practice almost or the same you know the same skills I guess you do have to make a decision you know on a day okay today I'm going to paint today I'm going to write comedy what is the balance these days of how much time you're spending on each of those things or how how you breaking up a month you know yeah at the minute it's a lot more visual a lot more painting but it's sort of it the month is depends on what I'm up to really.

9:50 So I'm starting doing standup again and so the only way of writing standup is to force yourself by going and doing standup if you you can be sort of to in your head about it and actually you just got to book some gigs and stand in front of an audience and go I've had this thought and see if they laugh it's just trial and error really.

10:10 And it's terrifying but it's actually once you get going my favorite process and there's a there's a gig at the moth Club in East London that I do on on Thursdays occasionally and that's just so experimental and there's lots of people doing some weird stuff and I those are my favorite gigs cuz you're really messing about with stuff and and failing a lot there and the failure is always more interesting and funnier to me than the success really interesting you have a studio and we were talking about Studios earlier maybe not your dream studio with the the light oak floors but you have a studio in your beloved Birmingham in a custard Factory I think an old custard Factory yeah I know a couple of my colleagues Ruby and Lucy came and visited you there a few months ago about six months ago they had a whale of a time there's a wine fridge in that studio that's where that.

11:01 That's where that went wrong that makes yeah makes a lot of sense the shoe progressively sort of not to suggest that the it's nice that team are unprofessional in any way but sobriety was not a word that we were used to by the end of the session yeah I love that studio it's it's just a sort of it's so it I actually got the studio because I thought I could write comedy there there's a comic called Gary Delany who who is a joke writer he writes brilliant onliners and he said to me that he he got an office and he would go cuz it's as a comic you've got your wait for the gig so you're sort of spending the whole day either traveling to the gig or just sort of wandering around worrying about the gig and he realized that if he actually treated it like a job went in 9 to5 and wrote jokes had an hour off that it became a lot he became a lot more productive and I thought that's a brilliant idea.

11:54 And so it started like that. And then.

11:56 I started buying clay and paint and things like that. And sort of morphed into but I still write jokes in there.

12:02 And I write bits and Bobs but I do it's sort of scattered really yeah I mean you you spoke really eloquently there about how the mic standing on the stage is like an amazing space and an amazing kind of potential where are you happiest are you happiest in that studio when you're making things or are you happiest on stage with a mic in your hand maybe not right now but you know yeah no I'm very happy now very happy now the happiest you've ever been right. Now it depends on which stage and who's in the audience and also how well I've done in like how I feel in myself there's some gigs where I felt amazing and the first time I did live at the Apollo was one of the best nights of my life CU I felt like it was proof that I was a comedian and there was this thing that was never going anywhere that was an 10-minute set of me being funny in front of a room and then.

12:55 I did the frog and bucket in Wigan and there's no evidence whatsoever of humor from me that night and was not happy there.

13:03 But the studio is a consistent kind of calm happy space I would say but there is frustration there obviously because when you're making things there's lots of time when you go ah like wish I hadn't done that or whatever.

13:14 But there's not you know hundreds of people telling you you were terrible at it which is helpful I mean I wanted to talk to you about kind of creative self-doubt really because it's obviously something that affects anyone who's expressing the themselves eles creating something original unique and putting it out into the world I'm guessing you've suffered from creative self-doubt and how have you managed to cope with it and like I don't know contain it over the years it's yeah.

13:40 I think it's the the main enemy is I had a really interesting conversation with Sarah Pasco years ago about. There was this accusation about Jack whall that he was the reason he was famous and the reason he was successful was that he his dad was was an agent to the stars and that he used to represent Judy Dench and all these massively successful famous people. And so his dad must have got him in and that's how he's become successful but I know if you're on stage at The Comedy Store in London or any of these gigs around the UK which Jack has performed at thousands of times they don't care if your dad's represented Judy don't you've got to be funny and you've got to make that room laugh and he's so talented and he's so skillful but what Sarah Pasco said is yes he is but being around those people being around someone like Judy Dench or whoever you see that success is possible and I growing up.

14:39 And I'm not sure I imagine Sarah feels the same didn't I didn't know anyone that was famous or successful in any way. And so that was an abstract idea to me that the idea that you could be successful at something was complete like pie in the sky essentially and so the everything that sort of happened in terms of my career has been a surprise to me a delightful surprise some things not a nice surprise for some most of it it's been delightful and I think there is a sense of you've got to get you've got to stop listening to that voice that says you can't do this because actually you probably can and a lot of people are coasting along on not necessarily as much talent as you think that's not me slagging off Jack wh I think he's very talented but I do think you people don't realize what they're capable of because they've not seen it. That's not representative of the the people that they're around I mean you're you're a very big proponent of kind of making stuff for the sake of making stuff and I guess quietening that that inhibition and that inside critic right yeah well. That's it there's the the ultimately it'll all burn up and why worry too much about it it's just ultimately for me it's that moment to sort of scratch that itch and obviously it's great if people go I love this whatever.

15:54 But it's sort of the real gold is in that moment when you make something or you come up with a gag and you go that's so funny and if the first time you realize something's working that's the moment and you can only capture it for that second really.

16:04 And then the rest of it sort of I don't know diminishing returns and it's actually the making thing is the magic really for me.

16:15 That's really interesting so I guess advice for this yeah audience of creatives is just kind of get get a job.

16:22 That's my advice set you up there. I thought you thought you were going to go in a different direction but okay I mean I'm interested in because just even speaking to you it feels like you really study the craft of Comedy like you know met you two hours ago and you've already brought up lots of comics who you know stories about and that kind of thing yeah it sounds like you you've studied the the kind of craft of Comedy I guess do you do the same with the visual arts or is that much more of a kind of open free space for you to express yourself and you're not you know desperate to know what other people are doing and that kind no I well.

16:55 That's why I love it's nice that and CH like Teenage me is finding this ridiculous that I'm here because I've always loved its nice that and again I didn't know anyone that was making work like that when I was growing up gradually some of my peers who' gone on to be graphic designers and done amazing things they started to do it for themselves but there was no one in my kind of small peripheral U small circle that was making incredible animation or the things that we've seen this evening and so I it's things like those blogs and those Instagram accounts that curate stuff that is really helpful to me.

17:36 But I am more forensic about standard because I am interested mainly when it fails because that's when you you learn that's Roy Walker who used to host catchphrase told me you don't learn to be funny when they're laughing and that was probably the best advice I ever got it's like when they're looking at you going come on then.

17:56 That's when you Fran Al your brain does something or it doesn't and you live or die by that.

18:01 But I loved going to The Comedy Store in Manchester when I was at University there and watching people die B I loved it CU I went oh I wonder why that happened and then you start to see why and then when you go there and die you go oh it's CU I did what Steve did I mean I guess it's the the failure is just so brutal and so obvious when you do that whereas I guess in other walks of life failure is maybe something you notice and other people don't notice but you're up on a stage and people aren't laughing that's that's brutal I just thought as you were talking then like I did do I one of the first design gigs I did was for a I think it was a charity in Birmingham and they wanted a flyer done and I I did a I was so pleased with the design and it was it was quite complicated we've gone through so many different drafts of the thing. And I sent it off to the printers and I sent an A4 file type for an A3 an a yes an A3 flyer no A5 flyer and so it was half what it should have been and they'd spent hundreds of pounds on printing loads of these flyers and they were livid and that feeling that drop where you go I've just wasted loads of a Charity's money because of a stupid click didn't think and that failure meant I never did that again and thankfully it was you not a massive run of it but at the time it felt like a huge thing I should donate to that charity again actually and make that wrong that right cuz right that wrong cuz let's wrong the right another sip of beer it's going so well for me we did mention earlier that you you parents are designers I guess one thing one project I wanted to touch on was your recent book called bins or about bins which is your love affair with this design object that most people ignore and most people don't see as a design object even how on Earth did that come about creating this by the way it's absolutely beautiful as well it's like a beautifully made book about bins you know thanks I think it's up there in my favorite thing I've ever done actually the bins book am I on coke What's I so I made a book I I got I made a book with a big Publishing House years ago. And I'm very it was a comedy book but again the design there would the some of the designs I sent through I thought have you given a child this it was so bad and I really had to fight and actually the design was fine in the end but like I was so disappointed with the feel of it and the I really wanted to make in my head when they said oh would you want to do a book. I was like yes of course because I can make a beautiful thing.

20:50 And I just the commercial side of things just wasn't going to allow that. And so it's always been something I wanted to do wanted to make a beautiful book. And so I just thought I just need that idea really just need something. And I was filming and a a a a dop filmed this bin and I was watching him do it. And I say why you filming this bin like it's and it was in this lovely Countryside sort of bucolic Countryside and this horrible bin in it.

21:19 And then I looked at what he was filming I was like I totally get it and the more I looked at bins I was just like that's it the book is bins and so in lockdown I just I've got thousands of pictures of bins like it is an obsession.

21:31 But actually they are very Desy they block graphic shapes and often Wild colors the bins in lewisham are this ridiculous horrible go Blue like sort of PPE blue and and they're everywhere but you sort of ignore them.

21:45 But they're they're there. And I just thought this is it. Basically.

21:49 So I then took loads of pictures of bins and then worked with a brilliant designer called Billy Temple and we worked together on putting it together she she makes extraordinary books and worked with a lot of artists and we we worked together on on making a beautiful thing and she knew exactly where to print it and how to do the different sort of printing techniques and foiling and all of that. And I'm so proud of it. And it's exactly what I wanted in comparison to what the book was years ago which was the words were exactly what I wanted because I got control over that.

22:21 But the actual finished thing. And it was so expensive and it was so over the top and we went to Milan to make it. And we only did a th000 cies and it's so unnecessary but I loved it. And I'm so proud of it and yeah it's it's yeah it's amazing and also the cover kind of looks like a bin bag as well right that was the brief I wanted it to be foiled to look like it was a bin bag and then exposed B I'm I could get into it the exposed bind is like got loads of like abstract bin stuff so it's like an open bin bag and then you go inside and there's loads of beautiful bins it's very meta I wanted to talk about film as well because you've started working a bit more in film I think it's fair to say in in the past couple of years am I right in thinking you mentioned the pandemic am I right in thinking that also started in lockdown kind of playing around with with filming or is it is again started again really like I I' made little films when I was at University and at school.

23:16 And it was all again I don't see that it's separate because the films are sort of silly jokes essentially and I love short form I love Jean VI's talk cuz that is I I completely agree that short films are sort of they're sort of seen as like oh yeah well done like make a feature and there these amazing shorts are sort of left to YouTube and not like they should be celebrated and I'm not sure I've got a feature in me because I don't really think in long-scale narrative I think in jokes and I think in quick kind of payoffs and short films can really do that really powerfully and some amazing short films and so yeah. I just thought can't do stand up in lockdown I started I bought a little camera and I started messing around and it just gradually escalated and the last one she's called Linda we made in Birmingham and I sold some art prints to fund it. So that we had a good budget for it a decent budget and and I'm so thrilled with it. And we made it in Birmingham and we used a young Birmingham crew largely and used it as a way of training people up. And we just did filmed it over three two two days and I'm really chuffed with it yeah.

24:30 I wanted to ask one thing that I saw yesterday.

24:33 I think is is when you announced it you've got an exhibition coming up opening later this month that they made this in in COV Garden yeah it's called Lys sit and mummy yes and it sounds incredible can you tell us a little bit about it so my mom also since she retired from cabre has been painting again she's a beautiful watercolorist that's not one of hers I think that's hotney isn't it and she she and I did an exhibition a few years ago and her stuff is so it's watercolor and which is so hard to do and it's so brilliant and so accomplished but really beautiful and vibrant and this the styles are so different but we realized that they work together quite well in an odd way. And so we'd had this idea of doing a bit more of a a kind of a bigger exhibition or or something that was a bit more thorough because we didn't have that much work when we did it a few years ago. And I went to they made this in Brighton which is a lovely print shop and I met Ona who runs it with her partner L and I was so impressed with what they do there and they're really enthusiastic about Screen Printing and different types of printing but also about it being affordable and that art should be for everyone and that really fit with what we were going for really. And we so started chatting to them and yeah we're now we open on the 22nd in Coven garden and yeah it's the first time either of us have done screen prints and we're working with a private press man called Gary does these amazing screen prints this first time I've ever done them.

26:08 And I'm loving it and yeah it's a really exciting Adventure really yeah 22nd of September 22nd of September for 11 days till the following Sunday October something yeah but it will be on some of the stuff will be online as well but to see it all in I ra it'll be on Neil Street in Coven Garden amazing I canot wait and yeah I'm sure lots of people will come down we're going to do some questions from the audience if that's all right oh dear So yeah thank you again everyone who submitted I take it all back I'll start with a nice one so from Philly what's your favorite thing about Birmingham what's my favorite thing about Birmingham we're broke I think birmingham's got this I'm I think some people well I know some people in Birmingham because I've been on the Birmingham males comment section do not like me. And I think it's because one I'm probably irritating to them. But also there is something about shouting about Birmingham that's not very Birmingham and the people of Birmingham are very like well you you can come if you want but we're not going to shout about it you know there's there's a real sort of there's a humility to the people of Birmingham which I really love but there's so much cool stuff going on there. And we don't shout about it enough I feel cuz there's there's a lot of artists there and a lot of people that make things that could be like should be a lot more known and successful and but I think there's this sort of sense of like oh no and you know oh does it's it's a a slightly British thing but really profound in Birmingham and so I'm conflicted by that because I really like it.

27:50 But I also rally against it.

27:52 So that and King kebab which honestly the chicken ticker in King Kebab okay well making a pilgrimage to that immediately Lizzie asks is there anything you would never paint or sculpt never paint or sculpt bit of yeah an interesting question Lizzy is that a flirt I don't know no I don't think so I hate it when people say oh will you do a painting for my wedding and I always say nobody is happy with the painting that I do of them you you think you want this but you don't and I have offended people I I did a painting for a guy who helped me with a short film I did a few years ago and he said will you paint my daughter and she's so beautiful she's about six and I did three paintings of her and each one was completely different to the other and one of them looked like Barbara Windsor I'm not good at getting a likeness particularly if someone's got like good SK like a children with like like no blemishes no lines I can't do it and he was like thanks he was like obviously so offended question from Liz which I guess kind of comes off came up a bit earlier when we were talking about you know failure what's the most rubbish thing you've ever made is there something that stands out as a particular I mean we just heard about the portrait of the 6-year-old which maybe is close to the top it's up there oh I don't know I've done some terrible TV shows where.

29:28 I made a pilot called Junk for BBC 3 years ago and actually there's some good bits in that.

29:35 But I had a panic attack whilst filming it which actually I should watch you back it's probably really funny but for the wrong reasons but that was not a good show I've made loads of that's the takeaway I would say from this is I I've made loads of and you can too and thank you so much for those those wonderful questions audience finally just the last question from me outside of Comedy when we're looking at the world of art or film or design is there one thing that you're kind of desperate to do that you haven't done yet is there one thing that you would you know a project or or something you just feel like you have to do but you haven't yet had the opportunity to do it oh that's I there's sort of too much really the one thing I'd really love to do is like a big bit of public art.

30:21 And I don't know what it is yet but I'd really like to do something thing there's a brilliant sculpture in Rotterdam and I've forgotten the name of the sculptor but it's of Santa and it you might think he's holding a Christmas tree but it's a dildo it's clearly a dildo and like it's what was that someone a hit and run Rotterdam based Heckler it's not a dildo I I think you'll find it's a Christmas tree that's how they sound in Rotterdam isn't it. And I love it so much because it's a beautiful sculpture it's big brass thing it's massive and it.

31:10 But it's the artist is obviously going like that to the council and I'd love to get away with something like that at some point in Birmingham but they're not going to pay for it now are they so yeah someone in here must commission public art you know we'll we'll see if we can make that happen yes please yeah but yeah we are sadly out of time I haven't laughed like that in a long time so Joe thank you so much for your time this thank you very much thank you thank you very much