Viva Brighton Issue #48 February 2017

COMEDY
....................................
Kieran Hodgson
Have-a-go composer
Comedian Kieran
Hodgson likes a challenge.
But could he
write a symphony? He
tells us about Maestro,
his latest - wildly ambitious
- stage show.
I thought my agent
would balk when I
told her I was planning
an Edinburgh
Festival show about
classical music. But
she was very trusting. My previous show was
about Lance Armstrong, so I think by that point
she was used to me coming up with topics that
might be considered ill-advised.
Maestro is inspired by my lifelong pretensions
to greatness as a classical composer, which are
sadly not matched either by my musical training
or my abilities. I take audiences through the process
of trying to write a symphony, an ambition
I first struck upon at the age of 11. I remember
writing a piece for the violin and thinking, ‘Well,
if I can write a 30-second piece then of course I
can write a symphony.’
It was ludicrously ambitious, of course. I play
in an amateur orchestra, and the conductor is
also a composition teacher. When I told him I
was writing a symphony he raised both eyebrows.
He was very much of the feeling I was running
before I could walk, and he may have been right.
Running alongside is the story of my own
romantic history. My love life and musical
ambitions have often gone hand in hand. I started
playing the violin aged six because there was a
girl at my primary school that was learning the
instrument and I
really fancied her. I
also dedicated the
odd piece to a girl I
was in love with at
secondary school.
I blame my parents
for getting me into
this. I remember
them encouraging
me when I did the
voices from Blackadder
and Fawlty Towers,
so I kept on doing it. Then I found out there
were ways in which you could do voices for a
living. My first show was a bit of a car crash. The
friends who promised they would come didn’t
turn up and there were just a few bewildered
members of the public who didn’t laugh once. I’d
like to say it only made me stronger, but in fact I
still have to block out the memory.
My comedy heroes include Chris Morris and
the League of Gentlemen. I think the people
we admire are often those who are very dissimilar
to ourselves. I would love to be as fearless and
provocative as they are, but I’m just not like that.
My comedy was once described as ‘achingly
British’; I’m still not sure how I feel about
that. I expect they meant that I have that classic
Hugh Grant, bumbling, emotionally-constipated
personality. That’s not necessarily what I think
of as British humour though. To me, British
humour is about self-deprecation, and I certainly
subscribe to that. I never like to make myself look
too good.
As told to Nione Meakin
The Old Market, Sat 25th, 8pm
....42....