Heeeere’s Johnny!

Johnny Vegas is currently riding the crest of a wave of success, enjoying a series of sell-out shows, guesting regularly on TV nostalgia programmes and receiving universal praise for his portrayal of the genial drunk Charlie in the Paul Whitehouse BBC2 comedy series Happiness. In Dublin to launch the Murphy’s Cat Laughs Festival, which will take place in Kilkenny from May 31st – June 4th, he looks much healthier than his screen persona, appearing bright-eyed and lucid and having shed some excess pounds. I’m the last in a long line of interviewers and a beaming Mr Vegas invites me to have a drink on his PR company as I sit down. My colleagues at hotpress have bet me that I won’t demonstrate my not inconsiderable mimicry skills by doing my impersonation of Mr Vegas for the man himself. But I do…

“Eh, that’s not bad mate”, he beams, though as soon as he speaks I realise my impression is crap. “Mind you,” he continues, (which comes out “Mhaind djao’) “I’m dead easy to do, me. Once I was due to go on a radio programme and I couldn’t make it so Eddie Bannon went on and did me instead. Hardly anybody noticed and he was bloody funnier than me ‘n all!”

Johnny puts his healthy look down to the strict no-drinking, up-at-5am shedule that accompanied the shooting of Happiness.

“It was really different to anything I’d ever done, and I was conscious of the fact that I’d not got as much experience as anyone else on the set. And because it went so well they actually added to my part as the shooting went on. Paul Whitehouse would say things like ‘I know you probably know this but…’ and offer advice on how to play certain things, and I was goin’ ‘Thank Christ’ ‘cos I really hadn’t a clue! Obviously I’m thrilled at the way it’s been received.”

Despite the critical acclaim, he seems remarkably self effacing and modest. Is he really that uncertain of his talent?

“Did you see Never Mind The Buzzcocks when I were on? ‘Cos Mark LaMarr were givin’ us an ‘ard time and the audience were totally on my side! I were goin’ ‘stop pickin’ on me’ and he were screamin’ at the crowd goin’ ‘It’s An Act, It’s Just An Act!’ It’s like a Jedi thing, if you slag me off it just makes me stronger.”

Speaking of things Star Wars, does he enjoy the experience of commenting on popular culture in shows like I Love The Seventies?

“I had all the Star Wars Lego, really! And in the Lego Millenium Falcon there were a little Lego Princess Leia that just looked like a regular Lego man in really bad drag! But, yeah, I like those shows except that after about ‘81 or ’82 because I discovered cider I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to shows like He Man. I was too busy throwing up in the laundry basket. And they film about six shows a day so it’s a bit of a trial. You go home thinking ‘I’ve not done that much rememberin’ in years’. And they ask you stuff about 1972, like, and I was only four.”

What can he tell us about the live show he’ll be bringing to Kilkenny at the end of the month?

“Not a lot ‘cos it’s not written yet, but it’ll be better than the bloody Music Centre I can assure you!”

Ah, yes. The Music Centre gig. Those fans of Johnny who were there will remember the great man’s shambolic and rambling performance which led many to genuinely fear for his mental health.

“It’s up there in my top three bad gigs, that one. It were a bit of a long dark night of the soul. It happens. And I could see the punters goin’, ‘He’s gonna come out with a killer punchline after this stuff’ and it just went on and on. My sound guy said it was like driving slowly past a bad crash. And that bastard had put the entire rider in my bag so the promoter assumed I’d swallowed it all and couldn’t perform ‘cos I were pissed. And I weren’t, I were just crap. But Kilkenny will be better.”

Johnny Vegas plays the Murphy’s Cat Laughs festival in Kilkenny at the end of May