As seen on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, Live At The Apollo and Mock The Week, Andy Parsons brings his show, Bafflingly Optimistic, to Leicester Square Theatre next week!
What’s your most memorable heckle?
It happened at my first ever stand-up gig and I dropped the piece of paper I had written with the jokes on. A lady in the front row picked it up and gave it back to me saying “Keep going – you’re doing really well”. That’s a heckle you can deal with.
Where do you go for your pre/post Leicester Square Theatre gig food?
I shall be heading to the Leicester Square Theatre bar afterwards and I doubt I will be too worried about whether there’s much food.
Who’s the best upcoming performer in the country that we haven’t heard of?
Cousin Lottie, aged 1.
Who would you describe as your arch-nemesis?
Sprouts.
When was the time you bombed the most onstage?
I was once doing a double act and one of our microphones worked and the other didn’t – so you could hear the set-up but were struggling to hear the punchline. Somebody shouted “f*ck off” and I said into the microphone that was working “we’re only going if the whole audience want us to go”. I had sadly misjudged the room.
What’s been your strangest fan encounter?
I once got on the first Tube of the day having had an all-nighter celebrating hosting my first ever TV show and was feeling decidedly grim. Some girl sat down opposite me and recognised me and started excitingly pointing to her friends and shouting. It was all too much for me in my tender state that early in the morning and I had to quickly exit the Tube and find a suitable place to be quietly ill.
How do you relax after a gig?
Plush green room. Friends. Unlimited hospitality. No time limit. Taxi home.
What’s the one thing you want the audience to take away from your show?
Loving the show and spreading that love.
Would you rather have fingers as long as your legs or legs as long as your fingers?
I would rather have had sufficient indulgences so that I came up with a question like this.
Who would win a fight: badger or baboon?
YouTube.
What’s the oddest thing you’ve overheard in London?
I think that comedy-bloke has just nipped off the Tube to be sick.
Tickets are on sale now for Andy Parsons: Bafflingly Optimistic, 15 May.