Chat with Tim Vine

He once broke the record for the most
jokes told in an hour, he also likes to break the odd poppadom. We call the Punslinger himself - aka Chaat’s very
first comedy curry lover of the month!

How’s the tour going?
“It’s quite civilised, we started with three gigs
then took three nights off. We’re gradually
building up to 15 in row. And when you’re
hitting that you know you’re on the final
straight. I’d never call it work!”

I bet you see a few curry houses on
the road, right?
“Well I’ve seen a few over the years! There’s
a great one near me in Epsom called La Raj. I
don’t know if it’s true or not, but rumour has
it their food is so good, someone has ordered
one of their meals from abroad. It was put on
its own seat on Concorde! I don’t know if that’s
true or not, but it’s a great way of advertising
your restaurant!”

Would you ever be that decadent?
“I’m not so hard to please! If you book a meal
to fly it’s going to get a little manky in transit.”
Passport control would be a nightmare.
How long does it take you to write a
whole show’s worth of material?
“About six months or so. I get into a rhythm
of about 15 jokes a day and try them out on a
Monday night. Try them out and cross them
out, usually!”

How do you know the joke hasn’t been
thought of before?
“You don’t! I think when people start to write
wordplay jokes they go down the more
obvious routes. It’s knowing if you’ve heard it
before and digging around a bit. For example,
do you know if you chop a horse in half and
bang the two halves together it sounds like
someone riding a coconut? You have to
assume that no one else has thought of that
idea. It would be highly unlikely if they had,
and if it has been done before then someone
will tell you pretty quickly!”


“Well I have got a few curry
jokes. I went to an Indian restaurant
the other day. He said ‘curry okay?’ I said ‘I
might get up and sing one once I’ve finished
this...’ I also do another thing called poppadom
jigsaw where I get out a poppadom and take
a picture of it with a Polaroid. Then I smash
it up and, working from the picture, I try and
assemble it.”

See Full Interview Chaat! issue 1