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Cheap Laughs

30th April 2007

"I love Swansea Uni" quips instantly personable Steve Williams, "it's got the highest drinkers per head in Europe hasn't it? I heard they've got livers on ice at the hospital." It's safe to say Steve is looking forward to returning to Swansea, despite his dismay at hearing Divas was now called DV8, "What?! I guess DV8 is more 'Street' isn't it? More 'innit for the kidz". One can presume he meant Kidz with a 'z'. Innit.

Steve (uh huh, first name terms from the outset), is a very easy man to talk to, the kind of guy you have to remind yourself you only met ten minutes ago, not ten years. Stand up comedian, presenter, television performer and decidedly funny man, he has been keeping himself busy for the past few years. In 2006 he completed his first twenty date UK tour, as well as touring with Lee Mack, performing his solo show 'Excitable' at the Edinburgh Fringe, writing for Jimmy Carr presented show 'Distractions', and writing and performing for Radio One's late night sketch show, 'The Milk Run'.

"It's great isn't it?" he says on his hectic schedule, "I love travelling around the country and meeting different people, it's so important. If I'm not constantly experiencing different people and different audiences I know I'd get pretty jaded - travelling around helps keep the act fresh."

Steve has a distinctly laid back approach to his job, a job he says he has to constantly remind himself is actually work, "It's insane, I get paid to make people laugh. I mean, you can go to any pub in any town or village and there'll be at least one character making everyone around them laugh, just because they enjoy it, I'm really fortunate." Unlike many other comedians, there was never a big 'working-the-nine-to-five-job-what-the-hell-am-I-doing?' moment for Steve that drove him to live his dream,

"I always quite fancied it to be honest. I used to be big into football at school, I was never really into drama or performing - oh, but I was a donkey in the nativity when I was seven. Anyway, I knew I wasn't gonna make a career of football, and I couldn't imagine working in an office somewhere, so I just started doing stand up."

Despite having written for both television and radio, stand up is, for now at least, Steve's favourite mode of expression, "I love stand up comedy because when you're up on stage you're everything, you're the writer, the director, the producer, the performer. That kind of control gives you such a phenomenal buzz when it comes off and the crowd respond the way you want them to, I don't think there's any other medium or art form that can give you that." Even audience heckles, an occupational hazard for all stand up comedians, don't stop Steve enjoying himself on stage, "Heckles are fine really cos I just kind of roll with them, let them happen and then turn them into a joke. I still get the old 'sheep shagger' routine now and again mind. It's a bit pointless and pathetic really; the last form of acceptable racism in the world - and everyone's heard it before!"

With Divas, sorry DV8, having attracted comedians from all over the UK , FRONT wondered which home nation Steve thought had produced the best comedians over the years, "That's tough. We've got some great guys in Wales, and I'm a huge fan of Eddie Izzard and Russ Noble, but then Billy Connolly's gotta be in my top 3 also. Having said that, the Irish are pretty strong, Dylan Moran is just brilliant, then you've got Ardal O'Hanlan and Dara O'Brian. Yeah, I think Ireland would probably win a round robin plus knockout stage affair. And definitely not the French, I've never met a French comedian, they don't exist."

While heckles may not faze him, his most bizarre on-stage experience has to be up there with the best of them, "I remember there was this guy in the front row sat sideways on, so I asked him why he didn't turn round, and he said it was because he was blind. I thought he was joking, and so to prove he took out his eye and chucked it to me. It was all squidgy, like having a soft organ in my hand. Great isn't it, Tom Jones get's knickers, I get prosthetic eyes!" The best bit, unbelievably, is still to come, "well he'd upped the ante now, the audience were expecting something from me...so I licked it and threw it back."

With those kinds of perks, who wouldn't want to be a stand up comedian? Despite the onslaught of fake limbs and insinuations about his private life with sheep, Steve won't be stopping the stand up for a while, "This year's just as busy as last to be honest, I've got the tour running until the end of may, shows booked until the of July, and then Edinburgh in August". On his plans for the future, Steve is typically laid back, "I'll probably slow down when I'm seventy, maybe settle down and write a sit com. That and cracking jokes about the 'entire meals in a pill' I'll be tucking into - what about those carrot pills eh? Always the bloody carrot pills when you're looking for the steak and chips!"

Steve will be performing at DV8 on 1st May, FRONT highly recommends checking him out.

James Hay