Master of comic misery faces our fears

Arts Editor

Thursday 25 October 2012

On Monday evening, when Jack Dee is on stage at Edinburgh Playhouse, his latest television outing will be broadcast on Sky Atlantic.

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Deadpan veteran Jack Dee is in demand on stage, radio and TV, writes Keith Bruce

Don't Sit In The Front Row is hosted by the man Jeremy Hardy memorably described as "a little ray of sleet", and attempts to combine improvised comedy with audience competition, the contestants being the folk who have done exactly what the title prohibits.

The comics must use the lives of the audience members as the raw material for their gag-smithery, but only Dee knows about them in advance. The winner is the audience member who proves to be the richest source of material. Sky are trailing the series, whose contributors will include Frank Skinner, Sue Perkins, Dave Gorman and Phil Jupitus, as "a refreshing new format", but some may detect a passing resemblance to the vintage panel show What's My Line?"It was terrific fun to make" says Dee, with an enthusiasm that belies his stage persona. "It's an improv show that is trying to capture the essence of interaction with the people in audience." He adds that female comedians have proved particularly adept to its demands.It's understandable that Dee is in the chair. Interacting with the audience is not his style of stand-up, while he has proved himself a particularly adept chairman on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, filling the substantial shoes of the late, much-loved Humphrey Lyttleton.Much of that show is written for him, but Dee has put his stamp on it with his own inspired touches, notably a merciless impersonation of Nicholas Parsons in the show's parody of that other Home Service stalwart, Just a Minute."I worked with him just the other day," says Dee, "and I've been given licence to continue."For many, however, the big Jack Dee news is his return to stand-up for the first time in six years, on an epic tour that was in Glasgow a month ago and carries on until the second week of December. The show, he says, just keeps expanding "once the ball is rolling", so he has a range of material from which to draw once he has a sense of what a particular night's audience enjoys."The key is to be a good editor of what you do, but now I can trust my instincts more. I try to keep it topical and include local stuff, because that keeps it alive for me."Comedy has a purpose in that it allows us to lay our fears by making some things ridiculous, but I'm there to entertain, not to shock or get people to stroke their chins."Jack Dee is at Edinburgh Playhouse on Monday. Don't Sit In The Front Row is on Sky Atlantic at 9pm that night.

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Master of comic misery faces our fears

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