5 Questions: Robin Ince

• The List
• 6 August 2009

This article is from 2009

The estimable Robin Ince is doing two shows at the Fringe this year, one totally free, the other for a deep sea diver. Here, he gives our Q&A some bookish attention

What five words best describe your shows this year?
Loud, quiet, frenetic, still, thumbs.

Which comics should be more famous come September?
None, they’ll be so much more entertaining when they still can’t afford food. Finding their dreams will only spoil it for them. Or alternatively, Richard Sandling, Johnny Candon and Michael Legge.

What bugs you most about Edinburgh in August?
When the TV Festival comes to town and you find yourself stepping in the smelly droppings that executives leave everywhere.

Which dead comics do you wish were still alive and working today?
I’ll choose a funny man not a comedian: Christopher Price, the very acerbic, dry and funny host of Liquid News. I would also have been very interested to have seen whether Andy Kaufman was funny, entertaining or annoying.

Is there a rumour you’d like to start about yourself?
I used to be Charlie Drake’s home help but left after he brought in a rule that all his staff must be branded.

Robin Ince: Bleeding Heart Liberal, Medina & Negociants, 225 6313, 19–30 Aug (not 25), 10.15pm, £5; Robin Ince Versus the Moral Majority, The Canon’s Gait, 226 0000, 19–30 Aug, 8.25pm, free.