Comedian, Christian and Countdown participant; Tim Vine is one funny man who is a little bit different. A world record holder, Vine knows a fair share of one liners, though luckily his humour far surpasses that of the average, self-rated, hilarious Dad. In May 2004, Vine managed to squeeze four hundred and ninety nine jokes into an hour-long period, beating the previous record of three hundred and sixty two. Since his triumph, the stand-up has toured the country, performed at the legendary Edinburgh festival, as well as appearing on a whole host of game shows, including Countdown, Whittle and Total Wipeout.
“The sweeper on Total Wipeout is the scariest thing I’ve ever done! I did a gameshow on Channel Five yonks ago called Whittle. My mate John Archer was writing with me and it was just a very happy atmosphere. We filmed five shows a day and I loved every minute. We all stayed in the same hotel and at the end of each day’s filming, about fifteen of us would go back for a meal together. It was great.”
It seems that Tim lives a fun and fairly relaxed life – though I’m sure it’s very productive.
“I play a lot of darts and normally have some projects on the go. I’m working on a joke book at the moment, and a new stand up DVD. I see my friends as much as I can, do a bit of karaoke and I’m very into the England football team.. I try to get to all their games at Wembley. I’m also collecting the Panini world cup football stickers. Out of a possible six hundred stickers, I have collected five hundred and ninety three. Do you know anyone who’s got Jermaine Defoe?”
Aside from football, Tim has an interest in music and says his hero is Elvis.
“I’m not an accomplished drummer. I have one rhythm and 30 different speeds.”
It seems that thirty seems to be a favourable number for Tim, since he was rated the thirty sixth best comedian by Channel 4.
“I don’t know how they come up with that chart. To be honest it’s nonsense because Larry Grayson is not even in the top hundred and some of the people after me are much better comics than I am. The advantage I have is I am currently alive. Do the top hundred again in a sixty years and I won’t be in it at all.”
Tim’s just completed his Joke-amotive tour which started in January this year.
“The audiences were endlessly lovely! If I had to pick one special night I would plump for Warrington. But, anywhere in this country is great. Try and do a gig in front of Americans and you’ll never complain about anywhere over here again.”
Despite travelling around the world, Tim insists that he’s low maintenance and that tickling audiences isn’t all about being a diva.
“Before shows, I just potter about really. It’s fairly relaxed. I might run a couple of the opening sections in my head. The main thing is I’m not very good at is listening to things I’m not interested in just before going on stage. I glaze over easily because my mind is on the act. So if someone tries to ask my opinion of the coalition government five minutes before going on I’ll be a bit useless.”
Rather than talking about politics and where his political allegiances lie, Tim tells me about his favourite comedians.
“My favourite changes often. Foster Brooks is hilarious. He pretends to be a drunk. He’s no longer with us I’m afraid, but watch his appearance on ‘The Don Rickles Roast’ on YouTube. It’s wonderful. I know a lot of comics who are very funny, but the nature of the business is that most are not clean so I wouldn’t want to recommend something that offends the ears of your readership. Just go and watch Foster Brooks!”
I’m aware that Tim is a Christian, and working in an industry where rudeness and crudeness are the norm, I’m interested to find out how he reacts to this pressure.
“Well my act is silly, so I’m not sure being a Christian affects that. I just write silly stuff that makes me laugh. I like making people laugh and I feel like that’s a good thing to do with my time, so perhaps my faith is wrapped up in that. My favourite book of all time is The Bible, but I’m reading a great biography of Paul Newman at the moment. Did you know he went to Hampton Court on his honeymoon?!”