Comic follows footballer's lead

LAURA WESTBROOK

English Comedian Terry Alderton talks to Laura Westbrook about why he's fearless on stage.

It took Terry Alderton almost 20 years of hard slog on the comedy circuit before he found his true voice.

The 41-year-old Essex comedian is in Wellington for his third New Zealand International Comedy Festival, following a sell-out UK tour. 

Last year Alderton was voted the number one comedian in the UK by the Sun newspaper. This followed his consecutive wins as the best international guest at the New Zealand Comedy Festival.

Alderton's unpredictable routine is full of impressions, mime to music and firing off imaginary machine guns.

However, he is best-known for his double act - with himself - whereby he turns his back to the audience to conduct conversations about the show's progress with his Gollum-esque alter ego. The mix of traditional club comic with experimentalist takes the routine in expected directions.

But success hasn't come easily to Alderton. He rose to fame after winning Sky's Star Search at 18. From there he went on to a number of high profile acting and comedy roles, including presenting the BBC's National Lottery.

"I was a very mainstream. What I would consider a hack comic, but I was good at what I did, I won't take that away from myself.

"I had a bit of a rise in the UK but it just didn't work out, for whatever reason, for me, them, it. Of course, then I was back on the circuit after being quite depressed for many years."

He realised his old routine wasn't cutting it, so he made the decision to reinvent himself. One night Alderton let the voices in his head roam freely on stage - "telling the audience what I thought of them laughing at what I was delivering to them, and telling them I thought it was rubbish. Then turning back to them like nothing had happened".

There's no hint of gloominess when you meet Alderton. From the moment he welcomes me into his hotel room, he's a blur of energetic motion. Fresh, despite a flight from England (he says he's waiting for jet-lag to catch up with him). However, it's hard to imagine Alderton anything but full of a energy, bounding effortlessly from topic to topic, and accent to accent.

He attributes his positive attitude to two life-changing moments.

The first was after he watched a film about Eric Cantona. The French footballer is asked what his favourite goal was. He replies it wasn't a goal, but a pass.

"Eric made the point you've got to be prepared to fail out of 100 times, 99 times. Badly fail for that one moment, and that one moment will be like nothing else. And I thought that was true, you'll never find that moment unless you're prepared to die. And that was the start of something.

"Then in October of the same year 2010, I was driving to a gig in West Beach, England, and listening to Steve Martin's autobiography Born Standing Up and that was it. I listened to that and that changed everything.

"And now, from what Eric said and that, that's why I'm completely fearless when I walk on stage now."

Details:

* Terry Alderton performs in Wellington at San Francisco Bath House May 1 - 5 and in Auckland at Q Auckland, May 7 - 12.

For more information go to the NZ International Comedy Festival website.

- © Fairfax NZ News