Alex Kealy Conjures Up Laughter With Sharp Observations About Anxiety
Alex Kealy is an eloquent observationist with a background in political comedy. His latest show (The Fear) is more personal and considers his anxiety; and the worries that come with success.
Alex Kealy is an eloquent observationist with a background in political comedy. He’s had a sellout run at the Soho Theatre, a 5-star review from Broadway Baby, and has written for Mock the Week (BBC Two), The News Quiz and The Now Show (BBC Radio 4). He’s also been listed in the Top Jokes at the Edinburgh Fringe as chosen by The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Mirror and The Independent.
Kealy has always been a diplomatic commentator, aiming for reasonable interpretations of events. However, he’s discovered some of the constraints of political comedy; and now aims for a broader appeal, telling me he never likes to upset anyone.
His latest show (The Fear) is more personal and considers his anxiety; and the worries that come with success. But it isn’t all about Alex, he also uses his logical brain to discuss fear’s influence on society. Fear is the tour’s unifying theme in multiple senses; because it focuses on something we all feel. Meaning we’re all in this together and it avoids an “us and them” mentality. So, a big thumbs up from me.
Beyond touring, he’s also a huge music fan evidenced by his chart-topping podcast Gig Pigs. His co-host is fellow comedian Ivo Graham - the best man at his wedding last year. In his big speech, Ivo picked up on a Daily Telegraph review that described Alex as “almost sexily cerebral.”1 For those hoping to be interviewed: it’s my one non-negotiable requirement.
*audio below the article
The Preamble
I noticed in one of your videos you’re wearing a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds shirt. I’ve got the same one, I saw them at Leeds Arena in November.
Did you have a lovely time?
It was amazing! I can’t believe how long they played for given his age.2
Yeah, well, he looks about 10 years younger and his hair is 30 years younger. There must be some “hair doping” going on.
Ha-ha!
The Interview
How does it feel to be married?
It’s amazing. She’s my favourite person in the world, and I get to spend the rest of my life with her… Unless she or I decide otherwise; that’s how divorce laws work. But no, it’s amazing. I feel so happy.
Your latest show is about fear. The fear you (sometimes) feel and the fear that we all feel. Why did you decide that now is the time to talk about it?
I’ve been through some big life changes. Getting married is one of them. You’re making a much bigger commitment, which I was very excited to make but it’s a big transition. I’ve been pondering my hyper-anxious nature and the possibility of a show directly addressing that for a while now. I’ve been thinking about telling the audience I’m scared and seeing how they respond.
Fearful characters are often portrayed in sitcoms but we don’t always think of fear as funny. Which aspects of fear are amusing to you? Where’s the line?
Well, besides dispelling tension, another thesis is that jokes start with logical points and take them so far that they become illogical. And that’s what fear is. Fear is your body and mind asking “What if I fall down there? What if a pack of wolves eat me?” It’s your evolutionary brain trying to spot things to be concerned about.
An active awareness of those things kept our ancestors alive in the face of danger. But we’re still anxious even in an industrialised society because of our animal nature. We’re wired to perceive threats when there might not be any. Anxiety can stem from that mismatch.
Is the show about the ridiculousness of that?
I think so. It’s also my attempt to deal with it by articulating it to others. I attempt to explain what it feels like.
Is it self-deprecating at all?
Ha-ha-ha, I think it has to be. You can’t come on stage like “I’m the most scared person in the room. Eat that! Bitch!” It’s a fundamentally self-deprecating fact to share. “I’m the biggest worm in here!”
Do you feel a kinship with your audience? A sense that they’re like you in some way.
Interesting, you can always glean something by looking out at the audience before you start. But it can be a mug’s game. I’m still a relatively young-ish comedian, but you can’t assume an older audience won’t be enthusiastic, because they may well be.
Even if you’re a big comic, most people go in twos or threes to a gig, so half the audience is friends or family. Ideally, you’ll have half a room who’ve seen you before, but even then… gigs tend to be decided in the first 20 seconds and how you present yourself.
If you awkwardly remove the microphone (which happens very rarely) a small minority of the audience will subconsciously judge you on that. Their only data point is that you can’t handle the one tool in your toolkit. So, they might approach your words with scepticism rather than openness.
“Every bit of body language matters, which is rubbish; I wish I could be a cloud of pure thought.”
So, you want to project confidence? Some comedians deliberately start with awkwardness, like James Acaster or Joe Wilkinson.
They do but they’re still obeying a higher principle of controlled actions. Even when James Acaster started (his show) Recognize on his knees, like Torville & Dean’s Bolero, it was vulnerable but also incredibly bold. The audience knew it was being done purposefully, so they trusted it immediately. The whole thing collapses if you try to exude confidence and it doesn’t work.
I agree that the audience is in on it. It’s not like when I dropped the microphone 5 minutes ago.
Ha-ha!
“It takes years of training to slip on a banana peel perfectly.”
That’s going to be one of the pull quotes I reckon.
I’ve not done clown school, like Chelsea Birkby but I hear that’s what they do. It’s 18 hours a day down the banana-slipping mines.
Ha-ha, next question, you should be proud of your achievements. Do you feel it?
Err, sometimes? Maybe. I think consistent pride in what you’ve achieved is borderline sociopathy. The problem is most humans quickly get used to their achievements and the bar moves. In reality, if you told me what I’ve gone on to achieve when I started, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’d’ve assumed it would lead to eternal bliss.
You always want to get onto the next thing, which is good because it’s pushing you on. It’s exciting that audiences have come back after seeing me in Edinburgh though, which is probably what I’m the most proud of.
Is diplomacy a big part of your stand-up? i.e. being diplomatic in your arguments.
…Well, my dad is a retired diplomat.
Ha-ha-ha!
Is that not what you were getting at?
No! I had no idea! If you know the music journalist Nardwuar, I’m not like him. I don’t dig that deep.3
Well, this latest tour is less political than usual. I am opinionated; I have opinions but the paradox is that I want everybody on my side. Some comedians feed off the energy of dividing a room; it gives them a crackle of energy.
“The difficulty with writing my satirical shows was that I’d try to write unimpeachable jokes, regardless of your political perspective.”
It’s possible, especially when there’s an obvious hypocrisy in politics that you can point out. You can get most of the audience on board. But I find it limiting and if you’re trying to please everyone with political material, it’s hard. I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings when I do stand-up, but with certain issues it’s unavoidable.
However, it's fun to tease audiences who know you well, if they’ve seen you before. You can be a bit of a dick and it’s not about the topic, it’s about the tone. I love Stuart Laws and my wife pointed out that the way he does crowd work almost has the rhythmic tone of (harmless) bullying. The ideal crowd work is playful bullying where nobody is getting hurt.
I marvel at Fin Taylor’s ability to do that. On paper, his jokes are offensive, but they’re also so stupid and over the top that nobody could take them seriously. It’s all in service of the joke and he wants to make the guests laugh.
That’s definitely the vibe from the videos, for sure.
Do you look for tension-dispelling punchlines?
“A joke can be many things, but it’s often a core aim to create and dispel tension.”
It’s always a thrill to create an active silence in a room - via a joke with a long set-up, or a stressful theme. So, when the punchline hits there’s something very exciting and validating about that laugh. It proves they were listening.
It’s not that they might have assumed I was going to be nasty (but wasn’t); they might have assumed I didn’t know where I was going. It’s misdirection and you’ve won.
It must give you a sense of creative power.
Yeah, let’s go with that.
How early do you like to get to gigs?
It depends on the pressure involved. It’s fun to rock up at the last minute at a new material night or a regular club gig. Equally, I’m doing quite big theatre gigs supporting Jack Dee, and I like to get there 2 hours before. Especially to get a sense of the room’s acoustics.
If I’m doing two events in one night and I’ve missed half of the second one, I like to grab the compere and ask what the vibe is like i.e. how well it’s going for the other comics.
Who are your influences?
“Like many people starting in the late noughties, I’d watched too much Stewart Lee.”
I think he’s like the forbidden books in the library in Harry Potter and you shouldn’t “read” them until you’ve done at least 5 years of stand-up. At first, you think “This is incredible, there are no rules. Time to break the fourth wall” but you have to grasp the basics first. Every mad jazz musician has to start with a background in traditional music. Attempting to make people laugh without traditional jokes is not the place to start.
Comedians starting 10 years later are probably looking to James Acaster instead, which is better because he’s a bit more conventional.
I’ve seen Stewart 2 or 3 times. He’s still got it.
He does, he does - one of the greats.
You’re friends with some of the biggest names in comedy: Phil Wang, Harriet Kemsley, Josh Widdicombe and Ivo Graham etc. How does it feel to be one of the gang?
One of my favourite things about doing stand-up and the podcast; is spending time with so many comedians that I respect and (very much) enjoy having a pint with. I have lots of fun doing podcasts with Alison Spittle – such a force of fun, glee and rich stories.
British comedy journalists love the word cerebral. How do you feel about being described in that way?
Ha-ha, I’ve been called cerebral more than once, I suppose. The most recent quote was “almost sexily cerebral.” Ivo Graham had a lot of fun with that in my best man speech, because it’s such a confusing front-handed and backhanded compliment. What do you think about them using the word so much?
Well, I think you are a cerebral comedian and I’d take it as a compliment the first time, but I might feel alienated by it after a while. I think it’s meant as a compliment, but sometimes we’re complimented in ways we’re not fully comfortable with.
That’s interesting. Another angle is that they’re saying “I like this, ergo I’m smart too.” I’m not setting out to write material that most people can’t enjoy, but you do tend to start a set with your most broadly relatable material.
Also, smartness isn’t everything. A bunch of people working for Elon Musk are trying to destroy the American government, so smartness doesn’t make you a good person. Plus, what is smart? There are a billion types of smart. They’re prejudicing computer/engineer smarts over about 10 other types.
Emotionally smart?
Yeah, or different types of intellectual smartness – strategical smartness.
It occurs to me that your stand-up demands a delicate balance – between personal and political material, plus saying what you mean, whilst keeping a diverse audience on-side. I heard about your love of board games and that you play Settlers of Catan. Are you drawn to complexity, the bigger picture and maintaining a complex balance?
That’s a very interesting question. The kind of board games I like, are strategy and engine-building board games (games where every decision has a chain effect on your future options and prospects). I have a mathematical brain, so I think about creating the most optimal system with the available resources. However, the games are often a lot shorter than you think and I sometimes lose by getting lost in the options and how much fun they are to think about.
I do the same but not with board games. I play Age of Empires 4 every day, it’s a video game a bit like Settlers of Catan.
Will Hislop has a very funny sketch – Age of Empires the Musical. Immediately look that up on Instagram or TikTok.
Ha-ha, I definitely will. I can’t believe I’ve not seen it.
You’re great at seamless transitions between personal and political material. In one video you were joking about Eric Cantona being the foreign secretary, and then about the problems you’re having learning French. Do you think about transitions a lot?
Yes, I do. My wife says comedians overthink it and if the audience likes you and has been laughing, and that they believe in you, you don’t need these perfect links. Sometimes, taking a sip of water and saying “Oh yeah, and here’s this other idea” is enough.
“Links help you to memorise your material.”
The more connected your jokes are through linkage, the easier it is to remember the show. There might be a joke I want to take out, but if it functions as a link, it’s too helpful to get rid of.
The point about it aiding your memory makes so much sense. I’ve not done stand-up yet but I’m hoping to get over that fear and tips like that will be helpful.
Are you planning to film the show?
I want to film large chunks of it. I hope to film something later this year; a sort of “grab bag” of older material, plus about half of this new show with a twist.
For YouTube?
Maybe for YouTube, if they’ll have me.
Ha-ha!
And for Instagram clips.
You’re performing a lot of dates on this tour. What makes for a perfect comedy venue?
We love to play for a full room, so if it’s a 70 capacity it’s great to play for 70; or 200 in a 200-seater. I’ve got my first show in Leicester tonight and pre-sales for that have been good, so that should be fun.
It’s also nice playing venues that host plenty of comedy shows throughout the year. My dates in Maidenhead and The Rondo Theatre in Bath are good examples. It means that audiences understand what to expect, they might have seen a couple of comedy shows before – which puts them in the top 10% of comedy consumers.
Postscript
We’ve got 3 minutes left. Do you have any questions for me?
Do you know where, when and how your first open mic will be?
Oh gosh, there’s one locally but I’d rather it be a comedy open-mic night, which is harder to find where I live. I need to bite the bullet and not be very funny but get it over with.
If you just get one laugh, it’ll feel amazing. You’ll have moved from zero laughs to one laugh. It’s an infinite ratio mathematically. It’s the largest move you’ll ever make in your career.
That’s a great perspective, I love that. That’s awesome.
Ha-ha, it’s that kind of delusion that has kept me going.
What are your favourite Nick Cave songs?
My favourite is Higgs Boson Blues, from the Push the Sky Away album, but it’s just been squeezed out of the live setlist. I saw them play it in 2022 in Barcelona, and it’s been replaced by Jubilee Street (same album) which is a good one, but Higgs Boson Blues gives a little history of the world in a nugget, which I like a lot.
“I also love anything from the Carnage album in 2021, particularly the second half, which has Warren Ellis’s wonderful looping melodies and motifs.”
Warren is great. Push the Sky Away is one of my favourite albums, particularly because of how Nick walks in the video for Jubilee Street. I don’t know if you’ve seen that - one of the coolest things ever.4
Oh, it will cut us off, I should pay for the pro version of Zoom.
No. This keeps it a nice “tight 40.” It’s what Edinburgh audiences want. Edinburgh audiences love a 40-minute show; it’s just that the military-industrial complex makes us do an extra 20 that no one’s asking for.
Still quipping as we were about to get cut off, Alex Kealy was a wonderful interviewee; genuinely kind and easily one of the sharpest minds in the business. Use the links provided to get tickets for his tour and follow him on Instagram.
Audio
The Daily Telegraph’s 4-star review.
Nick is 67 and played for 2 and a half hours, giving a very energetic performance. He then took the same show across the globe, performing almost every night or every other night for 2 months.
Nardwuar the Human Serviette is a famous Canadian music journalist, somehow able to source hyper-obscure details about his interviewees. Sometimes guests are impressed, and other times they’re totally spooked out. You can find his videos on YouTube.
demanding u eventually turn this into a podcast so i can listen on the go.
also i'm glad he asked u about ur stand up, looking forward to when that happens!
I still need to watch the videos you posted (not today, bcz late) but it was one of your best interviews, I think! Great work Dan :) 👍