Viral sensation Jazz Emu offers Brighton and Guildford comedy nights

SussexWorld

Jazz Emu is the viral comedy character sensation created by award-winning writer, actor and musician Archie Henderson.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Real pleasure

00:06today to speak to Archie Henderson, who is on the road, first national tour with your

00:11comedy creation Jazz Emu, with a full band and you're coming to venues including Guildford

00:18and Brighton, and we were painting an intriguing picture of this character. He's vain, he's

00:23obnoxious, he thinks he's something and probably isn't. Where did he come from then?

00:29I think he came from the deep recesses of my mind, probably.

00:33Oh dear, so what does that say about you?

00:35Yeah, I know, it's terrifying. The further I get in, the more I'm encountering myself,

00:39I think. I don't know, there's something, I've always found people, you know, who are

00:44missing the mark funny, and there's a lot of comedy that inspired me, I think, especially

00:48British comedy, where it's people, you know, who think they're one thing and just will

00:52never be it. I think there's something about those kind of characters that really appeals

00:57to our psyche here in the UK.

00:59To the point in his delusion, he's misreading.

01:04That's right. He's particularly obsessed with the idea, I think, of being able to connect

01:10with people, being sort of socially adept. And the more he kind of bigs himself up, the

01:18more he falls into his own trap, I think, and he's kind of fixated on that. Maybe that

01:23comes from a sort of cathartic release of all of the social accidents I've personally

01:31made in my own life.

01:32I think there's also a bit of release during the lockdown, isn't it? Which is when he started

01:36to emerge.

01:37Yeah, yeah, I think so. And that was one of the first songs that actually did well was

01:45a sort of joke about lockdown. I did this song called, I think I've forgotten how to

01:49socialise. And I was locked in my room and I was, you know, it was very claustrophobic

01:54and I felt myself very close up. And I think people kind of connected with that, you know,

01:59having been locked inside for so long and that kind of distance from other people, it

02:04definitely fits into the character in my head.

02:07And since then, he's been a work in progress. He's evolved, hasn't he?

02:11Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm sort of trying to find new ways to unpack the psychology

02:17of it. And the songs I put out online are sometimes very in character. They're sometimes

02:23more my take on my own life. And the songs themselves are a bit of a mush of a blur of

02:31like, is it the character? Is it me? In the live show, I try and keep it a bit more in

02:36the character. So it's a bit more, you know, understandable.

02:38That sounds a little bit scary. At what point do you start wondering whether Archie's going

02:43to disappear and he's going to take over?

02:46Yeah, well, yeah, 100%. A lot of my friends at some point about three years ago were like,

02:52wow, you really dress like Jazzy these days. So yeah, I'm just I'm leaning into it. I think

02:59there's definitely something of myself coming out that I'm just sort of letting it happen.

03:05Fantastic. And the first national tour, that's fantastic, isn't it?

03:09Yeah, it's very exciting. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's obviously some things we're sort of

03:15wary about, about, yeah, taking the full band on tour. We've got the whole band that

03:20I performed with at the Edinburgh Fringe, they're coming down, which is great. So we've

03:23got a really good kind of feeling of working together there and the kind of team spirit

03:32already built in. So everyone knows the show very well. And I think that's going to be

03:36really fun. But I think, yeah, we'll see what the challenges are of doing this. It's quite

03:41a complex show.

03:42Fantastic. And it's Jazzy Mew and the tour is Night Fever, isn't it?

03:48That's right. Yeah. Night with a K.

03:50Fantastic. Good luck with that first national tour and lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

03:57You too.

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