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_Brigstocke breaks the ice

If all goes well, on October 14 [2007] Marcus Brigstocke will be on stage at the Glee Club. If it doesn't go to plan, he could be some time...

For the past three weeks, the 34-year-old comedian has been part of the Cape Farewell art and science voyage along the previously unchartered 78th Parallel to Greenland.

It was previously unchartered because until recently it was all ice - now due to climate change there is a navigable channel.

A group, including Brigstocke, writer Vikram Seth and assorted scientists and artists, have been sailing the route to highlight global warming and its consequences.

It's a logical progression for Marcus who, over the last four or five years, has made a new name for himself as one of the wittiest satirists and news commentators of recent times.

The presenter of The Late Edition, who is also a regular on radio's The Now Show, News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald and Have I Got News For You, admitted (as he prepared to set off to the Arctic) that it was tough to say no: "This is really the opportunity of a lifetime, it's very cool," he says. "I'd say preparations are going well, but a certain level of fear has now kicked in - now it has been explained to me exactly where we're going - and that noone has ever been there before," Marcus laughs nervously. "...and that if the ice closes in around us, as it could do, we could be frozen in there for the winter... and when we go onto the ice we have to have two guns with us at all times because there are a lot of very angry, very hungry polar bears; other than that..."

After a piece on The Now Show about Martin Durkin's Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, Marcus was approached by the Cape Farewell organisers to 'put your money where your mouth is' and join the Arctic expedition.

"Apart from missing my family I immediately went 'yeah, I'm up for it,'" says Marcus.

After 20 days in the Polar ice, Brigstocke returns to the slightly warmer climes of Birmingham to continue his Your Time Is Up tour - a comment on the state of climate change as well as a three-pronged commentary on three British institutions which, in his view, are well past their sell-by date: "Scottish independence, religious laws and the standard of British journalism," says Marcus, quickly adding: "When I say the standard of British journalismm, I mean the national papers of course! I'm hoping I'll take the national and local papers on stage with me for the first half of each show, 'cos it's quite good fun picking stories out of those papers - seeing what's happening locally and having a look at how many pictures of Diana the Express have got, how many immigrants there are in the [Daily] Mail and how many graphs there are on the cover of The Independent..."

With a workload that would put a sweatshop employee to shame, it's surprising Marcus has time to go on tour, let alone sail to Greenland.

"It's simple - I like doing comedy, and people keep asking me to do it, so I am - it's no more cynical or planned out than that really," he admits. "I say no to more stuff than I say yes to, and that's left me doing pretty much stuff I enjoy."

Being a topical comedian is a double-edged sword, he admits. On one hand your material is always fresh and incisive - on the other hand you're at the mercy of the news to source your jokes.

"There's always something going on - the curse of it is that by the end of last year's tour I was doing an hour and 50 minutes - and starting this tour I've got a lot less 'cos the material expires, some of it incredibly quickly," he says. "You write some jokes that you just don't want to let go of but the story disappears and it's replaced in the papers by something else like the McCann's story - that, whilst there are elements of it that are laughable, it's not a funny story - when I think about it it makes me feel sad and depressed, so from that point of view, topical comedy is a huge pain in the arse.

"I wish I could write a show during the year and go 'there's my new show, that'll last for a year and a bit' and I'll take it on the road - but in return for not being able to do that, I get to do fresh stuff all the time, it's more interesting.

"I would think by the end of this tour that the show I'm doing will be almost completely different from the one that starts the tour. That's my hope, anyway."

* Marcus Brigstocke plays the Glee Club on October 14 as part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival www.bhamcomfest.co.uk
For more information on Cape Farewell - go to www.capefarewell.com

Interview by Jon Perks for City Living, 11 October 2007. No reproduciton without prior permission.www.icbirmingham.co.uk

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