Dubbed the Man With The Golden Pun, Perrier Award-winning comic Tim Vine returns to one of his early stomping grounds, the Corner House Arts Centre, tonight.
Cheam's funniest man promises to deliver an average of 10 puns per minute which means an awful lot of laughter.
Recently Tim has been invading living rooms every Sunday evening alongside Jim Tavare, Ronnie Ancona and others in the fast-moving The Sketch Show, which is quite removed from where he first started.
"I used to go to a place called the Comedy Caf in Old Street on a Wednesday night where they had competition nights.
"There would be 12 comics and you each got five minutes. The chap I went with gave up after about five weeks, but I was addicted."
These were Tim's first faltering steps on the road to comedy fame and it was not long before the BBC saw his potential.
"They asked me to host a game show in 1995 but to be honest, it wasn't the greatest piece of television.
"It was replaced by Can't Cook Won't Cook, which is still running."
Tim was such a regular at the Corner House they made him a patron in 1996.
"I used to do a gig at the Bun Shop in Berrylands and the people who ran the Corner House asked me if I fancied doing a gig there, and that's how I first got involved.
"It's a great place to try out new material. I would always do new stuff here before going up to Edinburgh with it."
So how does Tim describe his humour?
Quickfire
"It's very quickfire, with lots of one liners things like Black Beauty he's a bit of a dark horse'. But tonight I'll also be doing some new material.
"The first half of the show I'll do my usual stuff, but in the second half I'll be doing a mini play, which could either be really good or really ropey.
"If it's ropey, I'll have to rely on my comedy reflexes to get a laugh or two, but I'm looking forward to it."
Tim has a unique way of generating new material.
"What I do is put the date of a gig in my diary and then I know how long I have got to come up with some new material. Setting myself a deadline ensures I actually do it."
q Tim Vine is at the Corner House Arts Centre, Tolworth, tonight. For full details see the listings. Gareth Foreman
November 30, 2001 14:31
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