‘Obviously I realise that whenever anyone humourlessly explains “comedy process” they are in danger of sounding like a dildo.’ Well, not necessarily: for anyone outside the comedy scene, how a stand-up routine comes to life is inherently interesting. Particularly when you’re asking someone like Alfie Brown. Over the last decade, Brown has emerged as one of our most exciting comics. Thought-provoking, fearless and always looking at the world from a different angle; it’s no surprise then that the process for Brown is an ever shifting, questing one. 

‘For me, when putting a show together, it isn’t a singular inspiration that becomes the basis for an entire show. It’s me working out what I want to talk about, and then why it was those particular things.’ Brown is back in Edinburgh performing Sensitive Man, a show that he’s been working on for a while now given the disruption of the last two years. ‘I suppose if there was any inspiration it was the grey gnawing horror of lockdown. I tried to speak about the pandemic mostly indirectly. I didn’t think people would really want to hear a direct recounting of someone else’s shitty pandemic experience. The things I wanted to write about were ageing and depression, things I became more aware of whilst indoors. But the connection isn’t explicitly made.’

^{Alfie Brown / Picture: James Deacon}

For someone who grew up with Dead Ringers’ Jan Ravens as their mum, it’s perhaps no surprise that Brown became a stand-up, but as it happens it hadn’t initially crossed his mind. ‘I was the funniest person working at Top Shop! So having no A-levels or access to uni it felt like my only skill. I felt absolutely desperate to find something I wanted to do. I realise in retrospect it was not as urgent as it felt: I was 18. But I’m so glad I started when I did. It does you very well to be shit for a while. And my oh my, I was shit,’ he laughs.

But Brown has constantly pushed himself and now he has even loftier ambitions. ‘I want to learn Spanish and tour everywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. I would be intrigued to learn how the mechanics of comedy work in another language and how different cultural contexts inform comedic style. I’ll get back to you when that’s happening . . .’

Alfie Brown: Sensitive Man, Monkey Barrel, 3–28 August, 9pm.