You do a wide range of things, writing, comedy and the singer-songwriter, which one do you enjoy the most? Or which would you describe yourself as?
I suppose more and more now I describe myself as a writer/performer, that way round, it used to be comedian/author. I’ve never really liked the expression ‘comedian’, because people think that’s a person who’s hilarious all the time. I prefer now to be thought of as a writer and I do a lot on Radio 4, so more old fashioned people call me a writer/broadcaster. I have a lot of fun with the song-writing, but if I just tried to live off that, I’d be very, very hungry because it doesn’t make any money. Hopefully one day something will happen. I did have one song that made some money, the ‘Stutter Rap’. It’s just such a tough old business, so many good people want to get in and it’s a tiny market.
I saw that you’ve been writing some stuff with Chesney Hawkes are you still searching for a follow-up hit?
Yeah that’s right, also I’ve been working with Nick Kershaw, who did a lot of stuff in the 80s. The best chance we’ve got though, to get some music away is if we make this film ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’, which we’re trying to do next year. We’ll probably include a lot of our music on the soundtrack. That is the easiest way of getting the music off the ground, so we’ll have to do that and see what happens.
I was going to ask about the film, because in the book, you talk about getting Bruce Willis to play yourself. Has he agreed?
That’s true actually… but the latest is that I’m going to play me. For a previous deal for the film, it was going to be Brendan Fraser from the Mummy and the Mummy Returns, I think he was also George of the Jungle, but to me it always felt completely wrong to have an American playing me. I think it’s too our shame in Britain that we constantly pander to America for financial reasons. The French don’t do it and there was a part of me that just said, well lets just try and write a good film and if it doesn’t make £25 million, so what, at least we’ve proved something for once.
Are you going back and retracing your steps from the book then?
Well I’ve written a screenplay, so it’s not a reconstruction but it’s written as a piece of drama, so it is an acting job and I will actually be acting out the part of myself.
So I guess that’s quite a weird dynamic?
Yeah… I suppose you treat it like you’re playing this character called Tony Hawks. I haven’t got to pretend to be a Geordie or an Australian or anything.
You’ve written a new book, the Fridge-hiker’s guide to life. What’s that about?
I did a tour of Australia last year and talked quite a lot about ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’, because it’s done quite well there. A lot of people were asking me what I’d learned from the experience? I suddenly realised I’d learned quite a lot and a few people said ‘you should write this down’. So I started to write it down and then in the course of writing it down, I discovered that I’d learned even more. There was quite a lot of stuff I’d wanted to get out, that I believed. About how most of the time things that make people unhappy and miserable are all their own making really, In the West there aren’t many excuses really, its all self-created by the ego and these were all messages that I wanted to get across that fitted in with this Fridge-hiking philosophy. It’s a revamp of the original story, a bit like a greatest hits. It’s a bit like watching Match of the Day, you get the goals and you get the action. There’s a bit of the original story in there and a bit of these commonsense homespun philosophies and the idea was that instead of it being a heavy-handed self-help book, its just a jollier little handbook with some wisdom therein. I’m not really expecting it to sell a huge amount, but it might just be a fun little project. I also am donating all the money from it to this thing called ‘The Fridge Trust’.
This is your new charitable venture. In it’s mission statement, you talk about it being alright to enjoy the perks of life as long as you are ‘balancing the equation by giving’, is this something that you always believed in or is it something that you’ve learned from partaking in your challenges?
I think its something that’s come out much stronger in the last five-six years. When I was younger I don’t think I was giving very much, but I don’t think that matters either. There comes a point, however, when you are starting to acquire more and you’ve got stuff. I’m always staggered when people who are already millionaires try and do deals to get another £5 million. The Jonathan Rosses of this world and the people like that. And I think what on earth do they spend it all on? I guess they just get into buying bits of art for £2.5 million. But there’s an obscenity about that in a way, given the state of the world. I suppose I’m conscious of that, I have a social conscience. I just think, when you reach a point where you’re nice and comfortable, it’s not really that difficult to say, well that’s enough and I’m just happy to chug along. There’s not hardship involved for me. I can do what I like, I can holiday in France, it really isn’t that difficult to do, to say… “after a certain amount of money, start giving it away”.
After your Moldovan book, ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis’, you set up the trust fund to build the child’s centre. Was what you saw on that trip what triggered your philanthropic instincts?
That probably was the beginning of it, to be honest. We’re trying to get it much bigger so they can reach more people. What’s irritating is that at the time when we bought this place, it was £17,500 to buy, now it’s something like $150,000. The property values have rocketed, but the plan is to extend it, yes. We’re having to try and find the money. Some of the Fridge Fund might go to this, but I do quite like the idea of it being for something else.
You’ve got the house in France, and its got a little annexe for renting out, is that right?
The plan is that once it’s finished, is to try and get that used in a good way. So people can visit when I’m not there or even when I am there, people can come and use it and come and stay. People that wouldn’t normally get holidays perhaps and a chance to get a break. If you think about the number of people in Britain that have second homes that lie empty most of the year, I’d quite like to do something, prove that it works and then say “why don’t more people do it”. I think a lot of people would. I’m convinced people are better than they are permitted to behave. If you try and do something like that, the number of people that say to you: “you better be careful, someone might nick this or do that.” People are always looking for reasons for not doing things. Personally I don’t think people will nick things, but if they do, so what we’ll build it into the agreement.
Do you think it takes a certain person to just up and leave, like you have for the challenges in your books. I think a lot of people would probably like to go on adventures, but find it very difficult to give up the commitments of daily life.
I think I was slightly lucky in that my parents weren’t professional middle class lawyers or doctors who tend to want their children to be secure. I imagine it’s quite a difficult thing for people to do if they have that instilled in them, but for me it comes quite easily. If you’ve tried to make a living out of the entertainment world, you get snow-blindness looking at your diary for the next year. It’s just a white mass with nothing written on it. But you just have to think something will come along, and it usually does. Very few people starve in the UK. There’s all the panic about the economic downturn, but we’ll just have a bit less, that’s all.
After the several books written about challenges undertaken as bets, do you find that people challenge you to audatious bets quite a lot?
It used to happen a bit more. The funny thing is people often say, don’t you get people making bets with you all the time and people ask that question a lot more than people try to make bets. People imagine it happens all the time. I’ve had a few. Arthur Smith, who I made the ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis’ bet with, tried to make a bet with me that I couldn’t sleep with the entire Azerbaijani netball team one-by-one. I didn’t take him up on that one, as it would involve going to Azerbaijan and introducing netball to the country. Generally speaking, it tends to come from an argument and then the bet comes at the end of it, so it’s not that common. If proving somebody wrong and me right would make an entertaining book along the way then I’m up for it.
So you’re still enlisting bets then?
Yeah, I think so, I don’t think it’s necessarily always a bet. That’s why it was nice to do ‘Piano in the Pyranees’, because it wasn’t a bet. It was quite nice to see if you can stand on your own two feet. I probably wouldn’t do another bet, but you never know, I might do.
I noticed on your website that you seem to get inundated with people thinking you’re Tony Hawk, the skateboarder. Do you find it quite frustrating or do quite enjoy it?
I find it quite funny. I get a lot of fan-mail and questions meant for him. I just find it amusing and every now and again sit down and write back. I sent them off in the beginning, but you tend to end up endlessly in contact. Its more fun as an amusing little thing on my website. I did toy with the idea of calling a book ‘The A to Z of skateboarding’ and it having nothing to do with skating at all, it might sell a few more copies.
Have you ever met him?
I have, I met him on ‘The Big Breakfast’, he was over here promoting something and they got me into the studio, but the humour of it all went over his head. He just sat there early in the morning thinking who is this guy? He was nice enough, but I don’t think humour was his thing.
