COMEDIAN Tim Vine remembers the exact moment that his journey into comedy started.
He was around 12 years old and at a refuse tip with his father where, in amongst a pile of all kinds of rubbish, he came across a one-stringed guitar.
“This was back in the days when there was just large piles of stuff lying around and you could just take something”, he explains.
“It sounds a bit like my family were living in a cave when I tell that story about the guitar but I really just got a joy out of playing it.
“I used to record all these things and write songs with my one-string guitar and since then it’s been an unbroken line from there to my songwriting.”
Known for his one-liners and his witty songwriting, Vine spoke with The National about his journey into comedy and his memories of the Edinburgh Fringe ahead of his new tour Breeeep!
That guitar set Vine on a path which has seen him hold the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour (499) as well as a starring role in BBC sitcom Not Going Out.
Vine is set to play a number of dates during his tour of Scotland which will feature songs as well as the one-liners he’s become known for.
“Luckily I’ve got six strings on the guitar now”, he adds.
Scotland holds a special place in Vine’s heart and, although he’s not performing at this year’s Fringe, he has twice picked up the best joke award and credits it as being a key turning point in his career.
“I’ve been on a lot of tours since around 2003. When you get that first one that’s an hour I can’t underly how important that is”, he explains.
“You become obsessed with times because you have these open spots which are five minutes.
“That’s a considerable amount of time because if you stand in front of a few hundred people, that’s a long time if they don’t like you.
“But gradually you start to get up to 10 minutes, you watch people do 20.”
At the Edinburgh Fringe, his show Tim Vine Fiasco led to the Newcomer Award in 1995 although he says it was a “real team effort” as there were four others with him on stage.
He adds that he’s since worked out he’s spent more than a year of his life at the festival.
“You’re doing a show every day. By the end you’ve probably done it 24 times – that’s a whole day on stage and by the end you feel you have a show.
“I mean you should be saying that when you start but largely speaking I do try to start with a show.”
Tim Vine is playing a number of dates across Scotland as part of his new tour – more details and tickets can be found HERE.
