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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Sam Wollaston

‘There were bad moments and bad behaviour’: Alan Davies on booze, ego, comedy and cancer

A man with grey hair wearing a blue jacket and a lighter blue shirt, sitting down with his arms crossed and smiling
‘You feel those laughs, it’s fantastic’: Alan Davies at the Pleasance theatre in north London. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

It looks as if Alan Davies is in the wrong place. Not as in the wrong venue: he’s here at the Pleasance theatre in Islington, a north London fringe theatre and comedy venue, where we arranged to meet. But he’s in the wrong part of it. Although there’s a stage with a single microphone at standup height, Davies – who has performed here many times – joins me in the auditorium, sitting down at a table. Someone in the shadows is testing the lighting, and suddenly there’s a spotlight on the stage where the mic is. Is it tempting to jump up there and do his thing, even to an audience of one? “It is a bit, yeah,” he admits.

When I started the interview, I’d found that the notebook I’d brought with me contained some diary entries from my 14-year-old son. “Have you got the wrong notebook, or has he been writing in your notebook?” Davies asks. I think B. “Sounds like he wants it to be found.”

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