#lcf17

We speak to comedian Alex Love ahead of his Leicester Comedy Festival show How to Win a Pub Quiz on 17 February, on as part of our #doubletrouble programme. 

What’s your show about?

It’s part stand-up show, part pub quiz. I thought I’d better find a use for all the trivia I’ve accumulated over the years just to convince myself that my many hours of reading stuff on Wikipedia haven’t been for nothing.

This way also allows people to win prizes. It’s served me pretty well at Edinburgh Fringe. I managed to fill the room everyday in 2015 in a free venue that was a long walk from anywhere, and then did a half-run with The Stand last year that got official sold-out status.  

Is this your first time to Leicester – anything you’re looking forward?

Yes, it is. I’m looking forward to performing in a building that’s named after an actor who was in Jurassic Park in Richard Attenborough, which is also another first for me. Sadly, I’ve yet to find any buildings I can perform in that are named after other cast members such as Jeff Goldblum or Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), or that kid who played Tim. If anyone knows of any buildings with such names, please get in touch. Let’s make this happen.

Any favourite memories of Leicester Comedy Festival?

I intend to make some.

What shows are you looking forward to seeing in Leicester Comedy Festival?

You should go and see as much stuff as you can. Take a punt on someone you haven’t heard of. There’s loads of great stuff going on, but I’m only in town for the night unfortunately, so won’t be able to see anything. Dan Nicholas is doing lots of stuff and is always worth a watch, so go and see him. I would also recommend Andrea Hubert, Paul Sinha, Lost Voice Guy, Norman Lovett, Jake Lambert, Jack Campbell, Nathan Willcock, Richard Todd, Simon Munnery, Joz Norris, and Jonathan Pie. There are countless others who are great that I’ve now probably offended by not mentioning. I look forward to being blanked in a green room.   If a giant octopus was terrorising the earth, what weapon would you use to save humanity and how?

The octopus would be stuck without water and would only be able to move on land for short periods. So my plan would be to retreat to somewhere inland that’s hilly or mountainous.

The way things are going, I’d actually take a giant octopus destroying everything instead of Donald Trump and Brexit doing it.  

If you like large cephalopods, I talk in great detail about giant squid in my show and actually owe my entire show idea to the large tentacle-y beasts. I’d been doing this joke about giant squid anatomy and thought of doing a show about trivia and random facts, with a pub quiz bringing all these things together.