Comedian Sean Lock: It’s inhumane how good I am

Still intoxicated from his 
previous night’s show, and gorging out on his mini fridge’s £6 nuts, Sean Lock was still able to tell us how “he could have been anything, but he chose to be a comedian.”

After an intense tour so far, beginning in February, the 
comedian is coming to Preston for the first time to perform his Purple Van Man stand-up, a title with an interesting explanation.

“Everyone knows the ‘white van man’ stereotype, just a manual job worker, a working-class tradesmen, driving around in their vans all thinking the same, an incredibly patronising stereotype.

“So I thought, ‘I wonder what a purple van man’s thoughts are?’

“So I’m the purple van man and this stand-up is my thoughts and opinions on things.”

Now moving on from his £6 nuts to his complimentary chocolate on the hotel pillow of his current tour destination, Galway, the comedian explains how he doesn’t just stumble across his material.

“I don’t believe in inspiration I think I’ve only been 
‘inspired’ twice in my life and I think that was when I was drunk.

“My comedy material comes from hard graft and determination.

“In 2012 I sat in an office 9am-5pm every day, and three out of the five days I sat there like a fisherman, but slowly material started to come to me and that’s how I created this stand-up.”

When asked how the 8 out of 10 Cats star became a stand-up comedian his answer was a modest one: “It’s inhumane how good I am at everything, I’m just so good at all things, I literally could have been anything.

“I just thought ‘I can’t be good at all these things it’s just not fair on other human beings’ so I chose one of the many things I’m good at which was comedy, I could have been a biochemist or a bounty hunter.”

“A bounty hunter...maybe not”, but Sean Lock has had an array of jobs over the years, much to the relief of his parents.

“I’ve always had to work, my parents were literally obsessed with me getting a job, 12 years of age; school holidays BANG, they harangued me every day. Get a job, get a job, get a job so – I’ll got one.

“I’ve had loads of jobs, I’ve worked in a dog food factory, a bingo hall, on numerous building sites, in a physiatric hospital, I was even a security guard, it was for a newsagents, mind you.

“I do feel a little robbed of my childhood, by having 
responsibilities so young, but I think that is where I get my strong work ethic from now.”

Besides his stand-up 
comedy career, Sean Lock has also dabbled in acting after his show, 15 Minutes in Misery, later expanded into the half-hour series 15 Storeys High, a possible path the comedian would again divulge into.

He said: “I do think about doing another series, but it is a lot of work, and you have to make sure that the trust and commitment of the people commissioning the series is right; because let’s face it, most British sitcoms are s**t.”

Performing in Preston’s Guild Hall will be the TV star’s 91st showing on his tour, but he assures the Lancashire crowd he will not disappoint, as coming to see the show “is the best thing someone can do”. “My performance in Preston will be like when the Beatles performed in Hamburg, one of the slickest bands around, that is like my show, it’s a slick, well-oiled machine by now and the truth is it’s just fantastic.

“That is what the crowd is going to say, ‘I thought you were fantastic’ and they are going to say that, because it is the bloody truth”.

Sean Lock has performed all over the UK and even closer to home in neighbouring towns such as Burnley and Blackburn but he has never ventured to Preston, until now.

“I am looking forward to performing in Preston and that’s the great thing about this job, you get to go to all sorts of different places and stand on stage looking out at a crowd made up of all different ages, ethnic groups and genders and making them continuously laugh, it’s quite flattering.

“The best part of the job by far, though, is I can say whatever I want, however I want, I can promise I won’t talk about sex though, the laughs are too easy, I make my material slightly more deranged.

“And if that didn’t persuade you, and you can tell I’m not the world’s best self-publicist, the ending of my show is absolutely brilliant.”

Sean Lock will perform on tonight at Preston’s Guild Hall at 8pm; tickets are on sale for £22.