Sean Hughes returns to stand-up at Edinburgh
Dominic Cavendish
8 Aug 2007
telegraph.co.uk[/align]
When he performed at the Hay-on-Wye festival earlier this summer, one of a small contingent of comics deemed sufficiently erudite to entertain the literati, Sean Hughes made a throwaway remark involving Madeleine McCann that caused all kinds of ructions.
As he puts it: "The press had a field day. They wanted to crucify me. In Ireland, there were phone-ins saying I should never be allowed to work again." And what exactly was the offending comment? "It was the week the McCanns went to visit the Pope. The line I said was: 'I see Madeleine McCann's parents went to see the Pope. I can't see he's involved somehow. I know he's a Nazi, but come on!' Anyone knows that's a joke about the Pope. But the Independent said: 'Sean Hughes thinks Madeleine McCann is fair game for a laugh.' They were inciting people to get angry."
It's hard not to concede Hughes's point: the butt of the joke - distasteful as some may find this, too - is the head of the Catholic Church. And while you could argue that Hughes should have erred on the side of caution, the McCann case has become a talking point around the world: should only comics refrain from alluding to it?
Preparing for his first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe this decade, mid-way through a renewed onslaught of live gigs after an eight-year absence from stand-up, Hughes warns that he may well talk about the incident at the festival. And he'll definitely touch on it when he tours his native Ireland in the autumn. "I'm looking forward to confronting those people," he says. "I should be able to say anything I want to - that's what comedy should be about."
So what's happened to Sean Hughes since he last performed comedy big-time? He's older, obviously, but has he grown colder too? Certainly there were ample vestiges of the nimble-witted scamp who endeared himself to a whole generation back in the early '90s when I caught up with his new solo show earlier this year. Having gone off at a tangent, pursuing his novel-writing ambitions while appearing for six lucrative years as a team captain on the pop trivia panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, not to mention stints on Coronation Street and ITV's The Last Detective, it was reassuring to see that he hadn't lost his skittish touch for his first love.
But there was no getting away from the fact that he and his audience have changed. "I'll always be eternally 12 inside, but this last year, I've realised I'm not young any more," he confesses frankly, hunched forward, the shadows under his pale blue eyes inescapable. Many of those who knew him of old have settled down with partners while he has stayed single - "I have settled down, but on my own," he says, flashing a crooked-toothed smile. "Relationships haven't worked out, and "without wanting to sound too pretentious about it, I chose art over life. I decided to concentrate on my work."
That's made him more tough-willed, more prepared than ever to be the odd one out. Edinburgh, scene of his breakthrough triumph in 1990, when he became the then youngest winner of the Perrier award, will offer stay-at-home pleasures this time. "I'm taking lots of DVDs with me - my plan is to watch 10 of my favourite films, one for each day I'm there."
His singleton status and solitary pursuits - some of them bawdy enough - are providing him with a fertile source of material. As he jokes early on in his show: "I thought when I was 41, I would be married with kids. Well, to be honest, I thought I'd be divorced with weekend access." There's plenty more where that came from at present, yet you can't help wondering how long he'll be able to keep this kind of one-way conversation going.
As he steps outside for a fag, Hughes tells me that he's finally planning to quit smoking this year. Whether there's a right, dignified time to quit stand-up is a question he's leaving for another day.
