By RUSSELL BAILLIE
Jim Tavare was always destined to be a stand-up of some sort.
For like many a comedian before him, the laconic, lanky, bald Englishman started out as a musician. His instrument of schoolboy choice: the no-sitting-allowed double bass.
"The double bass was the only instrument left in the school music cupboard. It kind of looked awkward and being an awkward sort of person I picked it," he says down the line from London where we've interrupted his practice: ("I've just worked out that the kids' high chair is a very good music stand. I've got egg all over my Elgar, but never mind.")
Moving from hometown Macclesfield, where he had played in local rockabilly, jazz and blues groups, to London to attend RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Tavare eventually swerved towards doing stand-up comedy in the city's clubs.
Initially, it didn't go at all well.
"I tried to do stand-up for a good five years in London and was not accepted at all. I was really bad at it and got known as the worst comedian. But each night I would get one or two laughs and it was enough to keep me going."
Then, an idea. A double act with his double bass.
"I got up and talked about lugging this huge instrument on the underground transport system and getting abuse from late night revellers and that formed the basis of my act. The audience kind of appreciated I had lugged this heavy thing across town."
He even began to play it, rather than use it "as a surreal sight gag." He dressed the part too ("the reject from the philharmonic") in bowtie and tails. The varnished, monolithic sidekick got a name too: Bassie. He had an act to call his own and eventually his newfound success meant television came calling, leading recently to The Jim Tavare Show, his own half-hour series of stand-up and bass-free character sketches.
Now he has fans all over. They range from civilians in the United States (where he's toured and was a guest star in sitcom Wings) to military types in the South Atlantic (he's frequently entertained British and UN troops stationed in the Falkland Islands) and Nepal (Ghurka soldiers who were told by their sergeant major when to laugh - the weirdest gig he's ever done).
Oh, and they speak highly of Tavare up at Highgrove. Having played three Royal Variety Performances, he got an invitation to entertain Prince Charles' Christmas party last year: "It was very informal. He was sitting there with a paper crown from a cracker on his head, the kids were laughing, Camilla was laughing - I felt like one of the those jesters from medieval times."
* Jim Tavare appears at the Laugh! Chamber at the Auckland Town Hall and as part of Britcom at the Mandalay from April 27 to May 6.
Laugh! Festival: Jim Tavare - Double happy
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.