Maxwell Overdrive

Andrew Maxwell, star of The Panel, enjoyed a particularly successful stint at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, with his stand-up show, Waxin’, playing to sell-out crowds for the duration of its month-long run, his late-night comedy extravaganza, Fullmooners, providing the usual mix of mischief and mayhem, and, most significantly, the judges nominating the comedian for the prestigious if.comedy award.

Was Andrew surprised to receive the nomination?
“I was, genuinely,” he replies. “The critics started really paying attention to me in 2004, and I’ve had glowing reviews for the shows over the past three years. But I thought the rooms I was playing were now too big, and my profile was too high, so I really didn’t think it was on the cards. Plus, there have always been one or two journalists and industry people who have had a kind of hate thing for me, so it did surprise me. It’s that kind of thing where I didn’t really need it this year, and sometimes when you’re not observing something, then it comes along.”
Did any big names drop by for Andrew’s Fullmooners shows in Edinburgh this year?
“Lots of comedians dropped by and we had plenty of special moments. David O’Doherty and Jimmy Carr started a double act called Carr & O’Doherty, which was brilliant. David was on his keyboard, and Jim was standing there with his clipboard, and they had some great banter. Jim did his tirade of filthy one-liners, and David put a little bit of atmos music underneath.
“We’ve also started our own Masonic lodge. Fullmooners at Edinburgh is in a cave, and it is haunted. Sometimes during the run I was heckled by ghosts, which is really odd. Also, a hunk of wood materialised out of nowhere and flew at my head one night. Anyway, at the very back, in the upstairs bar, we pulled back this metal door, like a meat-locker door, and found an extra cave. We started our own Masonic lodge back there.
“Edinburgh is a very spooky city. Gothic writing was basically invented there, by people like Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. And Hogwarts wouldn’t have been invented without Edinburgh, it’s a just very atmospheric place.”
Andrew reveals that he is currently looking to stage a special Fullmooners show in a London venue he feels is the perfect location for the show’s nocturnal shenanigans.
“We’re taking over a ghost theatre,” he explains. “It’s at Alexandra Palace, which is near where I live in North London. The great hall is where all the gigs and exhibitions are held, but we’ve found out that at the back of it, there’s a 2,000-capacity Victorian theatre. It hasn’t been used for 70 years. It’s like a deserted Olympia, only twice the size. It’s being given a health and safety check, but they are going to give it to us. We’re hoping to do it for the full moon in November.”
The last time Andrew spoke to Hoot Press, he was getting ready for two stand-up performances and a Fullmooners show at Vicar Street in June. How did the gigs go for him?
“They were amazing,” reflects Andrew. “Those were the first performances I’d done in Vicar Street, and the audiences were unbelievable. It’s a very special venue, because for a relatively new theatre, it has an enormous amount of atmosphere. It doesn’t seem all that promising at first, because it is basically a black box venue, but I guess – without wishing to sound like a pandering arsehole – it’s to do with the vibe that Dubs can conjure when they’re in groups.
“I recorded a DVD there, and that’s going to come out at the start of November. After the show on the Saturday night, people could come back in for Fullmooners, which went on from half-twelve until half-three in the morning. It was the biggest and rowdiest crowd Fullmooners has ever had.
“In Dublin, nothing goes on after midnight, almost nobody puts on live music or live comedy, because I suppose people are afraid of unleashing the mayhem (laughs). We’d done Fullmooners on St. Patrick’s night in Glasgow, we’ve done it at midnight in Manchester and for two Edinburgh Festivals, but nothing compares to the Dublin howl. It’s a mix between howling and growling. Of course, a Dubliner invented Count Dracula. More importantly, a Northside Dublin Prod. There aren’t many of us about!”
Aside from live performance, Andrew has also had an interesting and eclectic career in television. He even worked for a period as an interviewer for RISE (Channel 4’s successor to The Big Breakfast), which involved him travelling to the US and meeting various movie stars, including Jodie Foster, Sandra Bullock and Val Kilmer.
“It was the junket scene,” he recalls. “If the movie’s not testing well, they push all the stars out to do promotion. You get ten minutes, and the challenge is to ask something genuinely interesting and engaging. Generally, there’s a handler behind them, saying ‘Wrap it up’, but they’ll be like, ‘Talk to me’. Cos the two types of questions usually veer between Heat magazine-style gossip or else movie geek stuff. So I would deliberately ask them stupid questions.
“I asked Jodie Foster what her favourite cartoon was. She was really flabbergasted, and eventually she chose Lisa Simpson. I did point out that that was a cartoon character as opposed to a cartoon, and then I just said nothing. Eventually, she asked me what my favourite cartoon was, and I said Captain Caveman. She was very genuine, she said ‘I haven’t heard of that one’ and explained that, as a child actor, she wasn’t really allowed watch cartoons. But we were up and running, and I would squeeze 25 minute interviews out of people.”
Finally, fans of the The Panel will be pleased to know that Andrew and co. will shortly be returning to our screens for another series.
“It’s starting on the 30th of this month, but I can’t do it ’cos I’m finishing my national tour here in the UK. But I’ll be in on the second week, on the 7th of November, and then I think we’re gonna run all the way up until Christmas, and we’ll be back in January. We just did some live gigs in the Olympia a couple of weeks back, which was fantastic, the vibe was mind-blowing. Dublin needs its own Premiership team, man. We need an outlet for all that mojo!”

Andrew Maxwell plays Vicar Street on October 18 and City Limits, Cork on November 2 and 3 as well as hosting Stand Up For Justice, an Amnesty International benefit, as part of the Magners Comedy programme at the Belfast Festival on Tuesday 30th October. The Andrew Maxwell Live In Dublin DVD is released on November 9.