Alex Kealy – Q&A
Alex Kealy, writer for BBC Radio 4’s ‘The News Quiz’ and ‘The Now Show’ and BBC Two’s Mock The Week is embarking on his debut UK tour with an hour of comedy about the emotional roots of our rational thoughts.
We prize rationality in life, in argument and in politics. But that’s not really how we think – we’re all prejudiced and sentimental. We see politics through emotional prisms and personal connections, and then tack on a rationale for those gut decisions after the fact. Rationale reveals that, among other things, stink bombs and German classical music can, subconsciously, impact our political choices. And who better to explore all this than Alex Kealy? A man with strong political convictions undermined in any argument by his massive cowardice and need for absolutely everyone to like him all the time, always.
We caught up with him prior to his ‘Rationale’ tour to ask for his ‘Famous Last Words’…
Last thing you did that made you feel good?
I went to Snowdonia in mid-December and it was so quiet and beautiful. Turns out cities are rubbish?
Last thing you’d want to be doing right now?
Exercise. I am extremely hungover after breaking my dry January vows last night. Hopefully the next question won’t lead to any horrific flashbacks.
Last night on Earth… What’s your poison?
A lager, a margarita, a glass of red wine, whiskey sour in that order. I refuse to leave Earth with my liver.
Last supper… What are you ordering?
Steak (rare), potatoes dauphinoise, szechuan aubergine. An incoherent but delicious meal.
Last person you’d want to share a drink with?
A Trappist monk. I don’t want to carry the whole conversation.
Last time you shed a tear and why?
Blinded By The Light (the film directed by Gurinder Chadha, and based on Sarfraz Mansoor’s memoir about his family and his love of Bruce Springsteen) had me in bits. It makes a lot of great points about music, family and politics. I also watched it just after getting back from an exhausting run at the Edinburgh Fringe so I think I was searching for some catharsis.
Last refuge… where would you go?
My parents’ house in Hampshire.
Last the course… tips on loot, love & life?
The answers to all these things can be found if you buy this bridge off me. £1,000,000 and you’ll make it back in tolls from drivers, honest.
Last but one… random question: Tell us about something that interests you that nobody else knows about. Like Gaelic football… or porcelain.
Jack White of Detroit rock band The White Stripes was an upholsterer before he made it as a musician. He hid copies of some of their earliest vinyl singles inside sofas he was restitching. They would be very valuable now and most copies have not been found.
Your Famous Last Words?
“I just think crawling along the ice would be undignified.”
Alex Kealy’s ‘Rationale’ tour visits Leeds Hyde Park Book Club on 1st April
For full tour details visit alexkealy.com
