Interview: Chris Turner on Bringing SPONTANEOUS to Joe's Pub

Comedian Chris Turner returns to Joe’s Pub, bringing with him another show that’s a fun combination of freestyle rap and stand-up comedy with “jaw-dropping results.” Recently, we had the chance to speak with Turner about bringing Spontaneous to New York City on July 24. We discussed how he first got started in the worlds of comedy and freestyle rapping, how he prepares for a show like Spontaneous, and even what he hopes audiences take away from the show. 

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How did you first get started in the world of comedy?

I started doing improvised comedy at university with the Oxford Imps, and then after a few months, started stand-up so I could be selfish on stage. So I did that when I was 20, and then kept it up until now!

And in that same vein, how did you get started with freestyle rapping?

I was rapping along to albums when I was ten, and that grew into making up my own lyrics - most of the time improvised, hardly ever written. I realized that I had a bit of a talent for it, but it wasn't until three or four years of doing stand-up comedy that I started combining them. Prior to that point, I was like, “Oh, I'll just stick with the comedy, and the freestyling is something to entertain my friends,” but then it turned out that people really liked it on stage, and it would get me better bookings at clubs, because the audience would have a better time!

So is that what made you want to combine the freestyle rap and stand-up?

It was more I saw how audiences reacted to it, and obviously the point of a performer is to entertain the crowd, or at least in my instance. I thought, “Oh, they're enjoying this more than they do the jokes, so I should do more of this if I want to make this my career.” It's important to make sure that everyone in the room is enjoying themselves, rather than doing some willfully esoteric one liners that only 30% of the audience would actually like. “More clever than it is funny” was one of the reviews I got early on, and a friend of mine was like, “You know, that's not a compliment, Chris.” I was like, “What are you talking about?” [Laughs]

So what is it like to be bringing this show to Joe's Pub?

I think this is my seventh time at Joe's Pub - it’s always exciting. The sound in that venue is incredible. It's such a cool environment! I like to do a couple of shows a year at Joe's Pub. It always feels like a very special music-centric place in the city, and I'm lucky that they let me come and mess around. I feel like everyone else steps on stage like, “Right, it's Joe's Pub. I've got to have everything prepared, make sure everything's perfect.” I'm like, “Oh, I have no idea what I'm going to do!” Everything is improvised when it comes to my live shows. But that's what I think makes them special and makes that atmosphere, because when you're building a show in the room with the people who are there, it creates this lovely energy in the space. And that room, being so intimate, I get off the stage all the time and walk around and interact close up. It's the perfect place for that.

If it's mostly improv, how do you prepare for a show like Spontaneous?

The preparation is usually having enough things on stage that I can play with. So having a keyboard if I want to get someone from the audience up to accompany me and make up a song together, a second microphone, so that if someone in the audience is a singer, I can get them to come and improvise a hook for a rap, a stack of markers and cards in case I want to take random suggestions. It's just having a lot of options, in the same way that magicians do a trick. Every trick has multiple outs, where depending what happens in the trick, they can go different ways, or depending what the volunteer does, they can say, “Oh, look under your chair,” and that's the card they picked, but also, “Look under my hat,” there would be a different card there. It could have always gone a different way. So I try and build my shows like that. 

Every beat is picked in the moment. I have a bunch of beats that I'll put on my sampler, which is what I use for playback, and I'll be like, “Okay, this song needs a high energy beat, or a fast beat, or a chill beat, or a romantic beat,” and I just pick them as I go. You're feeling the vibe of the room. There are some shows where it's like a late-night drunk crowd - “Okay, this show's high energy all the way.” But then some shows, you can take your time and make it laid back. So with these shows, the only thing I plan is the finale. The finale is improvised, but I always know that the final bit of the show will be the hardest rap format, just so you leave them going, “Wow!” It’s the best for last, which any performer would do.

And what is it like building a show around audiences that can change from night to night?

I think it's fun because it keeps you honest. You're listening to the audience in a way that I did when I was an improviser. Rather than just performing at, you're performing and building with, and people leave feeling like they’ve been part of the show. Even if they've not been a volunteer or had to get on stage, they created that - you took their suggestion, or you took an object they gave you and wove it into the show, and then maybe you did multiple callbacks to that. So you have these main characters that build up throughout the show. Doing that, it creates this controlled anarchy that hopefully is quite addictive for an audience. I do recognize a lot of people in my crowds, especially when I'm returning to venues multiple times, like Joe's Pub. I'll see people who will come and see me there, because, “Oh, we'll go see whatever's at Joe's, we love it when you do shows there!” That's pretty fun, to have that “regulars” vibe.

And have you noticed much of a difference between American and UK audiences?

I do a joke about this! American audiences are a perfect audience for comedy, because they have this optimism. They buy a ticket and say, “Oh, let's have a great time, this is going to be awesome!” British audiences buy a ticket and say, “This better not be rubbish.” So, when you're building a show with an audience, you do need that buy-in. Americans are ready to go immediately. They're just like, “Great, we’re gonna make this a show!” British audiences, if they don't know who you are, you have to convince them that it's going to be good. So shows in America I can come on stage, and just be like, “Yeah, this is going to be awesome!” Whereas in the UK, I’m like, “Hey, I know you think this is going to be bad, but trust me,” 

If you try and start an American show being like, “Hey, you might expect me to not be very good at this,” people will go, “Really? Oh, we thought you were going to be good, because you're here!” British people could go and see a comedian perform in a 3,000-seat sold-out theatre, and they'll still go, “Oh, is he any good though?” That's the real difference. It's just a different approach and challenge to performing in different places. It is more enjoyable to just walk on and strut your stuff, so to speak, which happens in America, but it reminds you of the challenges of being a performer when you're performing in the UK. The end result should hopefully be the same. Getting a standing ovation in the UK is rarer, but when you get them, you're like, “Yes, I earned that!” To get curmudgeonly Brits to stand up after a show, magic happened.

What do you hope audiences take away from Spontaneous?

Whatever comes out on the night is what they take away. Because it's improvised, it's not like you say, “Oh, this is a show with a thing I want them to be remembering,” or, “This is a show that has a message.” The whole point is entertainment in the moment. I hear from people who say, “We still laugh about that rap you did about my granddad two years ago!” I hope my shows are memorable, because it's a very unique and unusual show. No one's really trying to do this weird combination of comedy crowd work and freestyle rap, so you're giving them this unique experience. You're giving them - hopefully - a laugh-packed, high-energy evening that they can't get anywhere else. It's nice that people will maybe tell a friend the next day, “We saw this show, and if we describe it, it does sound bad, because it is a white British man making up raps, but you have to go!” I think that's so important. As a performer, even though we're all in this ecosystem of pushing out content online to get people to come and see us live, you always want your live show to be your flagship. You have to experience it. People go, “I’ve seen hundreds of your videos, but I wanted to see how you could do it live!” Well, of course I can do it live! Some people still think it's all pre-planned. Even fans of mine, they'll be like, “Oh, I'm just so excited you rapped my suggestion, because I didn't actually know if it was real until you did it!” 

And finally, how would you describe the show in one word?

It's very dull to just describe the show with the title of the show, but it is spontaneous!

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Learn more about Chris at www.christurnercomedy.com

Chris Turner: Spontaneous runs on July 24 at Joe’s Pub. Tickets are available here.

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