August 23, 2024 • 27 mins
Catherine Tate joins us to talk about her sketch comedy, cosplay she's seen at conventions, what she loves about Dragon Con and how fans of The Office seem to be more passionate than Doctor Who fans in the U.S.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the dragon Con pregame show powered by Columbus
State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you can
learn the science behind the fiction.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
My next guest is an award winning actress you've seen
on the big and small screen, maybe if you're lucky
enough to have seen it on stage or doing stand
up at one time. It's the hilarious Catherine Tate. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Oh, hello, hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I know I've seen you at dragon Con in the past,
and I remember there was a pretty significant moment where
you saw someone I think it was during one of
the panels, and you saw someone that was dressed I
guess as you and you just sort of went crazy
and brought them up on stage. So I know this
isn't your first dragon Con, but is this the second
or have you done multiples?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I think I've been there twice before. Okayah, I think
I have been to dragon Con twice. Yeah, yeah, but
I think like the first time I went, I guess,
so I guess in the Grand Steamer things, I haven't
been really been doing cons that long, and I guess
the first time must have been maybe the first year
i'd ever done them, so I was still new to
(01:10):
the fact that people were rocking up dressed as probably
gonna it was at that point, wasn't it. So that's
probably why I was excited. I mean, always it's always
fun and the kick to see people dressing up as
a characters.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, and Dragon Con is a little bit of a
different experience than some of the other cons. And that's
at least from my experience. I know, as guests, I
often hear from people and they talk about how it's
just a different kind of con. Has that been your
experience as well?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well? I mean it's kind of like a great big holiday,
isn't it, Because it goes across the holiday weekend, and
Dragon Conn is the convention where they kind of just
block book hotels, don't they, And the convention runs across
the hotels or people's game hotels. It seems to be
quite a much more. I mean, not that every CON's
(02:02):
not got a social vibe to it, but this one
seems to be very much on the calendar. You know,
for con people, they.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do the hotels, and I always liken it to being
on a cruise ship. You're just sort of there. You
don't really you don't really need to leave the hotels,
maybe to go to the parade or go over to
America's Mark where the vendors are. Otherwise you can just
stay and there's the little hamster tunnels that connect all
the hotels. You don't ever really actually have to touch
the sun if you don't want to. And the parties
(02:31):
go all night, and that's it's sort of a costume
party that does not stop for multiple days inside these hotels.
And I know that experience at that panel with that cosplayer,
But Durigon CON's also very much known for the cosplay,
and it's always great to see sort of some of
(02:53):
the best of the best cosplayers really bringing it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Oh, I'm incredible. I mean really, I'm always blown away
by the effort people have made and also how invented
they are. I mean, one of my absolute favorite things
was when I thought, I don't know if this was
a Dragon Con, very possibly could have been. It was
a guy dressed he had sung glasses and a beard,
(03:17):
and he was walking around with two house plants and
he was Zach Gallatin. Astis from doing it between two firms,
and it's been so brilliant. It was so funny, just
funny and invented and also, you know, it's it's obviously
great and probably it's more expected for people to dress
(03:38):
up with as me as doing Donna. But occasionally I
get a sexy Toby from the office, which really always
makes me laugh. My characters in the office effectively cosplaying
as another characters in the office, So that's a little
double way there. But I'm always very here. Oh yeah,
I always get a kick.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Out of that.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It's great when you kind of get the meta thing
and the meta thing where it sort of dives a
little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and you think,
how far down the hawk can this go?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, it's all played for a dragon con to the cosplay.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How about some of the characters from your sched shows.
I mean, have you been at a convention and seen
a nan or you know, because you know a little
thing or two about dressing up.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I do, I do. I've always blown away when when
people come I get what do I get? I get
the teenage character who says, down, I bothered. I get
that quite a lot. I think that hit home and
I think what you said is right, you know. Yeah,
my show was on when my show was was was
(04:41):
on TV here on Network TV here. It was only
ever played on BBC America, which is quite a niche audience.
So you have you had to see it on luc America,
you know, fifteen years ago, or get the DVD. So
I'm always amazed when people know of my actual own
comedy in America. But I tell you, the ones that
(05:02):
do are die hard fans, and it is you know people.
I'll be in the I just can be in the
middle of Altayo or somewhere and someone will come and
quote to me a sketch that, honestly I've forgotten I'd
even written, or forgotten I'd even done. And so I'm
always I'm always amazed that the that the reach is
so far, even if it's not particularly you know deep,
(05:26):
you know what I mean. But yeah, I do sometimes
see my steps characters come. Someone once had had come
as a character as you called Derek Stay and had
got a hat on in and Neon lights was playing
the catchphrase across the brim of the hat. I mean extraordinary,
(05:48):
really extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I'm amazed at some of the forethought that goes into
planning for some of those things. I think part of
things with you and we can talk a little bit
about the sketch show, because I've seen where you've talked
about the origin for one of the origins. I guess
it was a combination of things for Nan and her voice,
(06:10):
and it was just it was an actual person that
you encountered while you were in school, and how this
voice of this senior lady just sort of eventually evolved.
What was the time span between when you heard that
voice and you saw obviously somewhere in your brain you thought,
I need to hang on to this forever.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, it would have was a while. You know, it
was perculating around for a long time, and it was
it wasn't like a little voice I used, like to
make my friends laugh or something like that. And then
but I would say, I mean, my gosh, it was
that dramatical when that happened. And then when I eventually
got I actually the the I started working up the
(06:53):
character only in terms of a voice in a story
I was telling in my stand up acts them. From
there I went on and sort of embodied the character.
But it would have been I mean, you're talking at
least like six years since. I mean not since obviously
from the time when at school, when I when I
(07:15):
at drama school. Rather when I when I when I
encountered this lady at an old people's home. So when
I actually then sort of put it in a story
in my in my stand up act. And then I
soose about another oh yeah, five years after that, because
I was on the circuit for a while before I
got a TV show. So it's from honestly, it's from
little acorns, and you never know, you never know where
(07:38):
you're going to get your inspiration from.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It is funny the way that it works. And I
don't do much performance the way that you do. I
was asked about six years ago to play Mother Ginger
in The Nutcracker in my hometown, and it was and
I had to learn stilts, and you know, there was
a lot to it. And they said most people just
sort of, you know, stumble around on stage. And I said,
can I take the stilts home. Let me learn how
(08:01):
to do this properly. I want to. I want to
actually learn to dance and twirl on them. And and
I took it really seriously.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Last year they asked me to host a tea party
with kids before one of the performances, and I said, absolutely.
You're looking for any chance to get in front of
an audience, even if it's little kids. You know, you
just you want that opportunity. And that's when it hit me,
I have to speak as mother Ginger and I've never
done that before. So I found myself going through those
stages of sort of creating this voice in this character
(08:30):
that was going to be because in the in the ballet,
you're not speaking. But with the kids, I knew I
had to. And I turned to of all people, Caitlin Robrock,
who's the voice of Minnie Mouse. She had kind of
talked me through a few things on developing this character
in the scenarios you might run into, and it was
a it was a great sort of schooling for it.
(08:50):
And I wanted to ask you, like, when you're when
you're giving advice to someone who's sort of getting started
in character acting like that, you know, what are some
of the things that maybe people miss while they're trying
to prep for a character that they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Oh my goodness, I mean, I don't know. I would
never presume that people would miss things. I'm sure people
are across across there are much more than I am.
But I would say what I always remembered was what
someone told me when I was at You Theater. As
director said to me, well, it was actually what he heard.
(09:27):
And Laurence Olivier had always said, and he says, steal
from people, but don't make it clear who you've stole
them from. And for me, that's what I do. I
steal from people in terms of certain you know, vocal
quirks they have, or moves they have, or hair they've got.
(09:47):
You know, you have to be like a magpie, but
you have to be clever because there's no point in
doing actual impersonations of people unless you want them to
be recognized, you know. But I'm always logging in my
brain like a massive yeah, a massive rollerdeck because almost
(10:09):
because I'm not that I'm not that technological, like a
rollerdex of people that I've seen and the way they've
moved and the way they've phrases they've said and the
way they've said it and things like that. So I
would just say be alert. And if you are of
this kind of the creative sense, you're you're, you're, your
(10:29):
antennae is always out and you don't realize that you've
you've logged something until a few It can be a
few weeks, a few months, a few years down the line,
and you go, oh, hold on a minute, this would
really fit that. So my I guess my advice is
be always open, be always alert, and always have your
rollerdecks open where you can log something. I don't be obvious.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That's great advice though, and and ultimately what I settled on,
and it means something that had made an impression on
me that I didn't realize until years later. But there
was a John Lovettz did a sketch on SNL once
where he played a guy named Evel and Quince who
was a bit of a fancy lad and he hosted
a show called Tales of Ribaldry and that I had
(11:14):
sort of used a version of that voice over the years,
Like my wife has moved here from Australia in two
thousand and anytime we'll get a little personal. But we'd
be in the store and she would tell me she
was trying to be discreet and say I need to
go and buy some you know, lady products. And I
would say to her, ooh, feminine products, and just you know,
(11:37):
to sort of play with her and have fun. And
I in those two voices, this John Lovett's character, and
then this voice I'd been doing for my wife over
the years ultimately became my mother Ginger. Even to the
rolling of the rs and things and everyone, everyone on
the show just assumed I was going to do Missus doubtfire.
I was like, I don't want to just steal it.
I want to really develop something here and let it
(11:59):
be my own. So now I think that's great advice
that you've given there.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, it's I mean, I remember when I was starting out,
my show had just come out, and the question that
I got most asked was where to get your characters from?
And I remember doing an interview once and I just
I just was like, oh god, I'm so bored of
the question. I said, really sort of, you know, I
(12:27):
guess rather off handedly, I just went, I buy them
from a shop. I buy them right, called characters by
the Yard, right, and you just go and you just
pick them off the shell, and I get them. And
this person wrote it down, printed it in the newspaper,
and the next interview I had, you know, like six
(12:50):
months later or whatever they started off with, So you
buy your characters from? And I gave the name, a
fictitious name of this shot. I remember calling it Montague
Pike Characters by the Yard, and they then literally said
it said you buy your characters from Montaye Pipe Characters
(13:12):
by the Yard, And I said, of course I don't,
but they this is this is It was an actual
you know, pieces proof that people will believe anything they
see in print. But I read it in my research.
It my god, it was. But you've got to be
(13:32):
careful what you say.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Brilliant You went to the premiere for the nand movie
in character and then sat there and watched the movie
in makeup and character. Was there a point while you
were doing that where you thought, oh, I've made a mistake.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh well, I didn't sick all the time and do
that because I knew I would. I just wanted to.
It's just more fun to do in character. I prefer
doing stuff as myself, like publicity. But then I went,
I went while everyone was watching it and got the
makeup of.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
All right, well, I read that in an interview and
they were talking about Montague's costume shops. I must have
gotten bad in for I'm kidding. So as far as
when you come to a convention and you you see
fans like are the office fans in the States, So
the office fans more Rabbit or the Doctor Who fans
Who Who are the people that come to you. I mean,
(14:30):
I'm assuming it's Doctor Who, but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It's actually the office, you know, because obviously at conventions,
Doctor Who is absolutely outnumbered. But I'm getting from the
way I kind of get recognized the office is. I mean,
I'm sure in raw numbers, Doctor Who is massive, you know,
(14:56):
massive amounts of people watch it. I just feel the
office it is probably a much more It's just much
more immediate in people's lives, you know, whereas Doctor Who is,
I guess it's kind of like a niche thing, isn't it.
You know, It's it's kind of more specialized. So although, yeah,
absolutely conventions it's all Doctor Who. But I, you know,
(15:19):
because I spend her lot of time in America, and
I'm much more recognizable on a day to day basis.
It's like I can guarantee every day someone's going to
recognize me from the office, but not necessarily from Doctor Who.
Apart from being at conventions.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
More with Catherine Tate right after this, I want to
(15:58):
ask you about a sketch for the Catherine Tate Show.
One sketch in particular that you did that has kind
of been passed around. I see it sometimes on social
media in reels. The offensive translator is what it's kind
of portrayed as here in the States. And I just
I guess, you know, a lot of comedians say it's
so hard to do comedy now because there is you know,
(16:22):
there's a line now that people feel that are afraid
to cross or they don't want to. And I saw
a quote attributed to you where you basically just said
it should just be about the intent of the jokes, right,
and you know, bringing people together to laugh and not
necessarily to offend. Do you still feel that you can
do kind of you have flexibility to do comedy the
(16:46):
way that you want to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, I do, because the way I want to do
comedy is funny, and obviously comedy is completely and utterly subjective.
So I've got no I've got no control over how
my comedy is received. The only control I've got is
knowing what my intent is in putting out there. But
I can't I can't control people's reactions to it. So
(17:08):
you put it out there and and that's it. But
I feel it's very, very important not to not to
get to you know, radioactive about comedy, because if we
lose the comedy in life, we're all going to be We're.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
All going to notice that life is hard enough without laughing,
and that laughing is so important for I mean, I
think it's important for our mental health, right it is.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I think so, And it's yeah, I absolutely stand by
the thing is intent and you know, it's you know,
I think, as you say, life is hard enough without
there being ruled for comedy. You know, life mis put
out people, you know, telling you what you can and
you can't laugh at you just don't.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Oh sorry, no, I.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Was going to say. But at the same time, I
guess there's all so people there who will you know, definitely,
we look, it's a personal thing. I would never want
to go out and offend people for the sake of
offending people, because I don't think that That's not what
I'm about and I don't find that particularly funny. Now,
will people find some of my comedy offensive, one hundred percent,
(18:19):
but that's totally their prerogative. But you know what we
what we find offenders is probably just challenging our belief
system and I've got no control over what people believe.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Absolutely. I always think it's when you see something that's
funny and you you sort of recognize it as someone's
going to to me, maybe unjustly take offense to this,
and you feel like the person is being really brave by,
you know, taking that step. And I think about, you know,
Robert Downey Junior in Tropic Thunder and things like that,
and it's like, this was a big step and it
(18:52):
was really brave. But it's at its core it's just
really really funny, right.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I guess that's that's the thing. And as like I say,
it's it's subjective and I'm I'm pretty you know, that's
pretty easy going. If you find me funny, great, and
if you don't, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well said. I know that you just took a turn
doing horror on stage the Infield Hunting, and I know
you've done musicals and you've done obviously stage before, but
was this your first time doing anything like this?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Well, I mean, at its heart, it was really a play.
So yeah, so that wasn't that wasn't anything out of
the ordinary in terms of you know, what your what
your process is. Could you just find an emotional truth
in your story and your character. I've not been No,
I hadn't been in what you'd call well, I don't
(19:47):
really know what what what it was classed as. Really
it was certainly well, it was a true story for
a start. It was a true story based on well
on family in the seventies who were absolutely convinced that
their house had a poltergeist in it. Really not really
(20:10):
very far from where I live in London, and you know,
it was all of the news. It was all over
the papers and at the time, you know, it kind
of divided the nation. You know, it would appear a
lot of people thought this was absolutely true and invested
in it, and a lot of people just thought they
were chancing it and out for attention, and so we
(20:30):
brought to it. You know, it had a scare factor
in it a bit, but as I said, at its heart,
it was it was a story that left the audience
to decide what they thought, because ultimately none of us know.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Anyway, I talked with Dan Fogeler, who we were talking
about his performance in the Offer and that sort of
dramatic turn for someone people typically know for comedy. Do
you find when you do something dramatic, and he says
drama is easier than comedy because you have to really
find those beats and you have to hit them just right.
(21:05):
Do you find that to be true or do you
think comedy comes more naturally.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It depends if you're good at comedy or not. If
you're not good at comedy, it's going to be really hard.
But I would think, I mean, I just love doing
comedy because it's like music. And he's right, there's rhythms
and pauses and it's got a tempoe and you have
to it's like a dance to the audience because you know,
(21:30):
you've got to time the jokes. You've got to you've
got to feel out the audience's energy. Now now drama
is equally so not but I would say yes. I
would say the people that go out every night you
don't have to make people laugh, have it a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
When you do shows where you're doing multiple characters and
you're doing you know, quick changes and things. Does that
change how you as far as you're the price as
for getting you made up for each character, do you
have to do sort of a lighter version of the
makeup or the prosthetics when you do those or how
coordinated does all that have to be?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Absolutely it's like a proper ballet backstage. Well estually, it's
not like a ballet backstage. When I do a live show,
it's like a Formula one pit stop after everything, because
if you saw have am that stage, it's like they
literally rip your clothes off you and veltro the next
the next you know, outfit on you. So you've got
(22:33):
three people working on you at once, you know, and
you just it has to become like a ballet on
speed so that you can just do it, you know,
a break neck speed with your eyes closed, and it
just becomes like the second nature. But the quick change
because I've got a live show, and which because you
(22:54):
want to keep the energy in a comedy show, especially
with a live sketch show, you can't have these big,
you know, eaping holes in it while you know, the
scenes change and the people you know, get changed. And
we had to rehearse the backstage stuff absolutely as much
(23:15):
as we did the stuff that was in front of
the crowd. And that's what makes it so so brilliant
and so quick and it's so exciting as well, because
we didn't want any change to be more than like
twenty seconds. It's really hard.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Do you ever have those moments where you do the
quick change and then you come out on stage and
you have to like have that reset moment in your
head where you go, Okay, who am I this time?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
No, I don't, because if I was of that nature,
I would do another job. I think that would gare
me too much if I was running out on stage going,
oh God, do's this? But but to be honest, it's
because the way we structed the show was that every
(24:02):
new scene had its own music, had its own feel
to it. So it was you know, and as soon
as the music kicks in, your brain goes, this is
the character. This is the character? Do you know what
I mean? But sometimes I think I would say before
I go on, because the thing is, I'm not standing
in front of the mirror taking the time to check
what I look like. I have to trust everyone to
(24:24):
get me into the next character. And then sometimes they'll
put a prop in my hand and I go who
is it? And they'll go Bernie, And.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then I go on, you know, well that's great, and
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You just have to trust that it all kicks in
when you win your mouth open.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Absolutely, And I can tell you just from my little
experience with you know, Mother Ginger, it's I've got ninety
to one hundred minutes of makeup before you know, the
show even starts, and then actually getting in the stilts
and in the full hoop dress and everything like that's
a whole Like that's the rat Like there's a lot
of hurry up and wait for me, Like the makeup
(25:01):
takes its time, and then once they actually load me
into the dress and then kids start piling under there,
that's the pit crew for me. It all happens very quickly.
And then suddenly, you know there's children under their waiting
to come out and dance, and it all happens really quickly.
I don't think everybody can do what you do, and
I think that's what makes it special, because I do
(25:21):
think there are people who would have a hard time
having to sort of reset character to character. I heard
an interview once with James Tyler Williams from Abbott Elementary.
I think he was on Brett Goldstein's podcast and they
were talking about it talks about like the greatest movie
he'd ever seen or whatever, and his answer was the
(25:42):
clumps the Eddie Murphy movie, and he said it was
because you know, he was able to see somebody like
Eddie Murphy do so many different characters in all of
those scenes. And I mean, I think you're in that company,
and I think that's pretty good company to be in
with somebody like you know, Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, for sure, I'll take that, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I mean, not everybody can do that, and I think
it's really special to be able to see, you know,
someone be able to do that. Well, We're coming up
quickly on Dragon Con and I know you'll have lots
of fans coming out to see you. You give a
great panel. I think you go a little bit into
your stand up days maybe where you grab the mic
and you just sort of walk around on stage. I
(26:24):
like seeing that when you're up there moving around at
some of your panels and things. It's a fun it's
a fun time.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's a fun times. I do prefer to kind of
freestyle it a little bit. I just think, you know,
it's partly because then I'm always very upfront with this
and full disclosure, I don't know enough about doctor Who
to be answering questions for an hour about it, so
I have to comment sear the mic myself and stop
(26:52):
start having a bit of a laugh. Oh.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I think that's great and it's a fun time, and
I know the fans appreciate it, and I know it's
maybe some of the office fans who are also there
as well, can have a little time to take in
everything that is Katherine Tate, what do you have to
say to the fans as they prepare to come see
you at dragon Con?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I say, if I put on you know, yeah, I
want to stop.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
At Catherine Tate, thank you so much and I'll see
you at dragon Con.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It was great. Thank you so much for Let's see
you there.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Kristin Krup joins us.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Next, this is the dragon Con pregame show powered by
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you
can learn the science behind the fiction.
This is the dragon Con pregame show powered by Columbus
State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you can
learn the science behind the fiction.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
My next guest is an award winning actress you've seen
on the big and small screen, maybe if you're lucky
enough to have seen it on stage or doing stand
up at one time. It's the hilarious Catherine Tate. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Oh, hello, hello.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I know I've seen you at dragon Con in the past,
and I remember there was a pretty significant moment where
you saw someone I think it was during one of
the panels, and you saw someone that was dressed I
guess as you and you just sort of went crazy
and brought them up on stage. So I know this
isn't your first dragon Con, but is this the second
or have you done multiples?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I think I've been there twice before. Okayah, I think
I have been to dragon Con twice. Yeah, yeah, but
I think like the first time I went, I guess,
so I guess in the Grand Steamer things, I haven't
been really been doing cons that long, and I guess
the first time must have been maybe the first year
i'd ever done them, so I was still new to
(01:10):
the fact that people were rocking up dressed as probably
gonna it was at that point, wasn't it. So that's
probably why I was excited. I mean, always it's always
fun and the kick to see people dressing up as
a characters.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, and Dragon Con is a little bit of a
different experience than some of the other cons. And that's
at least from my experience. I know, as guests, I
often hear from people and they talk about how it's
just a different kind of con. Has that been your
experience as well?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well? I mean it's kind of like a great big holiday,
isn't it, Because it goes across the holiday weekend, and
Dragon Conn is the convention where they kind of just
block book hotels, don't they, And the convention runs across
the hotels or people's game hotels. It seems to be
quite a much more. I mean, not that every CON's
(02:02):
not got a social vibe to it, but this one
seems to be very much on the calendar. You know,
for con people, they.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do the hotels, and I always liken it to being
on a cruise ship. You're just sort of there. You
don't really you don't really need to leave the hotels,
maybe to go to the parade or go over to
America's Mark where the vendors are. Otherwise you can just
stay and there's the little hamster tunnels that connect all
the hotels. You don't ever really actually have to touch
the sun if you don't want to. And the parties
(02:31):
go all night, and that's it's sort of a costume
party that does not stop for multiple days inside these hotels.
And I know that experience at that panel with that cosplayer,
But Durigon CON's also very much known for the cosplay,
and it's always great to see sort of some of
(02:53):
the best of the best cosplayers really bringing it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Oh, I'm incredible. I mean really, I'm always blown away
by the effort people have made and also how invented
they are. I mean, one of my absolute favorite things
was when I thought, I don't know if this was
a Dragon Con, very possibly could have been. It was
a guy dressed he had sung glasses and a beard,
(03:17):
and he was walking around with two house plants and
he was Zach Gallatin. Astis from doing it between two firms,
and it's been so brilliant. It was so funny, just
funny and invented and also, you know, it's it's obviously
great and probably it's more expected for people to dress
(03:38):
up with as me as doing Donna. But occasionally I
get a sexy Toby from the office, which really always
makes me laugh. My characters in the office effectively cosplaying
as another characters in the office, So that's a little
double way there. But I'm always very here. Oh yeah,
I always get a kick.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Out of that.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It's great when you kind of get the meta thing
and the meta thing where it sort of dives a
little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and you think,
how far down the hawk can this go?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, it's all played for a dragon con to the cosplay.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How about some of the characters from your sched shows.
I mean, have you been at a convention and seen
a nan or you know, because you know a little
thing or two about dressing up.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I do, I do. I've always blown away when when
people come I get what do I get? I get
the teenage character who says, down, I bothered. I get
that quite a lot. I think that hit home and
I think what you said is right, you know. Yeah,
my show was on when my show was was was
(04:41):
on TV here on Network TV here. It was only
ever played on BBC America, which is quite a niche audience.
So you have you had to see it on luc America,
you know, fifteen years ago, or get the DVD. So
I'm always amazed when people know of my actual own
comedy in America. But I tell you, the ones that
(05:02):
do are die hard fans, and it is you know people.
I'll be in the I just can be in the
middle of Altayo or somewhere and someone will come and
quote to me a sketch that, honestly I've forgotten I'd
even written, or forgotten I'd even done. And so I'm
always I'm always amazed that the that the reach is
so far, even if it's not particularly you know deep,
(05:26):
you know what I mean. But yeah, I do sometimes
see my steps characters come. Someone once had had come
as a character as you called Derek Stay and had
got a hat on in and Neon lights was playing
the catchphrase across the brim of the hat. I mean extraordinary,
(05:48):
really extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I'm amazed at some of the forethought that goes into
planning for some of those things. I think part of
things with you and we can talk a little bit
about the sketch show, because I've seen where you've talked
about the origin for one of the origins. I guess
it was a combination of things for Nan and her voice,
(06:10):
and it was just it was an actual person that
you encountered while you were in school, and how this
voice of this senior lady just sort of eventually evolved.
What was the time span between when you heard that
voice and you saw obviously somewhere in your brain you thought,
I need to hang on to this forever.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, it would have was a while. You know, it
was perculating around for a long time, and it was
it wasn't like a little voice I used, like to
make my friends laugh or something like that. And then
but I would say, I mean, my gosh, it was
that dramatical when that happened. And then when I eventually
got I actually the the I started working up the
(06:53):
character only in terms of a voice in a story
I was telling in my stand up acts them. From
there I went on and sort of embodied the character.
But it would have been I mean, you're talking at
least like six years since. I mean not since obviously
from the time when at school, when I when I
(07:15):
at drama school. Rather when I when I when I
encountered this lady at an old people's home. So when
I actually then sort of put it in a story
in my in my stand up act. And then I
soose about another oh yeah, five years after that, because
I was on the circuit for a while before I
got a TV show. So it's from honestly, it's from
little acorns, and you never know, you never know where
(07:38):
you're going to get your inspiration from.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It is funny the way that it works. And I
don't do much performance the way that you do. I
was asked about six years ago to play Mother Ginger
in The Nutcracker in my hometown, and it was and
I had to learn stilts, and you know, there was
a lot to it. And they said most people just
sort of, you know, stumble around on stage. And I said,
can I take the stilts home. Let me learn how
(08:01):
to do this properly. I want to. I want to
actually learn to dance and twirl on them. And and
I took it really seriously.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Last year they asked me to host a tea party
with kids before one of the performances, and I said, absolutely.
You're looking for any chance to get in front of
an audience, even if it's little kids. You know, you
just you want that opportunity. And that's when it hit me,
I have to speak as mother Ginger and I've never
done that before. So I found myself going through those
stages of sort of creating this voice in this character
(08:30):
that was going to be because in the in the ballet,
you're not speaking. But with the kids, I knew I
had to. And I turned to of all people, Caitlin Robrock,
who's the voice of Minnie Mouse. She had kind of
talked me through a few things on developing this character
in the scenarios you might run into, and it was
a it was a great sort of schooling for it.
(08:50):
And I wanted to ask you, like, when you're when
you're giving advice to someone who's sort of getting started
in character acting like that, you know, what are some
of the things that maybe people miss while they're trying
to prep for a character that they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Oh my goodness, I mean, I don't know. I would
never presume that people would miss things. I'm sure people
are across across there are much more than I am.
But I would say what I always remembered was what
someone told me when I was at You Theater. As
director said to me, well, it was actually what he heard.
(09:27):
And Laurence Olivier had always said, and he says, steal
from people, but don't make it clear who you've stole
them from. And for me, that's what I do. I
steal from people in terms of certain you know, vocal
quirks they have, or moves they have, or hair they've got.
(09:47):
You know, you have to be like a magpie, but
you have to be clever because there's no point in
doing actual impersonations of people unless you want them to
be recognized, you know. But I'm always logging in my
brain like a massive yeah, a massive rollerdeck because almost
(10:09):
because I'm not that I'm not that technological, like a
rollerdex of people that I've seen and the way they've
moved and the way they've phrases they've said and the
way they've said it and things like that. So I
would just say be alert. And if you are of
this kind of the creative sense, you're you're, you're, your
(10:29):
antennae is always out and you don't realize that you've
you've logged something until a few It can be a
few weeks, a few months, a few years down the line,
and you go, oh, hold on a minute, this would
really fit that. So my I guess my advice is
be always open, be always alert, and always have your
rollerdecks open where you can log something. I don't be obvious.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That's great advice though, and and ultimately what I settled on,
and it means something that had made an impression on
me that I didn't realize until years later. But there
was a John Lovettz did a sketch on SNL once
where he played a guy named Evel and Quince who
was a bit of a fancy lad and he hosted
a show called Tales of Ribaldry and that I had
(11:14):
sort of used a version of that voice over the years,
Like my wife has moved here from Australia in two
thousand and anytime we'll get a little personal. But we'd
be in the store and she would tell me she
was trying to be discreet and say I need to
go and buy some you know, lady products. And I
would say to her, ooh, feminine products, and just you know,
(11:37):
to sort of play with her and have fun. And
I in those two voices, this John Lovett's character, and
then this voice I'd been doing for my wife over
the years ultimately became my mother Ginger. Even to the
rolling of the rs and things and everyone, everyone on
the show just assumed I was going to do Missus doubtfire.
I was like, I don't want to just steal it.
I want to really develop something here and let it
(11:59):
be my own. So now I think that's great advice
that you've given there.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, it's I mean, I remember when I was starting out,
my show had just come out, and the question that
I got most asked was where to get your characters from?
And I remember doing an interview once and I just
I just was like, oh god, I'm so bored of
the question. I said, really sort of, you know, I
(12:27):
guess rather off handedly, I just went, I buy them
from a shop. I buy them right, called characters by
the Yard, right, and you just go and you just
pick them off the shell, and I get them. And
this person wrote it down, printed it in the newspaper,
and the next interview I had, you know, like six
(12:50):
months later or whatever they started off with, So you
buy your characters from? And I gave the name, a
fictitious name of this shot. I remember calling it Montague
Pike Characters by the Yard, and they then literally said
it said you buy your characters from Montaye Pipe Characters
(13:12):
by the Yard, And I said, of course I don't,
but they this is this is It was an actual
you know, pieces proof that people will believe anything they
see in print. But I read it in my research.
It my god, it was. But you've got to be
(13:32):
careful what you say.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Brilliant You went to the premiere for the nand movie
in character and then sat there and watched the movie
in makeup and character. Was there a point while you
were doing that where you thought, oh, I've made a mistake.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh well, I didn't sick all the time and do
that because I knew I would. I just wanted to.
It's just more fun to do in character. I prefer
doing stuff as myself, like publicity. But then I went,
I went while everyone was watching it and got the
makeup of.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
All right, well, I read that in an interview and
they were talking about Montague's costume shops. I must have
gotten bad in for I'm kidding. So as far as
when you come to a convention and you you see
fans like are the office fans in the States, So
the office fans more Rabbit or the Doctor Who fans
Who Who are the people that come to you. I mean,
(14:30):
I'm assuming it's Doctor Who, but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It's actually the office, you know, because obviously at conventions,
Doctor Who is absolutely outnumbered. But I'm getting from the
way I kind of get recognized the office is. I mean,
I'm sure in raw numbers, Doctor Who is massive, you know,
(14:56):
massive amounts of people watch it. I just feel the
office it is probably a much more It's just much
more immediate in people's lives, you know, whereas Doctor Who is,
I guess it's kind of like a niche thing, isn't it.
You know, It's it's kind of more specialized. So although, yeah,
absolutely conventions it's all Doctor Who. But I, you know,
(15:19):
because I spend her lot of time in America, and
I'm much more recognizable on a day to day basis.
It's like I can guarantee every day someone's going to
recognize me from the office, but not necessarily from Doctor Who.
Apart from being at conventions.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
More with Catherine Tate right after this, I want to
(15:58):
ask you about a sketch for the Catherine Tate Show.
One sketch in particular that you did that has kind
of been passed around. I see it sometimes on social
media in reels. The offensive translator is what it's kind
of portrayed as here in the States. And I just
I guess, you know, a lot of comedians say it's
so hard to do comedy now because there is you know,
(16:22):
there's a line now that people feel that are afraid
to cross or they don't want to. And I saw
a quote attributed to you where you basically just said
it should just be about the intent of the jokes, right,
and you know, bringing people together to laugh and not
necessarily to offend. Do you still feel that you can
do kind of you have flexibility to do comedy the
(16:46):
way that you want to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, I do, because the way I want to do
comedy is funny, and obviously comedy is completely and utterly subjective.
So I've got no I've got no control over how
my comedy is received. The only control I've got is
knowing what my intent is in putting out there. But
I can't I can't control people's reactions to it. So
(17:08):
you put it out there and and that's it. But
I feel it's very, very important not to not to
get to you know, radioactive about comedy, because if we
lose the comedy in life, we're all going to be We're.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
All going to notice that life is hard enough without laughing,
and that laughing is so important for I mean, I
think it's important for our mental health, right it is.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I think so, And it's yeah, I absolutely stand by
the thing is intent and you know, it's you know,
I think, as you say, life is hard enough without
there being ruled for comedy. You know, life mis put
out people, you know, telling you what you can and
you can't laugh at you just don't.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Oh sorry, no, I.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Was going to say. But at the same time, I
guess there's all so people there who will you know, definitely,
we look, it's a personal thing. I would never want
to go out and offend people for the sake of
offending people, because I don't think that That's not what
I'm about and I don't find that particularly funny. Now,
will people find some of my comedy offensive, one hundred percent,
(18:19):
but that's totally their prerogative. But you know what we
what we find offenders is probably just challenging our belief
system and I've got no control over what people believe.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Absolutely. I always think it's when you see something that's
funny and you you sort of recognize it as someone's
going to to me, maybe unjustly take offense to this,
and you feel like the person is being really brave by,
you know, taking that step. And I think about, you know,
Robert Downey Junior in Tropic Thunder and things like that,
and it's like, this was a big step and it
(18:52):
was really brave. But it's at its core it's just
really really funny, right.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I guess that's that's the thing. And as like I say,
it's it's subjective and I'm I'm pretty you know, that's
pretty easy going. If you find me funny, great, and
if you don't, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well said. I know that you just took a turn
doing horror on stage the Infield Hunting, and I know
you've done musicals and you've done obviously stage before, but
was this your first time doing anything like this?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Well, I mean, at its heart, it was really a play.
So yeah, so that wasn't that wasn't anything out of
the ordinary in terms of you know, what your what
your process is. Could you just find an emotional truth
in your story and your character. I've not been No,
I hadn't been in what you'd call well, I don't
(19:47):
really know what what what it was classed as. Really
it was certainly well, it was a true story for
a start. It was a true story based on well
on family in the seventies who were absolutely convinced that
their house had a poltergeist in it. Really not really
(20:10):
very far from where I live in London, and you know,
it was all of the news. It was all over
the papers and at the time, you know, it kind
of divided the nation. You know, it would appear a
lot of people thought this was absolutely true and invested
in it, and a lot of people just thought they
were chancing it and out for attention, and so we
(20:30):
brought to it. You know, it had a scare factor
in it a bit, but as I said, at its heart,
it was it was a story that left the audience
to decide what they thought, because ultimately none of us know.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Anyway, I talked with Dan Fogeler, who we were talking
about his performance in the Offer and that sort of
dramatic turn for someone people typically know for comedy. Do
you find when you do something dramatic, and he says
drama is easier than comedy because you have to really
find those beats and you have to hit them just right.
(21:05):
Do you find that to be true or do you
think comedy comes more naturally.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It depends if you're good at comedy or not. If
you're not good at comedy, it's going to be really hard.
But I would think, I mean, I just love doing
comedy because it's like music. And he's right, there's rhythms
and pauses and it's got a tempoe and you have
to it's like a dance to the audience because you know,
(21:30):
you've got to time the jokes. You've got to you've
got to feel out the audience's energy. Now now drama
is equally so not but I would say yes. I
would say the people that go out every night you
don't have to make people laugh, have it a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
When you do shows where you're doing multiple characters and
you're doing you know, quick changes and things. Does that
change how you as far as you're the price as
for getting you made up for each character, do you
have to do sort of a lighter version of the
makeup or the prosthetics when you do those or how
coordinated does all that have to be?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Absolutely it's like a proper ballet backstage. Well estually, it's
not like a ballet backstage. When I do a live show,
it's like a Formula one pit stop after everything, because
if you saw have am that stage, it's like they
literally rip your clothes off you and veltro the next
the next you know, outfit on you. So you've got
(22:33):
three people working on you at once, you know, and
you just it has to become like a ballet on
speed so that you can just do it, you know,
a break neck speed with your eyes closed, and it
just becomes like the second nature. But the quick change
because I've got a live show, and which because you
(22:54):
want to keep the energy in a comedy show, especially
with a live sketch show, you can't have these big,
you know, eaping holes in it while you know, the
scenes change and the people you know, get changed. And
we had to rehearse the backstage stuff absolutely as much
(23:15):
as we did the stuff that was in front of
the crowd. And that's what makes it so so brilliant
and so quick and it's so exciting as well, because
we didn't want any change to be more than like
twenty seconds. It's really hard.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Do you ever have those moments where you do the
quick change and then you come out on stage and
you have to like have that reset moment in your
head where you go, Okay, who am I this time?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
No, I don't, because if I was of that nature,
I would do another job. I think that would gare
me too much if I was running out on stage going,
oh God, do's this? But but to be honest, it's
because the way we structed the show was that every
(24:02):
new scene had its own music, had its own feel
to it. So it was you know, and as soon
as the music kicks in, your brain goes, this is
the character. This is the character? Do you know what
I mean? But sometimes I think I would say before
I go on, because the thing is, I'm not standing
in front of the mirror taking the time to check
what I look like. I have to trust everyone to
(24:24):
get me into the next character. And then sometimes they'll
put a prop in my hand and I go who
is it? And they'll go Bernie, And.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then I go on, you know, well that's great, and
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You just have to trust that it all kicks in
when you win your mouth open.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Absolutely, And I can tell you just from my little
experience with you know, Mother Ginger, it's I've got ninety
to one hundred minutes of makeup before you know, the
show even starts, and then actually getting in the stilts
and in the full hoop dress and everything like that's
a whole Like that's the rat Like there's a lot
of hurry up and wait for me, Like the makeup
(25:01):
takes its time, and then once they actually load me
into the dress and then kids start piling under there,
that's the pit crew for me. It all happens very quickly.
And then suddenly, you know there's children under their waiting
to come out and dance, and it all happens really quickly.
I don't think everybody can do what you do, and
I think that's what makes it special, because I do
(25:21):
think there are people who would have a hard time
having to sort of reset character to character. I heard
an interview once with James Tyler Williams from Abbott Elementary.
I think he was on Brett Goldstein's podcast and they
were talking about it talks about like the greatest movie
he'd ever seen or whatever, and his answer was the
(25:42):
clumps the Eddie Murphy movie, and he said it was
because you know, he was able to see somebody like
Eddie Murphy do so many different characters in all of
those scenes. And I mean, I think you're in that company,
and I think that's pretty good company to be in
with somebody like you know, Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, for sure, I'll take that, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I mean, not everybody can do that, and I think
it's really special to be able to see, you know,
someone be able to do that. Well, We're coming up
quickly on Dragon Con and I know you'll have lots
of fans coming out to see you. You give a
great panel. I think you go a little bit into
your stand up days maybe where you grab the mic
and you just sort of walk around on stage. I
(26:24):
like seeing that when you're up there moving around at
some of your panels and things. It's a fun it's
a fun time.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's a fun times. I do prefer to kind of
freestyle it a little bit. I just think, you know,
it's partly because then I'm always very upfront with this
and full disclosure, I don't know enough about doctor Who
to be answering questions for an hour about it, so
I have to comment sear the mic myself and stop
(26:52):
start having a bit of a laugh. Oh.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I think that's great and it's a fun time, and
I know the fans appreciate it, and I know it's
maybe some of the office fans who are also there
as well, can have a little time to take in
everything that is Katherine Tate, what do you have to
say to the fans as they prepare to come see
you at dragon Con?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I say, if I put on you know, yeah, I
want to stop.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
At Catherine Tate, thank you so much and I'll see
you at dragon Con.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It was great. Thank you so much for Let's see
you there.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Kristin Krup joins us.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Next, this is the dragon Con pregame show powered by
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you
can learn the science behind the fiction.
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