Smut, grand pianos, and the Underground: comic Adam Kay

Pic: Isabelle Adam

It has been 7 years since Adam Kay reached that rather unusual crossroad where he was forced to choose between becoming a consultant following his medical degree at Imperial College, and another, slightly riskier option – capitalising on the success he had achieved in the London comedy circuits as one half of comedy duo ‘Amateur Transplants’.

After more than a decade of making the city  giggle at his outlandish parody anthems, his next stop will be a UK tour, but not before a show at London’s newest performance venue, Lanterns Studio Theatre on the Isle of Dogs.

“It started out mainly with medical ‘in jokes’ and grew from there,” he says.

“I got so much of my inspiration whilst I was a student. There’s a big tradition of Christmas shows with sketch performances.”

His songs deploy pop parodies to make satirical comments – like changing the lyrics of Starship’s We Built This City to “they built this city on a maaasssiiiivve hiiiilll.”

“The grand piano is perfect for me because of my musical background. It’s not a new genre of comedy but it works brilliantly for the brand of quickfire one-liners I’ve gravitated towards, whilst also allowing the punchlines to be stretched out into a longer joke.”

And how does he feel about being one of the first to headline at the much-anticipated new Isle of Dogs studio space? “Lanterns is a great new venue because there isn’t much of a comedy scene in that part of the city but there is definitely an audience for it.”

Since grabbing the city’s attention with ‘London Underground’ in 1998 (warning: swearing), which gained YouTube views in excess of 20 million, Kay has gone onto to perform with Amateur Transplants at the Edinburgh Fringe every year since 2005, top the itunes Comedy singles and albums chart and contribute £30,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support. Amid the melee of London life, where does he get his inspiration?

“The London Underground Song was borne out of frustration about the silly little things in life,” he says. “All comedy is observational in one way or another.”

“It’s devastatingly difficult to break into the profession. That has never changed. There’s so much talent out there but you also have to do a lot of unpaid work with stand-up and that obviously requires real dedication.”

Kay certainly seems to have what it takes. His nationwide tour begins in April, with 35 dates across the UK, and three TV sitcoms in the pipeline.

For tickets to his performance of ‘Smutty Songs’ at the Lanterns Studio Theatre on March 14, click here. For more information about the venue, see a previous article by East London Lines here.

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