King in waiting

“Exams for clowns” is how Andrew Maxwell once memorably summarised Edinburgh, a maxim that’s become one of the most oft-repeated mantras on the Fringe.

“Part of Edinburgh’s fear and attraction is that you will be reviewed,” the London-based Dubliner elaborates. “And in a world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, that’s constant now. It keeps your sword sharp.” No-one in their right mind ignores a sword-wielding clown. Especially one who’s won a nomination for best show and not so long ago was among the first rank of standups.

Yet Maxwell only performed five dates at Edinburgh last year. And he has said of his underwhelming 2009 show The Lamp, that “a turd rolled in glitter is still a turd”. His fondness for drink has sometimes scuppered gigs and less gifted comics’ careers have started to outstrip his.

He maintains “life is a one horse race, I never look on others’ careers with envy,” but nevertheless it's an unmistakeable declaration of purpose when he vows: “I mean this year to be big and I intend to play out of my skin every night. My stage morale is high, I’ve turned a lot of corners in my life and I need the break – I’m ready for it and want it.”

Altitude, the alpine comedy festival he created with Marcus Brigstocke, has “bedded in” at Mayrhofen in Austria after its move from Meribel in France. And his commitment to gigging in cash-strapped Ireland has been pegged back by the recession. “The last five years I’ve spent at least one day a week on a plane to or from Ireland, and that’s physically just very distracting, living in a different country to where you’re successful,” he sighs.

So he’s more focused than ever upon the UK and US, where he’s been making a BBC3 documentary on conspiracy theorists at New York’s Ground Zero and elsewhere in the States. "[The BBC] knew I’m intensely interested in politics and history” is all he’ll say of the commission.

At home, a team captain role as “David Walliams’ new bitch” on Sky 1’s Wall of Fame has elevated his profile to its most visible since his Channel 4 King of Comedy crowning in 2006. And his debut on Radio 4’s The News Quiz reiterated that the intelligent and informed current affairs junkie is rather more than just a rabble-rousing nightcrawler hosting Fullmooners’ late-night orgy of comedy, music and breakdancing.

“There’s absolutely no virtue in hiding your light under a bushel,” he points out.

A few American yarns notwithstanding, this year, he’ll be forsaking anecdotes to focus on the big issues of these troubled times. Railing against right and left, he’ll be probing “those yawning gaps between reality and the popular discourse – because ultimately the comedian has to be the little boy in the parade that points out the emperor is naked.”

“The Irish economy, the rise of Scottish nationalism, the royal wedding, Obama, the Arab Spring – it’s all these themes, both in themselves and how they intersect with my life.”

Furiously, incredulously, he denounces the posturing of Tony Blair, a decadent Western media and the trivialisation of human rights.

“I heard this woman on Radio 4 the other day talking about the democratisation of chocolate. I mean, fucking hell! In the rest of the world, people are fighting and dying for freedom of speech and our cuts are upholding rich footballer fuckers keeping it secret that they’ve been fucking their younger brother’s wife for eight years!”

Catching himself mid-diatribe, he chuckles when he confesses that “I still want revolution, but I’m a suburban father of two. I’m very conflicted. 

"When I heard the news of riots in London’s West End and that a group of protestors had attacked The Ritz, I genuinely sat and thought, ‘I would love to attack The Ritz. Or stay in The Ritz.' It’s a dilemma.”

Hosting a one-off Fullmooners at Assembly George Square on August 14, he’ll also be joining Brendon Burns the following night to commentate on the comedy wrestling match programmed by Max and Ivan for the Pleasance Courtyard – appearing as his masked alter-ego El Who?

“In the province of Mexico where El Who? is from, he is a giant!” he boasts. “In the land of the midget wrestler, the scrawny, five-feet-six man is always king!”