CRAIG Campbell is one of a number of high-profile Canadian comics who are plying their trade in the UK.
Along with the likes of Katherine Ryan, Stewart Francis and Tony Law, Campbell is quite happy to call London home now.
“It’s great to be based here, because as well as doing shows in Britain you’re able to do shows in Ireland and Norway and Switzerland,” he says, not mentioning that he has taken his madcap stand-up to New Zealand, Kazakhstan and Vietnam too.
“I suppose what I like about being here is that it’s easy to distinguish yourself; I’m very different to the norm.”
He does also have three British grandparents (two Scottish, one English) and is so well-thought of by fellow comic Frankie Boyle that he is regularly employed as Boyle’s support act.
Ahead of Campbell’s headline show in Belfast this Sunday, he says he’s done "a tonne" of Irish shows in the past few years.
“I’ve played Dublin, Belfast, Galway, Derry and Cork and a few other places. I’ve been all over the place there with Frankie too. We played Wexford and all kinds of odd places and even spent a Christmas in Donegal; that was pretty exciting.
“I just think it’s flattering that anyone in Ireland would want to have an imported comedian for any minute of their already hilarious lives.”
Belfast always manages to make a big impression on him, he says.
“I had some amazing times in Belfast. They were so stand-out that I even talk about them on stage in other places. After one show there I was back in a house with some happy fans and they gave me a hurley bat. So I was walking around downtown Belfast at about 2am, hammered and with a hurley bat over my shoulder.
“A car pulled up and the window rolled down and I just said, 'Hey, if you guys are going to ask for directions, I’m not from around here.’ Then a voice went, 'We’re the police. And that’s a restricted weapon’. I said 'Isn’t that funny?’ But they didn’t laugh and told me to go directly back to my hotel.”
At another Belfast gig, supporting Rich Hall at the Waterfront, Campbell managed to split the crowd with an innocent question about food.
“One guy arrived late and I just said, `OK, you’re late so you have to talk to the comedian...’ I asked him where he was from and he said, 'Just get on with your show and leave me out of it.’
“So I said 'No, that’s not how it works. Where were you?’ He said 'I was at a dinner party’ and he said that he had some eggplant. I said 'Don’t you mean aubergine?’ and he said, 'No, I had eggplant’.
“I asked the audience what they thought and then I said 'Oh my goodness, is this another dividing line in Northern Irish culture?!’ So I split the room after just asking a guy what he had for dinner.”
Campbell is a big fan of outdoor pursuits, particularly snowboarding, hiking and mountain-climbing. He says the title of his show – Don’t Look Down – is partly to do with his upbeat attitude despite recovering from hip surgery.
“Yeah, that’s kind of what the reference is. Snowboarding is my number one pastime and at the minute I find it hard to walk, but that’s life. I’ve got health issues but I can laugh about it.”
The comic says he’s in touch with some of his fellow Britain-based Canadian peers.
“Tony Law and myself and [non-Canadian] Dan Antopolski used to do sketch shows as The Dinks and that was a riot and a half, so we still muck around in the same waters.”
Craig Campbell plays McHugh’s in Belfast on Sunday at 8pm, as part of CQAF (www.cqaf.com)
