Toff at the top - Miles Jupp debuts at Comedy Carnival

9:59am Friday 14th March 2008

A versatile chap is Miles Jupp. Best known for his onstage persona as an upper-crust snob - an act which has earned him a Perrier nomination in 2003 for best newcomer - he also spent last Edinburgh juggling two brilliant shows: his stand-up act and his play Johnson and Boswell Late and Live (Jupp plays Boswell, Simon Munnery is Johnson).

Furthermore, he put his bookish looks to good use by playing Archie the inventor in children's TV show Balamory.

He is not perfect, though, he spoke to us moments after failing his driving test (although getting around Barnet in rush hour is a tough ask).

Miles debuts at Clapham's Comedy Carnival and Putney's Comedy Tree. Check it out, it will be a winner.

PF: Which comedians do you like?

MJ: Stewart Lee, Arnab Chanda is excellent, Andy Zaltzman. Andy likes cricket, too, which is another reason to like him. We are going to do some arts centre dates together in June.

PF: Which deceased comic would you bring back to life?

MJ: Comedy poet/singer Jake Thackray. I would have loved to have seen him live. He was a friend of my fiancée's family and they say he was a delightful man.

PF: What is the best heckle you have heard?

MJ: I was in Bournemouth recently and this man shouted out, really aggressively from the darkness: "Oh, just shut up, you are doing my head in." Which was just so clever, on a psychiatric level, like I had built a comedy club around him and was stopping him enjoying his lasagne.

PF: How was your first gig?

MJ: It went very well. It was an open spot at the Stand club in Edinburgh, I had a ridiculous buzz which I can only dream of now. I did an open night there once and went on before Dylan Moran, which was hard.

PF: Other than your comedy, what is your claim to fame?

MJ: My great-great-grandfather, Henry Jupp, opened for England in the first two test matches in 1870-something and he was also the first Englishman to get a test half-century.

PF: Which celebrity do you people say you resemble?

MJ: Martin Clunes, and when I was a large gentleman with curly hair, Statto.

PF: What is your secret talent?

MJ: It turns out I'm pretty good at boxing. I have only been doing it for three months but my coach said: "If you get into trouble, please tell me you won't use your straight right because, if you connect, you will get in big trouble." Not that I am the sort of person to ever look for trouble.

PF: Whose sex face would you least like to see?

MJ: Someone who I think is really cool, whom I really respect, so I wouldn't want to see their scrunched-up, walnutty face. Mike Atherton. I would definitely lose respect for him. Maybe David Gower. But not together.

Miles Jupp plus Kitty Flanagan; Comedy Carnival, Clapham Grand and Comedy Tree, Putney Walkabout, both March 15, booking 08700 600 100, enquiries 020 7736 1446.

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