Back on tour for the first time in 15 years, the trailblazing comedian has some scores to settle. How can he be a sellout, he asks, if he was never radical to begin with?
They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes – but my inner 13-year-old would never forgive me if I spurned a chat with Ben Elton. The Young Ones, Blackadder and Saturday Live weren’t just a laugh for me; I constructed friendships, my sense of humour, and – let’s face it – my identity around them. Elton was the figurehead of the most exciting moment (give or take a 60s satire boom) in British comedy history, a sparkly-suited, mulleted firebrand blazing a trail for comedy’s punk generation – the so-called “alternative comedians” – to follow.
And then he wasn’t. Nowadays you can’t talk about Elton without references to selling out, and to Stewart Lee’s notorious routine comparing him with Osama bin Laden, who “at least lived his life according to a consistent set of ethical principles”. More on that later: Elton has plenty to say on the subject. But then, he’s got plenty to say on every subject. At 60 and a self-described “dad man”, the artist formerly known as Motormouth (the title of his 1987 album) is as voluble as ever in the run-up to his first standup tour in 15 years.
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