James Acaster: Acaster Spell on You

I should start by letting you know that this article is being written at 12pm on Saturday 23 August 2014. Half an hour before the announcement of the next winner of Foster’s Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe. An award James Acaster is nominated for. An award he has been nominated for twice before. Three times in three years. Not a bad average for someone who’s only done four shows at the Fringe. Though you suspect it wouldn’t change Acaster’s trajectory on the comedy scene.

"It’s nice. To get that kind of nod, three times in a row is beyond what I’d ever thought would happen to me," he tells me while on a break before his show Recognise starts up at the Pleasance at 8pm. He sounds very relaxed, laidback, Zen about his chances of bagging the elusive best show at the awards presentation the next day. "To be nominated once to be honest was more than I ever thought I’d get. You never know what’s going to happen. This time tomorrow what will happen will happen and I imagine we’ll all just carry on about our business."

When talking about his fellow nominees and getting my information wrong (I thought Alex Horne had been nominated before, but that was for Best Newcomer), Acaster corrects me and reels off the respective footings of his peers. "Alex and Sara it’s their first time, Sam Simmons has been nominated before, and the other three guys were nominated for best newcomer last year." When I suggest he’s done his homework on the competition he nonchalantly bats the suggestion away. "Well no, I just know them," he laughs. "We’re all friends, we were all doing the photoshoot together yesterday." There’s no hint of falseness about him. No Hollywood faux niceties masking secret back-stabbings.

Similarly he is happy for his friends in the Best Newcomer award, Skinny faves Gein’s Family Giftshop. "They’re brilliant. I like them a lot." He was supposed to do a double preview with them at Chorley Theatre but after Gein’s token woman Kath was taken ill they had to pull out. "They still organised it, [Gein’s member] Ed was still driving me around, which was very nice of them. That was the last preview before Edinburgh, I went to Edinburgh from there. Stayed over at Ed’s house so it was quite nice driving around together listening to a mix on my iPod called 'party mix,' we listened to that as a way of getting psyched up for Edinburgh, and it’s nice to see those guys on the list now."

Bonding over a shared love of John Farnham’s You’re the Voice on this little road trip ("Ed took a longer route home so he could sing along to it") there is a nice symmetry in that they have now both been nominated in their respective categories. Similarly there is a symmetry to Acaster heading to the Liverpool Comedy Festival later this month with his current Fringe show. "This show that I’m going to do in Liverpool starts with a story that I don’t say was in Liverpool, but it was in Liverpool. In Pret a Manger." Not the most interesting tidbit he admits, but one he appreciates. Going back to somewhere that has given you material is important to him.

In fact the last time he performed in Liverpool led to a particularly confused altercation with a comedy fan in the crowd. "An audience member misheard me and accused me of being homophobic and complained to the venue and my management," he tells me. "He had misheard me use the word quitters and thought I’d said the word queers." This of course made absolutely no sense to the narrative of the show, and is completely incongruous with Acaster’s comedy persona, and indeed human personality. "It made no sense. It was the last line of the whole show. It was double bad because he wrote a review online where he said the show was a work of genius apart from the homophobic ending."

The ridiculous affair was sorted after Acaster’s management contacted him to clear up whether or not he was a massive and rather pointless homophobe. After he pointed out the error and the difference between the not-wholly-alike words ‘quitters’ and ‘queers,’ the disgruntled fan relented and changed his review to say 'The ending may have been a bit harsh for me.' Hopefully it’ll go better this time, I suggest. "Yeah, hopefully. It is a very homophobic show this time round. He gave me some good ideas."

He is of course joking – please don’t write to his management. His show as ever is the study of the trivial, breaking down minutiae. What he calls "Low key whimsy," dissecting his train of thought for comedy steam. It’s always difficult to describe exactly what Acaster does, he can’t really be imitated. You couldn’t repeat to a friend why he was funny, you just have to watch it and get swept away by his thought process and carefully chosen wording. "It’s easier for me because I can remember the jokes. And because with a lot of my ones, if you get the wording wrong then it doesn’t make sense."

By the time you read this you’ll know whether or not James has won the biggest award in comedy. "For my money this is the best Fringe I’ve been involved in. I’ve not heard of anyone having a shocker." It would be quite a feat then, to win it, I suggest. "Oh that’d be lovely," he says in the same manner your nan might after you’ve asked her if she wants a brew after she’d just sat down. It’d be nice, but it’s not going to change his life.