Comedian James Acaster: 'I am not an alpha male'

James Acaster is due a revelation this week. On Thursday 9 January, the still fresh-faced comedian turns 40.

“It feels wild,” he says. “With the pandemic, suddenly we were two years older. I feel like, ‘No, I’m still 37, aren’t I?’ When I turned 30, I loved it actually, because in my 20s I thought, ‘Oh, I’m an adult now, I really need to know stuff, I need to understand the world.’ Then when I turned 30, I realised, ‘Oh, I’m never going to understand anything,’ and that felt a lot better. Now I’m turning 40, we’ll see what the revelation is on that day.”

It may be his following thought. “Ultimately, I guess I just feel lucky I’m still here. That’s good. Just gotta focus on that.”

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If taking stock at this milestone in life, Acaster has a lot to feel lucky about. Through the previous decade his performances at the Fringe were nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award an unmatched five consecutive times. These informed a peerless quadrilogy for Netflix called Repertoire, where he weaves surreal flights of fancy – about being an undercover cop, a honey salesman, a lollipop man – to create an astounding comedic tapestry.

Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 won plaudits and awards when performed in 2018-19. In it Acaster explored his mental health struggles, therapy, what it’s like when your girlfriend dumps you for Mr Bean (true story). It also includes the clip about comedians punching down at easy targets like trans people, which goes viral every time a ‘challenging’ comedian releases another special.

Beyond the stage, James Acaster has his Perfect Sounds podcast and co-hosts the hugely popular Off Menu with Ed Gamble, where a celebrity guest is invited to the Dream Restaurant to order their perfect meal (starting with choosing between poppadoms or bread). There have been memorable appearances on programmes such as Would I Lie to You?, Taskmaster and The Great Celebrity Bake Off (“I started making it, had a breakdown… bon appétit!”) – there was even a role in 2023’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire playing Lars Pinfield, parabiologist. Acaster’s profile has mushroomed and so to has his audience. That in itself led to his most recent tour, Hecklers Welcome. Why is he, more than most, a target for hecklers?

“I am not an alpha male so I think that even if people are a fan of me, that doesn’t mean they necessarily respect me,” he says. “I’ve never fully understood why I’ve experienced it more than some of my peers. They might be coming to see me because they liked Bake Off or Would I Lie to You? or even Off Menu, then the comedy show is different to that and so they shout out.”

The rules at Hecklers Welcome were that there were no rules. Audience members could chat, scroll their phones as much as they liked or yell whatever.

“I essentially experienced the same amount of heckling as I ever did, the same amount of people being on their phones, the same amount of people talking to their mates,” Acaster says.

What was different was how he responded to interruptions that might have derailed his tightly constructed sets in the past.

“Look, every single gig I’ve ever done, there’ll be people who love it, there’ll be people who hate it, people who are somewhere in between. I’ve just got to accept that. What was nice about this show was that I created an environment where they couldn’t ruin it because even when it got to its rowdiest, the show was still very much about that relationship I have with the audience.”

The resonance of Hecklers Welcome goes beyond standup. In our age of outrage, where everybody seems to have forgotten what to do if you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s a study of how behaviour shifts as the social contract collapses. Acaster has become an expert of public outbursts. He knows when to respond, when to ignore.

“If someone shouts, ‘POPPADOMS OR BREAD?’ at me, there’s nothing that funny I can say back,” he explains. “And if someone shouts something that’s against the tone of the show, a bit of a shitty comment, I know there’s nothing funny down that route. That can have as much of a disarming affect, when they’re forced to reflect on what they’ve just shouted.

“They are not intentionally being rude or mean or trying to ruin it. There’s a common misconception that heckling helps standup comedy shows. They think they’re helping. Definitely in the past I was throwing petrol on the fire. I’m not doing that as much any more.”

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Hecklers Welcome toured the UK, Europe and the US, giving James Acaster an insight into different audience attitudes.

“It was fun to see how different countries responded to the hecklers show. Somewhere like Sweden, they respect the rules of standup and would never dream of heckling or being on their phones. But because of that, they want to obey the rules of the show and do what they think the comedian wants them to do. Seeing people try heckling for the first time even though it’s against every fibre of their being was amusing for me on stage.”

Depending on the audience interaction, Acaster sometimes wouldn’t get to the end of his set. Which is a pity because he comes to a rather lovely and profound conclusion. Besides the new special that was filmed in Northampton you can listen to the same show recorded in his hometown of Kettering on streaming or purchase the vinyl. Others from Truro and Dublin could be released in the future. The problem with those is that when an audience is good, they risk being funnier than the comedian. But James Acaster is increasingly handling that prospect maturely.

“Part of it is accepting that as well. That insecurity has caused damage over the years. The show ends up not being fun because I don’t want to be upstaged – I’ve got to be the best, they’ve all got to think I’m the best – that’s just insecurity. Embracing that makes the evening better. Most people appreciate the comic putting their ego to one side and facilitating the funniest thing in the room and making that happen, rather than squashing it in an attempt to remain number one. It was nice to let go of that.”

Hecklers Welcome is available to watch on Sky Comedy and NOW.

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