Comedian Jimmy Carr says he is “nervous” ahead of some news he is set to receive on Monday regarding his foray into film.
Carr told Radio Manchester: “I don’t get to be nervous a lot of the time, but I’m kind of nervous today because on Monday I find out whether I’m in the movie business or not.”
After beginning his career in stand-up in 1997 and moving into television in the early 2000s, Carr has recently embarked on a new venture as a screenwriter – with new comedy period drama, Fackham Hall, hitting the box office this weekend.
Speaking on its release date, Carr said: “I’ve done Aeroplane meets Downton Abbey with a little sprinkle of Richard Curtis – I really like it.”
Featuring Homeland’s Damian Lewis, Harry Potter’s Tom Felton and an appearance from Motherland’s Anna Maxwell-Martin, Carr’s new parody film Fackham Hall is showing nationwide from Friday, 12 December.
And Carr is set to get to as many viewings as possible.
“I think I might do it twice today,” he said. “Because I’m in Sheffield tonight at San Marino and then I’m staying in Leeds so I might go and see it twice there too.”
“I mean, how often do you get to do that in life? This might be the only time I ever have a movie release,” Carr continued.
“That cinematic thing, especially for comedy, is you want to watch that with other people, and you want the reactions, because it’s visceral.
“Laughter is mimetic we do it because we hear other people do it we join it’s performative.”
‘There are 297 jokes’
Carr praised the film’s director, Jim O’Hanlon, whom he said had been able to give the film its Naked Gun-style deadpan.
He added that the roles had to be played seriously for the film to work.
“I’ve got a lot of friends that are comedians. I didn’t give any of them a part in the movie. You know why? Because they would have been funny – and you have to play a movie like this absolutely straight,” Carr said.
“Damian Lewis is in it,” he continued. “We didn’t tell him it was a comedy, we just said go read these lines.”
But Carr promised this style didn’t take away from the film’s comedic value.
“The film has 297 jokes in it, with three per scene,” he said.
“It’s fun – if you don’t like a joke in the movie, please don’t panic there’ll be another one along in 20 seconds.”
Carr will be playing his first Manchester arena show at the AO area on 16 December, before heading to London for several more gigs.
He said he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family after these commitments.
“I’ve got little kids and stuff – so it’s, it’s kind of joyful,” he said. “It’s a great time of year.”
He added: “I worry that people are a bit isolated, but Christmas brings those little interactions.
“You go to the carol service, you go to the midnight mass, doesn’t matter whether you believe or not, it’s just nice, nice to sing a song.”