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Lee Mack.
 It
took me three tries to get it, because Lee Mack was calling
in from the town of Chawley - north of Manchester - late at
night after a gig.
"It’s full of really, really Northern people and they have coal
fires," he tells me. I’m from ‘round ‘ere," he says broadening
the vowels alarmingly. I’d never heard of Chawley, unsurprisingly.
"It’s the north west of England - it couldn’t be any colder
and wetter. My whole life is one big exercise in trying to get
out of ‘ere," he says cheerfully.
"Is it the middle of summer?" he asks, sounding a trifle incredulous when I tell him the current temperature is around 40 degrees, even though he’s been to Australia a few times before (visiting mainly Sydney and Melbourne) and must be aware of the concept of seasons. "We are - officially" - he says "in the ‘Fuck me it’s still freezing’ time of the year'."
Mack’s first visit to the Antipodes was as a backpacker, and the experience had far reaching consequences. "I remember standing in a pub in Sydney seeing Ben Elton on stage and I thought ‘I’m going to do that’. So I went back to England and did it."
We differ a little on the point of role models, clearly. "He’s not the favourite anymore, he seems to get criticised a bit now but I still defend him, despite the musicals and everything," he says with studied loyalty to the aforementioned Elton. I’d laugh if someone cited Elton John as a role model for their musical career, I point out: "Yeah, yeah, good point," he concedes.
In any case, he now gets to tour around the globe on this comedy caper for about six months in every year. "So I’ve got a tragic home life at the moment. But I’ll be coming out with my fiance Tara" and he stops to add a postscript. "We’ve just found out we’re having our first baby," he lets me into the secret as a bawdy cheer erupts from the room he’s in. "I’m getting heckled here 'cause I’ve just announced it in the Australian press and I’ve only just told my mates."
Another reason to leave England at the moment might be the state of government, I suggest, cannily introducing the vexing topic of politics.
"I’m afraid my knowledge of Tony Blair is about as good as my knowledge of rocket science," he laughs, "but I believe he’s not doing very well. "Although I think he’s doing a good job - at least I have no reason to hate him."
Alex Wheaton
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Lee Mack performs from Tues 24 Feb at the Nova Cinema.
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