Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul James Martin, known professionally as Paul Mertonis an English writer, actor, comedian, radio and television presenter...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth9 July 1957
creating remember realised
When I turned about 12 or 13, I realised that being funny wasn't about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.
doctor
Ian Hislop is going to be the new Doctor Who.
found impression initial maybe people rather teacher whatever
I was never one to go up to someone as a five- or six-year-old and say, 'Hello, my name's Paul, will you be my friend?' But I found if I did an impression of the PE teacher or whatever and people laughed, then they did like me, and so then they started talking to me, rather than me making the initial overture and then maybe being rebuffed.
anyone eric ken selling teeth turned
I never give anyone advice: it can backfire horribly. In the 1950s, Eric Morecambe told Ken Dodd to get his teeth fixed. But those teeth turned out to be one of Dodd's big selling points.
care charm generally genuinely odd people resist seem skins thick
Generally speaking, politicians are an odd bunch. They seem to have very thick skins and genuinely don't care what people think. And charm is a very important part of the politician's armoury. I try to resist that kind of charm.
cash crossed exploiting life private sold
I have never sold my story, done 'Hello!' magazine, any of that stuff. I'm not guilty of exploiting my private life for cash and then saying, 'Oh, I don't want to talk about my private life.' I've never crossed that line.
buster came keaton laughed magical
There's something magical about film, it's the ultimate for me, because it's kind of permanent - inasmuch as anything is. When I went to see Buster Keaton when I was about 14 and I came out of the cinema having really laughed at this film which had been made 50 years before, I thought: That's immortality. It's fantastic.
facts watches comedy
In fact, I don't watch a lot of contemporary comedy for fear of being influenced by it.
jobs blow yelling
My favourite riposte to a heckle is to say, 'Excuse me, I'm trying to work here. How would you like it if I stood yelling down the alley while you're giving blow jobs to transsexuals?'
laughing people connections
It seems like a contradiction, but the shy person who is a performer actually does make sense, because in a way, when you're young and shy, making people laugh is a good way to make friends. It's an instant connection.
lonely real loneliness
It was a bizarre existence I led in my early twenties - that cliche of the comedian who goes out and entertains a roomful of people and then goes home to a lonely bedsit was unbelievably poignant for me because that was exactly what I was doing. I had periods of real loneliness.
dvds order trying
I was trying to organise my DVDs into a sort of chronological order, and I am afraid that it all trailed off after the Sixties.
couple men comedian
In 1987, I was in Edinburgh doing my first one-man show. I took part in a kickabout with some fellow comedians and tripped over my trousers and heard this cracking sound in my leg. A couple of days later I went into a coma and was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism.
house done paper
If you stay in a house and you go to the bathroom and there is no toilet paper, you can always slide down the banisters. Don't tell me you haven't done it.