Simon Munnery: "I'm a bit obsessed by the R101 airship"

Hats Off To The 101ers is the latest show by Simon Munnery. His experimental approach, as evidenced by such creations as The League Against Tedium, Alan Parker - Urban Warrior and La Concepta restaurant, is, once again, opening up the possibilities of what can be achieved in comedy. All of his projects have in some way extended the range of the form: mingling philosophy, science, poetry, monologue, politics, animation and technology, he maintains an adventurousness to which others can only aspire.

The story of the 1930 R101 airship disaster forms the backbone of the new show. On the phone from his home in Bedford, Munnery tells me, in impressive detail, about the aspirations of the R101 engineers, the fact that they pressed on despite limited knowledge of aerodynamics, the economic consequences of the design, the relative merits of Zeppelins, and the flying machine's disastrous end. "I'm a bit obsessed by the R101 airship. There's something stunning about the images of them, hovering above horse- drawn ploughs. The interior of the 101 was done up to look like a luxury liner, but it also looked like a stage set " he says. 

Munnery's stage set for this show is itself something of a feat of engineering. "I like inventing things, and building them. I want it to be a spectacular. The arch I've built for the show is partly inspired by Ian Cognito, who used to take a power drill on stage, drill a hole in the wall, put a hook in the hole, and hang his coat from it. Not something that's encouraged in most venues. It's about taking control of the space - I can hang cardboard animations from the arch, it creates a sort of structure."

Subtle affinities between artistic and scientific modes of thought underpin this sense of invention :"Perhaps it's more like falling between stools. There is a creative impulse to make a joke or a device - I have a thing that I want to do; but the journey - what happens en route when I'm making the joke or the device, is what appeals to me."

Munnery's shows range in all sorts of directions. As well as the 101ers material, the current set features his wonderfully crafted animation about the crucifixion, 'One Down'. There are strange melodies, too, in the 'punk musical' style. A punk ethos has informed his work before, most notably with the celebrated would-be emancipator of the oppressed, Alan Parker - Urban Warrior, a character saturated in the musings of Sham 69. "I've long been a fan of The Clash. The 101ers was the name of Joe Strummer's band before The Clash - it was the number of his bedsit, I think. I do love a coincidence", he says, before jesting about his guitar playing.

Of future plans, there's the suggestion of a comeback for his popular quasi-radical figure:"I don't know what I'm going to do next. At the back of my mind, I'm thinking of bringing Alan Parker back - we're back there - now seems like a good time to do it." Recent events like Occupy Edinburgh strongly suggest that comedy is being nourished by the vocabulary of politics again, so let us take our hats off to Alan too.