Spotlight: Adam Staunton
The Liverpool comic and Maverick Renegade on naff last suppers and fighting small dogs
| 04 Jun 2014
Adam Staunton is a short man from Liverpool with a ridiculously young face, his inner voice far larger than one might first anticipate from someone oddly reminiscent of Elijah Wood after a chemical peel. His passionate rants are sweetly mundane, grimly artful; he's the kind of man one can easily imagine getting all het up about crisps.
Although clips of Staunton's stand-up are to be found elsewhere on YouTube, a click on his personal account will garner precisely one video, called Set. Which would be all well and good, if it didn't happen to be an eight-minute clip of him performing nothing more than his daily exercises.
Blessed with a disarmingly cherubic appearance, Staunton can run the gamut of emotions, spiralling hastily into a tiny hobbitlike rage if required. This is something he puts to fabulous use alongside Helen Keeler, Danny Sutcliffe and David Stanier in Maverick Renegades, an excellent sketch group that Staunton is almost a quarter of and which can be found living happily in a quiet corner of YouTube, behind a dusty bookcase.
He is a thoughtful performer of smiles and warmth with flecks of disdain; he’squick-thinking, with effortless confidence, and some funny jokes. He's not very tall, though.
Influences:
"Jerry Seinfeld, Dylan Moran and Eddie Pepitone."
First gig:
"At my uni at the tail end of 2007, as part of a two-week course. It went brilliantly, because it was full of friends and family. The next 17 gigs did not."
Best gig:
"Too many to mention mate. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D"
Worst gig:
"See above."
Circuit favourites in the Northwest:
"Liam Bolton, Phil Chapman, Ste Porter, Pete Otway, Kate McCabe, Danny Sutcliffe, Phil Ellis and Peter Brush. Oh, and my girlfriend, Helen Keeler."
Favourite venue:
"Probably Rob Riley’s Saddleworth gig."
Best heckle:
"The old Ray Peacock one where he jokingly flirts with a woman, and when she responds with 'in your dreams,' he says 'only if I’d been eating a lot of cheese.'"
Do you have any plans for Edinburgh this year?
"To do all the gigs that the better acts aren’t doing, because they’re all in Edinburgh having a big wank."
What are your aspirations?
"To live in a one-bedroom apartment in the centre of town above a kebab place."
What would you be doing if you weren’t doing stand-up?
"Playing more video games and watching more wrestling."
If you could be haunted by anyone, who would it be and why?
"My Grandad. I really miss him."
If you were on death row, what would your last meal be? And why are you on death row?
"I would have a Dairylea Lunchable, and I would be on death row for first degree murder."
What’s the largest animal you think you could beat in a fight – no weapons?
"A Yorkshire Terrier, which I’d quite enjoy, actually. I hate yappy dogs."
If you lived in medieval times what would you do for a living?
"I’d be a peasant, who would sew clothes for nobles and die of consumption at 17."
Question from last month's Spotlight, Rachel Fairburn: What do you think is on my mantelpiece?
"Fuck off, Rachel Fairburn."
Adam Staunton plays Hot Water Comedy Club, in the Holiday Inn, Lime Street, Liverpool, on 14 Jun. Visit www.hotwatercomedy.co.uk for tickets