When I phone up How I Got News For You regular Mark Steel, he’s on a Brighton beach being assailed by an “utterly pungent cloud of skunk” – talk about a wake-up call.
“I imagine if I stood here for much longer, I’d be speaking utter gibberish to you,” he laughs.
Although, he admits, gibbering is technically part of his job.
And broadcaster and comedian Steel is excited to be bringing his newest collection of rants and raves to Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre next week.
From his stubborn impatience towards technology to the “crazy story” of discovering his father was a millionaire, the comic has a lot on his mind to talk about.
However, An Evening And A Little Bit Of The Morning with Mark Steel is, he insists, “a normal-length” comedy show – though he admits he does have tendency to talk too much.
“My mate Sean Walsh is a brilliant comic and he gets so angry at me for going on too long,” Steel, 62, jokes. “He’ll say: ‘Why do you do that, why do you inflict that on people?’ But people seem to like it! Nobody ever leaves.
“Maybe that’s because my audience is getting older and it takes quite a while to get out of the seat?”
The quips come thick and fast, and nobody (or place) is safe. In fact, Steel has learned through his acclaimed In Town shows that verbally annihilating people’s hometowns can often be a bit of a crowd-pleaser.
“I’m so rude about the places, but they all cheer: ‘Yay, we live in a s***hole!’” he says good-naturedly. Given his beachfront view, I talk up Dundee’s Waterfront development, and the transformations that have taken place in the city since he last visited almost 10 years ago.
Without missing a beat, Steel scoffs: “A fake beach? Like they have in Paris and places like that?
“So are we hoping for global warming to make that more attractive as time goes on, and people will be sort of sitting out in March in Dundee? A little window of ten years before the Earth perishes when Dundee is a holiday destination?”
Despite his grumping – and he assures me, there will be plenty of it – Steel insists he’s trying to take a sunnier outlook on life during this tour, which will include “a piano and a bit of singing”.
“I’m trying to be positive and say things have got better, which I think they have, compared to the miserable world I was brought up in.
“My parents’ generation were just so, completely lacking in emotion. And that’s not the case now, is it?” he muses.
“We’re all emotional now, you can’t put a picture of a cat on social media without people crying. But that’s got to be better, innit?
“It’s only ten years ago, gay marriage was made legal, and now that seems amazing,” he adds. “So we’re in a much better place. But that doesn’t mean there’s not still lots to complain about!”
Mark Steel will bring An Evening And A Little Bit Of The Morning to Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre on March 28 202 at 8pm. More information is available from the Dundee Box Office.
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