by Jill Stocks (slightly abridged)
Comedy writer, author and scriptwriter James Cary may not be a household name to some, but most will almost certainly have heard his work on a number of hit shows on TV and radio without realising.
And James showcased his latest work at Lister Hill Baptist Church in Horsforth when he presented his one man show ‘God, the Bible and Everything in 60 minutes’ on 2nd July.
James told us more about his work, and the motivation for this latest show, before the performance.
“I’ve been touring this show called ‘God the Bible and everything in sixty minutes’ for about a year and I’ve performed gigs all over England and a few in Wales, and the idea is that it’s just a very basic introduction to the Bible with lots of jokes,” he said.
“It’s all the headline stuff; Adam and Eve and David and Goliath and Noah’s Ark, so the kind of bits that people have still vaguely heard of and just sort of putting them together in a way that might start to make a bit of sense. That’s the idea, people seem to like it, I haven’t been booed off yet so I must be doing something right.
“I started it in April last year, so I’m getting quite good at it by now. I’ve probably done about 50.”
The show aims to look at how humour can be found in the Bible and almost every show has been held in a church:
“I actually like performing in churches, and bringing comedy into churches, in places where people are not typically expecting to laugh.
“I quite enjoy the challenge although comedy clubs tend to have focussed lighting and low ceilings whereas churches like this have quite high ceilings and most regular comedians would think I am insane for trying to do comedy gigs in churches but I didn’t get that memo in time so here we are.”
James has been a comedy writer for 20 years working on a number of high profile shows on TV and radio. He has written episodes of Miranda, My Family, My Hero and Citizen Khan for BBC TV.
He has also done a great deal of radio work, including Hut 33, Concrete Cow and Think the Unthinkable, a lot of which you can still hear on Radio Four Extra, and just recently recorded a new series with Milton Jones, one of a number of current projects he is working on:
“I’ve just been working on a new radio show with Milton Jones for radio four. We recorded that last Monday in London. And I’m developing other situation comedies and other bits and pieces that come up and I produce podcasts and make youtube videos and do a bit of tutoring teaching people how to write so it’s all quite confusing but I like the variety of it. Fortunately.”
James already has a couple of publications under his belt, ‘The Sacred Art of Joking’ and ‘The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer’, and is working on another:
“I’m currently writing a book about the process of writing a situation comedy which I’m doing which is almost certain to fail and so I’m writing a book called ‘Field Notes from a Sitcom Writer’ which is explaining how I go about it but also how my faith comes into it a bit, so hopefully a more general interest book.
He also has a great enthusiasm for podcasts, something he discovered in their infancy: “A long time ago I did a podcast with a guy called Barry Cooper and that was called ‘Cooper and Cary have words’. That was quite successful in its day. We stopped doing that; we did 180 episodes and that was probably enough, and then I started my own one recently called ‘The Stand Up Theologian’ and did about 30 episodes of that.
“That idea that you can really find people who are really interested in what you’re interested in. It’ll take me four hours to get home tomorrow and I’ll be listening to podcasts literally the whole way home and I’ll have a lovely time. So I like making them.
“I also make a faith one for families called ‘The Faith and Families Podcast’ for the Faith and Kids organisation and I’m often making a lot of audio.”
You can read more about James Cary’s work on his website where you can also sign up to his weekly newsletter, Cary’s Almanac, or sign up to The Wycliffe Papers for more Bible and church history with jokes.
Jill writes for West Leeds Dispatch – see more on their website:
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