Andrew Maxwell - Altitude Festival interview

The Altitude Comedy Festival 2012 takes place in Austria at the end of March. Founded by Andrew Maxwell and Marcus Brigstocke, the snow-set festival has gone from strength-to-strength over the last few years. This year's line-up includes A-list acts like Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr, Tim Minchin, Al Murray, Ed Byrne and Kevin Bridges. We hooked up with Andrew Maxwell to find out more...

Hi Andrew. How did the idea for Altitude come about?

Way, way back in the day - like a lot of great comedy ideas - it started in Edinburgh. Marcus Brigstocke and I were at a loose end and so decided to go to Hillend Snowsports Centre, which is just outside the city, to do some snowboarding. It's got the longest dry ski slope in Europe. I don't know if you've ever tried to snowboard on a dry ski slope, but if you have you'll know it's like being buggered by a yard brush.

Marcus had obviously been skiing when he was a boy, and really got into snowboarding and went away from that day and didn't give up. He got in contact with a guy called Richard Lette, who eventually became our business partner, to see if we could perform in his bars... so, yeah, we started doing comedy in Richard's bars in the French Alps - it must have been about 11 years ago now, maybe 12.

Five years ago we decided to concentrate it into a shorter time period and make it a bit more like a festival. There's lots of people trying to put on comedy festivals in different cities around the UK but you need a certain amount of isolation for a festival to work. For example, London is too big.

We were sort of inspired by Cat Laughs in Kilkenny in Ireland because its a small medieval city and you're all kind of rammed in there and there's a lot of bustling around the streets... it's got a real vibe. A ski resort is essentially a village, so you've got that vibe too. You're meeting people, there's lots of hanging around and socialising. One of the big joys of the Edinburgh Festival is serendipitously bumping into friends in the street - which you can't do so much at a festival in a bigger city like London, Birmingham or Manchester.

Me and Marcus and a lot of the other guys - a classic example would be Craig Campbell - are big fans of festival comedy life, and love snowboarding, so it made sense to combine that.

Altitude has grown year-on-year, and this year's line-up is just amazing. How did you manage to get so many of the country's top comics involved?

I turned on the website myself ten minutes ago and found myself impressed by my own line-up. Ha ha. Al Murray has been out before for us, but there's other ones like Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle who are mates of mine and have both provisionally said 'yes' in previous years but, because they're such big tour acts, tours and telly show have got in the way. But, this year, they can do it!

Comedians are, by their nature, extremely convivial people. It's not how every dramatisation shows it, but comedians tend not to be misanthropes. The bigger you get in comedy, the more time you spend going out and touring by yourself though. It's a relatively isolated practice and it can be quite lonely, so that's why 'stadium names' like Frankie, Al, Jimmy and Tim are willing to do a friend a favour, and play a smaller more intimate gig, as they get to hang out with their friends for the first time in a while.

Also, as a stand-up, you're probably the biggest comedy fan there is. That's the genesis of how any comedian starts: you're a huge, almost obsessive comedy fan... then try it for yourself, and go from there. But, as you get bigger in the business, you're not getting to see other comedians perform any more... so that's why with Altitude we always give each of the guys at least one night off so they don't need to get into a 'stage mind' but can just chill out, have a couple of drinks and watch the show like a punter.

The daytime snow sports are a big draw for many of the fans and comedians who attend the festival... but Jimmy Carr doesn't look like a snow fan to us?

Jimmy has told me there's no fucking way he's going down any of the slopes. Ha ha. Needless to say, I will try and work on that! Jimmy is a very focused man, but he's also a very generous man... which is very rare. Often very focused people in life tend to ultimately be very selfish, but Jim is probably diametrically the opposite of that. He's really generous with advice, with contacts, and does anything he can to help. I'd love to see Jimmy in a ball-hugging onesie on the slopes, so I will do my best!

Changing the subject, you've been popping up on more TV panel shows recently?

For the last five years I've been flying home to Ireland each week to do a TV show called The Panel. It was an Australian format that Dara O'Briain performed in when he was in Melbourne and thought it was perfect for Irish TV, so he hooked up with Seamus Cassidy and put The Panel on RTE. It's sort of like Have I Got News For You, only without the mad Anglo-Saxon desire for a quiz. It's just witty people who have been briefed and informed about what is happening in Ireland.

The Panel kind of blew up. It became huge so that's where, TV wise, I've been. Sadly Ireland is now broke and, as part of the budget cuts, it got cancelled last year... that dovetailed into lots more television opportunities over here for me though. So, away from the glare of London media telly work, I got learn how to 'do telly'.

You're sometimes quite entertainingly outspoken. Do you ever worry a joke might get you in trouble?

To be honest, you've just got to for it and leave the producer and director to sort out what can be broadcast. I think with a lot of these panel shows, if you don't have a punchline or direct joke on a subject matter it's all about entering the game of conversation keepie-uppies: just throw something up in the air, and see where that sends your fellow panel members.

You hosted a Radio 4 panel show pilot recently. Any news on that?

It was a hell of a lot of fun, but I am starting work on a different Radio 4 show which we will record in the autumn and will be out this time next year. So it's all coming together for me, particularly on Radio 4. Which is kind of cool, because I listen to a lot of Radio 4: like many touring comedians, I spend a lot of time in a car, and there's only so much time you can listen to the latest fucking pop parade hits.

Sounds good. Nice to chat to you Andrew, and all the best with the festival.

Cheers. Altitude is our little love letter to the comedy game and the sport of having fun. So, yeah, we want people to come out and literally have a laugh. We're not doing this as a big money making business - if festivals were countries, we'd be Greece. It's definitely just for the love of comedy!

Altitude Comedy Festival is in Mayrhofen (Austria) 26th -31st March. You can get 5 nights accommodation, airport transfers, a 4 day ski pass, and a Altitude wristband from £461. To find out more visit www.altitudefestival.com