Andy Zaltzman is best known for two things: firstly, being an unashamed cricket aficionado and secondly, as the brains behind the satirical podcast ‘The Bugle’ alongside The Daily Show alumnus John Oliver. The two began the show for The Times and have continued it as a solo venture – a challenge intensified by their geographical distance (Oliver is based in New York and Zaltzman in London) and hectic schedules.

Zaltzman’s solo shows also satirise public affairs but additionally branch out to any possible topic that the audience might care to throw at him – from the life of a butcher to the country of Holland. Audience members are invited to email in at any point before the show (some, taking this a touch too literally and sending their requests about two minutes before the show begins) leaving Zaltzman to get through as many of them as possible over the course of his one hour show. A truly novel comic idea, somewhere in between stand-up and improv, I’m yet to find another regular comedy night that I enjoy quite as much. I caught up with Andy after his latest show to find out a little more about his attitude to the disparities between British and American satire, the Labour leadership debates and how to lure jaded football fans to the world of cricket…   

The US has had a long standing tradition of satirical news shows from The Daily Show to The Colbert Report and, more recently, your Bugle co-host John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. Why do you think the UK lacks a similar type of show? Do you think this will change?

I would hope it would change. There’s been various efforts to fill that gap, none of which have really stuck, for various reasons. I think it will happen at some point. It requires TV commissioners to really want to do it and take time to get the right kind of people involved. With The Daily Show, the whole thing came through John Stewart and he set the standards. In the UK, a lot of topical shows get sidetracked by more irrelevant stories like all the ‘celebrity stuff’, whereas shows like The Daily Show and John [Oliver]’s show have that total commitment to proper satirical comedy. In the UK, Rory Bremner and Mark Thomas have done it too, but they tend to be more a six part series and then off for awhile. So yes, there’s a definite void. It would be hard to do a daily show over here, but you could definitely have a very good weekly show.

And do you think there can sometimes be a danger, when there’s that ever increasing trend of satirising and, often ridiculing, news, politics and world events, that people will start to forget the seriousness of the matters at hand?

I think it depends how you do it. The best satire is funny with a point that’s almost hidden within it. The fact that many of the comedy shows in America are also news sources is partly due to the failures of the American news media. Considerable comedy comes from a position of objectivity that attacks all targets and the news media does not have that objectivity because a lot of it is as a political standpoint or a commercial onus.

You and John used to work on a current affairs podcast for The Times. Did your attitude to satire change when you left? Has it changed over time?

Not really. John and I had always tried to keep our independence and just did what we wanted to do.  Obviously that’s easy in stand-up and in podcasts, although a bit harder in radio. However, we weren’t really focusing on party politics so it was easier to go in the direction that we wanted. Also, it was on at 11 o’clock at night, so no-one listened to us! With The Bugle, The Times didn’t interfere at all. They let us do whatever we wanted, even when we were having a go at News International.  …They did sack us after that but it was a good few months after. I do genuinely think it was nothing to do with that; they were just having to make cuts to a podcast that wasn’t bringing them any money. They  were very good to us over the years so we can’t really complain.

You didn’t find yourself censored or your creativity compromised at any point?

John and I did work on a BBC comedy show that was on in 2003. It was really a topical comedy show, round about the time of the Iraq War and we made this joke about George W Bush. I can’t remember what it was but we then had this message back saying  ‘If you’re going to make any joke about Bush, you have to balance it by making one about Sadaam’. Who’s for Sadaam?! No-one is for Sadaam. It was that obsession to make sure everything is as balanced as it can be which can put a brake on the comedy.

When you are recording with John, do you encounter any technical difficulties from the fact that you’re based over here and John is in New York?

Generally, no as we’re both in studios. When we were recording The Bugle for The Times, they actually paid for that so we were very lucky. We were also lucky that we started it before the podcast market became saturated and [because The Times were paying for it], we could afford to devote the time to write it properly and record in a proper studio, so we could make it sound like a really good radio show. We have had a couple of shows where John’s been in America, I’ve been in Asia or Australia and our producers have been in London and we’ve been triangulating three continents and three time zones in an 18 hour day.

Would you ever consider heading over to work in the US yourself?

I would love to go and do more stuff in America, particularly stand-up. I’m hoping to go either late this year or early next year, visa permitting, but I’d love to go over and work on a project with John again. Although, he’s pretty tied up with Last Week Tonight which is fairly all-consuming.

But you’ve ruled out moving over there properly?

Moving over there is very unlikely. My wife is doing a doctorate here that’s focused on quite a specific aspect of British Law which you couldn’t really do anywhere else. Plus our kids are at school here. But I’d definitely like to go over there for a bit.

I last saw you perform at The Udderbelly where your run of shows was very much directed around the then upcoming election on May 7^th. In the last few weeks, the news has been very focused on the Labour Leadership debate – what are your thoughts on this?

What I find slightly absurd - no, very absurd – is that Burnham and Cooper, both in their mid-forties, are constantly viewed as ‘old’. Our politics have become so obsessed with youth and having people who look youthful and are in charge of the younger generation that it basically writes off people with decades of experience  - both people within politics now and those who might want to come into politics at a later age. David Miliband’s career was viewed as ‘Over’ when he lost the leadership election at 45. That should be the age you’re getting into politics! The fact that so many positions are taken up by ‘career politicians’ in their late 30s is absurd when we are living longer and healthier lifestyles than ever before. Gladstone was Prime Minister in his mid 80s in the 19^th century. There should be active politicians, eligible for party leadership, regardless of age.

In terms of who’s going to win it, it sort of lacks a defining narrative. There’s clearly an identity crisis in the Labour Party and they need to figure out what alternative they want to propose to the Conservatives.

Satirist for Hire allows people to email in their desired topics for satire over the course of the show. Do people ever ask you to satirise topics that you’re not comfortable with?

I don’t think any topics are off-limits for satire as long as they are not gratuitously offensive.  The format of the show turned out quite differently to how I thought it would be when I originally envisaged it. It’s a bit lighter and I think it’s got a nice balance of things that are about specific news stories and things that are just complete nonsense. I’d like to have more bits in it that have a bit more satirical weight but a lot of that is down to preparation and people tend to send emails in quite late. Such as the question today around the Troika which had me quickly looking up the ins and out of the European Commission and IMF. It’s quite hard to get comedy gold out of that in a short time frame.

Where do you want to take Satirist for Hire?

I’ve been doing it on/off for two years and ultimately it’s really fun to do and a constant challenge to find the right material on news subjects. I think it would be extremely good and satirically effective as a radio or TV show.  It’s just getting it commissioned.

You’d never run out of material…

No! And the nature of it is two stranded. There’s the comedy you write about the subject but also the conversational aspect where you can have a go at the people sending the emails in. So it feels more of a communal show than a stand-up show where you’re just talking at people. As you saw, the crowd gets quite into it and people shout stuff out. I find it really hard now when I have to do just a 20 minute set in a normal gig whereas I can bang on for two hours in a gig like this, with stuff I’ve written that afternoon.

Has it helped you write quicker? When people are sending things in towards the start of your show – or, indeed, with the suggestions you take from the audience, right at the beginning – you only have a limited amount of time to work with the material and get something funny out of it.

Yes, it’s honed those skills. Although that developed over years, particularly doing The Bugle where you’re writing very quickly to a deadline. You train yourself to trust your own writing and get it pretty much right first time. It’s a half-way house to Improvisational Comedy. Improvisational Writing. You have a limited amount of time to think about it and then you just have to do it. When we used to do radio shows we’d painstakingly write, re-write, hone it down and boil it down to make every line work. It was great but it’s a joy to do something new and just see how it flies.

And lastly, you’re a massive Cricket Fan (and can be found @ZaltzCricket). Have you considered how you can lure Football fans, disillusioned with corruption in the Football world, over to Cricket?

I think there’s an element of that happening  - not so much with cricket but with rugby. I know people who’ve given up on Football because it’s become less attractive to watch and very expensive. What used to be the people’s game has become quite showbiz and distant. Rugby is still earthier and more genuine. I would, however, hope that everyone could become converted to cricket. Cricket has a new audience with the 2020 game. It’s basically an evening on the piss with a game of cricket in the background.

And lastly, what are your immediate plans for the future?

Satirist for Hire has a monthly run at the Soho Theatre until the end of the year. I’m also doing it around the country, hoping to go over to the US again and have just spent some time in Australia and New Zealand so I’m hoping to go back there. I’m also doing Oslo this year. It’s a show that can work anywhere. I know. It’s like a never-ending tour. I’m like Bob Dylan.

You can book tickets to see Andy at Soho Theatre here