大象传媒

He’s a maverick creator.

As well as performing comedy, Leigh can paint, draw, write, make clothes, and sculpt. How come he can turn his hand to so many things? “I think people don't try to. Loads of things that I’ve learned to do, I’ve said: I'm gonna have a go at that and see if it works. And if it doesn't, you go do another thing.”

He doesn’t call himself a comedian.

“I'm not a comedian, because I think comedians do stand up,” he says. “I got a video camera when I was 16 and made loads of videos. My mates all grew up, and I didn't. And then one of them said ‘you should send all your videos to TV’. Then I’d send videos to people until someone got me in for an audition.” And this paid off. “A producer liked me. They said, ‘we're going to be setting up a channel in a couple of weeks called the Paramount channel. We might offer you a job.’”

He finds it easier to play a character than perform as himself.

“There's more pressure to be funny when you're playing a character,” he says. “If I came on [the podcast] as Keith lemon, I’d have to be funny because I'm playing a character. But as me, I don't feel any pressure to be funny at all.”

He’s not a competitive person.

Leigh credits this to some wise advice his dad once gave him. “My dad always said, ‘there's always somebody worse off than you’, and so that rings in my head. He also said: ‘only focus on you, don't think about other people at work. Never mind about anyone else. You do your job.’”

He feels out of place at the BAFTAs.

“I always feel like I shouldn't be there,” he says. “I've been there about three times. I always think that someone's going to come up to you and say, ‘You're in the wrong seat’, and then I go, ‘where's my seat?’ And they’ll say: ‘outside’.” Leigh still had this imposter syndrome after he won one. “When I won, I did a posh voice, because no one knew who I was then!”

Turning 50 changed his outlook on life.

For instance, it spurred him on to write his autobiography, Leigh, Myself and I. “I feel like this is part two,” he says. “Even my daughter said to me: I think this book is the next chapter for you. You're gonna go a different way. There's loads of things I couldn't have done in character, so I never used to get asked to go on anything [on TV]. But now they’re starting to know I won’t come in and cause havoc.”

He once ran with the Olympic torch in 2012.

But he forgot to mention it in his book. “[My wife] Jill said to me, ‘you didn't mention that you ran with the Olympic torch, and that was a big thing!’ I guess I was more relevant in 2012, so I got asked to do the oddest things.” He reckons he’s probably forgotten other events, too. “But that'll be my next book.”

You can listen to the full interview and more on 大象传媒 Sounds.