Words: Simon Harper
Photography: Sanna Charles
Perhaps best known as the eponymous tank commander in More4 satire Gary’s War, this Edinburgh-born, 28-year-old actor has a true gift for character comedy.
“It’s interesting what tiny things in life you just pick up on that can work,” begins Greg McHugh, on the issue of writing material: “I try not to sit down and go, ‘Right, I want to write about the credit crunch.’”
Topical gags about financial hardship and global economic meltdown might be near the top of the to-do list for several comedians, but Greg draws from a much more personal well of inspiration. “I’ll just sit down and think about small things that have happened, or people that I’ve met. I must admit, I think of people more than situations; I’m character-driven in that way.”
Greg studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before appearing on the stand-up circuit. He’s already garnered widespread acclaim for his army officer character, Gary: Tank Commander, with More4 commission Gary’s War picking up a Scottish Bafta.
His earliest forays into comedy were behind a microphone stand, but Greg considers himself primarily an actor, not a stand-up. “I think you’re a good actor if you can do comedy,” he explains. “A lot of actors say, ‘Oh, I do straight stuff,’ and I’ve worked with a few that are good straight actors, but they can’t really get a grasp of comedic roles that well.”
“I see myself as an actor who’s done stand-up, but then even in stand-up you’re acting,” he points out. “If you have to do the same material each night, but still make people laugh, you have to act your way through that.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Greg has since found a fruitful outlet in sketch comedy – particularly with regular collaborator Will Andrews in The Incredible Will and Greg, and the award-winning Blowout – as well as a well-received run of short, sharp and delightfully silly sketches at the Edinburgh Festival.
Citing Coogan, Connolly and Whitehouse as inspirations, Greg has been commissioned by The Comedy Unit to write Gary: The Sitcom and increasingly finds himself being sent scripts to peruse as well as writing his own material.
“It’s worth trying new jokes even if they don’t work, because it’s the only way you get better,” is his advice. “Often it’s useful to think, ‘What is it that makes me laugh?’ Doing pilots is an essential way of getting people to see you, to meet commissioners and to understand the process of how things are made.”
Greg’s quick to point out that the daytime isolation of being a writer-performer can sometimes get too much, but there’s always room for distractions. “I’ve got one of these cinema cards where you pay a monthly amount,” he confides. “If I can’t concentrate, I go and watch three films in an afternoon with the other lonely, unemployed men that tend to do that. That’s my hangout.”
