Comedian Andrew Maxwell is one of the Founders of the Altitude Comedy Festival, which has become a regular feature on the spring skiing festivals scene, albeit a very different one to the usual music-themed events. Altitude alumni include many of Britain’s top comedians, with Eddie Izzard the star turn last year. This year’s Altitude Festival takes place from 31 March–4 April. altitudefestival.com
- The Altitude Festival as a result of you and Marcus Brigstocke playing gigs together in the French Alps. How did you get started?
AM: This year will be the seventh Altitude Festival, and prior to that we were gigging and snowboarding together in the Alps for about 8–9 years, so we’ve been snowboarding together in total for 15 years or so. However, I’ve known Marcus for years, I’ve been gigging with him all around the UK and at the Edinburgh Festival, on and off for 20 years.
- Do you have a favourite part of Altitude, or something that you particularly look forward to each year?
AM: Yeah, just snowboarding and having a laugh. It’s such a great mood, you know, everyone is so mellow after a great day out on the mountain, and because Altitude’s always in the springtime, you’ve been out in the sunshine, you’ve been out snowboarding, skiing, you’ve had maybe a couple of drinks. You look out at an audience that are already really mellow, really happy faces, and we’re bringing the laughter of Altitude Festival, we’re bringing the jelly on the top. It’s just a very, very nice atmosphere.
- Favourite Altitude moment?
AM: There are too many great moments at Altitude to narrow them down to one favourite moment, but in my top three are: pushing Tim FitzHigham down a mountain in a blow-up swimming pool; Al Murray performing as The Pub Landlord saying how much he hated the French in French to the French; and Terry Alderton last year on his third encore on the last night as he destroyed the stage causing over £1000 worth of damage, and made so much mess and destruction the venue nearly didn’t let us back this year.
- So what is Marcus Brigstocke like in real life?
AM: He’s like a corduroy-clad stray dog at the top of a mountain, the minute he straps on his board he is gone like shit off a shovel.
- Is there a part of Altitude you think most people don’t know about?
AM: Whether it’s at our big name gala shows in our biggest venue, or our smaller bar gigs that usually involve improv or one-man shows, they all sell out. But nothing sells as quickly as the German shows, every year. From the first 3 years when the Festival was in France, and the following 4 years when it’s been in Austria, it has always been bilingual, and the native language shows always sell out first. All our shows sell out, but nothing sells as quickly as the local heroes.
- Finally, I know you’ve bagged most of the good ones, but is there any comedian that you would still like to get out to appear at a future Altitude?
AM: Barry Humphries, would be for me, a personal huge ambition. There are very few people in comedy that you genuinely call a living legend, and who are still at the very top of their game. Barry Humphries, or possibly Joan Rivers, are two people who are (perfectly polite to say) advanced in years, but still very cutting-edge.
