Interview: Adam Kay, Musical Comedy

This week Felix interviews Adam Kay, the frontman of Amateur Transplants and an ex-Imperial Medical student. If you’re not sure who that is, look up the London Underground song on YouTube and send us a letter of thanks.

Q: Hi Adam, I think to start I have to ask the obivous question, why would anyone put themselves through Imperial Medical School for 6 years and then decide to sing smutty songs for a living?

Well, I think you sort of decide what you’re doing at University when you choose your GCSEs, particularly for medicine ‘cause you know you have to kind of do sciences. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do when I was 16 and the idea of being a doctor was a thing people did, so I did it and I guess I knew when I was studying that it wasn’t 100% suited to me but I ploughed on because I was halfway there and then I worked as a doctor for a bit but whilst I was working as a doctor I was also performing and doing various other things so that when I eventually had my full epiphany that I couldn’t do that forever I was able to jump ship. But you don’t want your hospitals full of doctors who don’t particularly give a shit about being a doctor, it’s generally a good thing that that cohort notice and try something else.

Q: How did you get through the app process then, did you have to lie on your personal statement?

No, I mean medicine’s a lot harder to get into now than it was. The sort of approach was they wanted someone who had good predicted grades who seemed just a nice chap; either did music, or played rugby or did drama or the school magazine, whatever it was. I’d done music and things and they decided I was the right sort of fit. But whilst I was at Imperial something changed and it became quite an academic medical school so I definitely wouldn’t get in now. But I think I was relatively honest on my personal statement; certainly the facts were there, whether I egged it up a bit with how much I loved being a doctor. I probably did, but it was probably factually accurate.

Q: Are there any particular memories you have of Imperial College?

Umm, I don’t think there’s any sort of individual stories. No there actually are, I keep thinking of individual stories but I literally can’t tell you because the people involved are now consultant physicians and surgeons around the country and I’d hate for their careers to end as a result of this interview.

Q: Any non specific stories then?

I’m sure medical students haven’t changed in the slightest, a lot of drinking, nudity and the occasional arrests.

Q: Did you see the Daily Mail article about the Reynolds? How does that compare?

It’s not a very pleasant environment, if you’re a rugby playing drinking boy it’s very fun to do all these drinking games, but if you’re not that, if you don’t fit into that mould it’s a very scary environment – there’s a lot of pressure on to drink and I think in all honesty it wouldn’t do any harm for everyone to take a bit of a look at themselves and think “am I happy that this is happening in a university?”, particularly people who have to have some degree of probity who are training to be doctors. I’m sure at Imperial it was all painted as “oh they’re being such killjoys and this is just tradition and fun”. But you know I wasn’t one of the rugby guys and I often did think I was being forced into drinking more than I would. Otherwise I was going to be picked on as an outsider. I think there’s the diversity for fun and the diversity for drinking without that. It can be a horrid environment so I don’t think there’s any harm in someone noticing.

Q: How would you advertise yourself to Imperial students who know of you only from the London Underground song?

I ruin all their favourite songs. I haven’t quite shaken my science roots so there’s probably no nerdier smutty piano based comedian. I’m playing a Christmas show that is literally the opposite of any other West End pantomime sort of thing; it’s just sort of horrendous, swearing, blasphemy, with vague scientific undertones.

Q: Have you ever had a song that’s too offensive or is it anything goes?

No I have to self-censor but you self-censor for a number of reasons, you write something and take a step back and think “is it funny? Is it clever? Is it offensive?” And offensive is something I have to think about a lot because if you go and see a comedian the idea is that you leave happier than when you went because if you don’t then you’ve absolutely failed as a comedian, so a lot of what I do is near to the knuckle but I try quite hard to make sure people aren’t going to be actually upset by what happens. Hopefully I achieve it because they don’t seem to walk out or call the police or write articles however stressful it was.

Q: What do you see in a news story that makes you want to sing about it?

Probably half the time it comes from a topic I want to explore and half the time it comes from a song I’ve heard on the radio and I’ve realised I can change one of the words to bum and stretch that out to three minutes. I think what I do is quite broad; I don’t stick to one particular topic. I think if I have a song people would like to hear I write it. I think there’s also a big attrition rate, probably a quarter of the songs I write ever hear the light of day on stage. Though when I’m playing in a week or so the theme is very much Christmas, then again it is nearly Christmas.

Q: So do you have a favourite song in particular to perform? Or one that gets the best audience reaction?

I don’t know, I mean often it’s one of the more recent songs I’ve written. I enjoy playing those just because the London Underground song I must have played 300 billion times.

Nearly as much as it’s been seen on YouTube.

Yeah, I am grateful for that song, but if I was told I never had to play it again I wouldn’t say no. But I mostly enjoy songs which are fairly new to me because I’m still hearing the punchlines for the third or fourth time. I wrote a version of the John Lewis ad and played that at a gig a few days ago and that was enjoyable because it was so new to me.

Q: Have you ever thought about writing a song about Imperial in particular?

No, I mean you’ve got to look at how big an audience is. If I have a specific gig at the association of whateverers I will write often some material for that occasion, but the occasion hasn’t arisen for me to perform at Imperial.

Q: So we have to book you to get our own song?

Exactly, you have to fucking pay me! I’m not a charity! I’m not sure what I would say about it, but I think that overall it was an enjoyable experience.

Q: Did you ever read Felix when you were here? And what were your thoughts?

I did, the Editor was called Will Dugdale and it was very good actually, it was a useful resource and it had really good cryptic crosswords. I don’t know if you still have them, but it taught me how to do them which I started doing in my first year and I still do every day.

That’s useful life skills being taught at Imperial

Probably the thing at Imperial that’s had the most impact on my life, but certainly not anything in the degree I did, just learning how to complete the cryptic crossword.

Q: Do you have an opinion on the new 24 hour tube hours and lack of ticket officers, is there going to be a revision to the song?

There will definitely be a revision to the song. It’s never nice when people lose their jobs but on the other hand I’m yet to see a smile from a London Underground worker so I can’t be so sad that they’re all going to be replaced with robots. Inevitably there will be strikes so my song will get a bit more airplay. But my overall feeling about the 24 hour opening is at the moment half the tubes are closed during the day at the weekend, so can we sort out the days first and then move on to the night? They seem to be running before they can walk. I live on the District Line, I can’t use it any weekend. So it’s all well and good telling me I can use it at night, but I think we all know full well that’s not true. Also can you imagine the stench? A river of vomit running through the centre of the night tube? It’ll be worse than the buses, and if it’s running 24 hours how do you clean it? Or will there be this constant smell of sick 24 hours a day?

Q: Finally, what would you say to anyone at Imperial thinking maybe they want to go into something a bit more creative?

Finish your degree, you’ve always got the option to go back and do it later. It’s always good to have a vocation, but on the other hand it’s a fucking awful job. Why anyone would go back I don’t know. It’s such a long degree – everyone thinks about quitting at some point. But I’m pleased that I stuck it out because if for any instance variety and gigging dries up at some point I can always grit my teeth and work as a locum again or something.

The Amateur Transplants Christmas Show hits London on Friday the 13th of December at the Bloomsbury Theatre, with student tickets costing £16. Check it out for the funniest, sweariest night you can get to on the tube.