Sean Lock

Sean Lock won Best Live Comic at the British Comedy Awards in 2000. In the early 1990s, he supported Newman and Baddiel and became the first comic ever to perform at Wembley Arena.

He is the star of his own BBC sitcom, '15 Storeys High', and a team captain on Channel 4's '8 Out of 10 Cats'

How has British comedy changed since you started out?

When I started it was just a laugh. It was like, how can we get away with this? I worked on building sites and in all sorts of shit jobs, and for me it was an escape from the workplace. But then all these people started getting famous, and I thought did they all have a meeting I didn't get invited to? People are much more professional now. There isn't that amateurish charm.

Is British comedy more popular now?

Every year, more people go to stand-up, more people enjoy stand- up, because they don't go to church any more, they don't go to political meetings and they don't have union meetings. And I think people like being told stuff, by people they consider to have an interesting or imaginative take on things.

Is comedy taken more seriously these days?

People say it is, but it's not really. The broadsheets have a contemporary dance critic, but they seldom have comedy critics. We're seen as being slightly above lap-dancing in terms of the arts.

Sean Lock is at the Pleasance, to 12 August

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