Norman Lovett Old and New The Voodoo Rooms Edinburgh

They always say "Never meet your heroes" well I can safely say that the theory was blown well and truly out the water (more on that soon) on Thursday 8th August 2013 when I met one of my all time comedy heroes Norman Lovett, for those who are unsure who Norman is if I was to say THE original Holly from one of my all time favourite comedy t.v shows Red Dwarf i'm sure some of you will be sitting saying "Ahhhh now I recognise the name" not only was Norman in Red Dwarf but also appeared in I,Lovett his own sitcom on BBC2, The Young Ones (As in Rik, Mike, Neil and Vyvyan NOT Cliff) Keeping Up Appearances and The Bill to name but a few of the shows Norman has appeared in.

But Norman is in Edinburgh for a three week run at the fantastic venue The Voodoo Rooms in West Register Street as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, the show is called Old and New and as the flyer brilliantly put's it "The title of the show is exactly that.......A Title."

I last saw Norman in 2000 when he toured with Chris Barrie (Rimmer from Red Dwarf) at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh and remember it being a great night of comedy and this show Old and New was just as funny.

On entering the room there is a screen, a microphone stand, a table and more curiously an I-pad attached to a stand which had me intrigued from the start, on the big screen was a picture of a dog not any dog but Norman's dog Elvis who he mentions with great affection a few times.

What followed was an hour of Pictures, Eyebrows, Newsreaders, Coldplay, Sugababes and Toothpaste and lots more besides also a little bag of props that had me laughing a lot, I will not say what it was all about as I do not want to spoil anything for anyone but I will say I laughed throughout the show as did others because the comedy was delivered in a great way that only someone with Norman Lovett's talent can do very deadpan and serious at times but also very light at other points.

After the show had finished I was very lucky to stand outside the Voodoo Rooms and have a chat with Norman we spoke for a good twenty minutes before I even got round to doing an actual interview, we chatted about things like Red Dwarf, the fact that Norman used to live in Edinburgh (Stockbridge to be precise my wife gave me that little nugget of information years ago) and lots in-between and I would have happily chatted all night because even though Norman had just finished his show he happily chatted to me and made me feel very comfortable and never seemed to want to rush off anywhere else, indeed when a young gentleman came up to us as we were chatting he asked for directions to a place which turned out to be in Cockburn Street with Norman and I both working out where the place was for the gentleman which was a surreal moment for me, but sadly the chat had to come to an end and I finally interviewed Norman and I enjoyed our chat both on and off the recorder and this is why the theory i stated at the start has for me been blown out the water I met a hero of mine and loved it.

I would give Norman Lovett Old and New 5 massive Stars ***** because the show itself is very funny and I would recommend people go and see it but I will say this some may not get the humour but those of us in the audience certainly did.

Run ends on 25th August 2013 at The Voodoo Rooms 19A West Register Street Edinburgh

Here you can find my chat with Norman it is in two parts:

Norman's Website is : http://www.normanlovett.co.uk/

You can also find Norman on Twitter: @normanlovett1

Barry Dickson