The Big Twinterview: Neil Hamburger Q&A

Here is a transcript of a Twitter interview @TheIndyArts had with America’s $1 funny man Neil Hamburger ( @NeilHamburger) who is currently performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and is coming to London next week:

TheIndyArts: Why do you call yourself the $1 funny man? Isn’t that a little cheap?

NeilHamburger: It didn’t used to be! Unfortunately, inflation has taken its toll on everything, including monikers.

TheIndyArts: Will you be converting to £ Sterling for your Edinburgh Fringe run? Or Scottish £?

NeilHamburger: It depends on what the hobos I tend to do business with are willing to give me for my handful of U.S coins.

TheIndyArts: When did you first realise you were funny?

NeilHamburger: When I received my first cease and desist order

TheIndyArts: What are you doing at the Fringe?

NeilHamburger: Sleeping on two thick sheets of cardboard using week-old issues of The Independent as a blanket.

TheIndyArts: We hope they’ll keep you snug. No seriously, a birdie tells me you’re at @AssemblyFest this week?

NeilHamburger: Indeed, I am in Edinburgh for two solid weeks hoping to provide laughter to the needy #sainthood

TheIndyArts: I hear Edinburgh gave you a good reception last summer. Is this your second visit to the Fringe?

NeilHamburger: This is the second one. (I hope people are matching this up to the right answer and don’t think I’m talking about abortions.)

TheIndyArts: Do you think the British understand your humour?

NeilHamburger: You tell me! I cannot get inside anyone else’s brain.

TheIndyArts: What do you think of celebrity culture now that you are one?

NeilHamburger: If you saw the motel room I am in right now, there is no way you would say I was a celebrity.

TheIndyArts: On stage you clear your throat often. Do you have sinus trouble?

NeilHamburger: I have an undiagnosed cancer.

TheIndyArts: What’s the most unusual heckle you’ve ever received?

NeilHamburger: It was delivered in either Swahili or Lingala; I could not make out the dialect.

TheIndyArts: Were you scared coming to the UK with all the riots?

NeilHamburger: No, because I have done nothing wrong.

TheIndyArts: Who do you think is the world’s most dangerous revolutionary?

NeilHamburger: The guy that invented Extreme Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. #Poison

TheIndyArts: Does comedy help people to deal with controversial issues? Or do those issues simply provide good laughs?

NeilHamburger: Sure it helps! That’s like asking a plumber if removing clogged faeces from pipes helps people deal with a fetid stench.

TheIndyArts: Brits would call your glasses “NHS specs” which are increasingly trendy. Are you responsible for the trend?

NeilHamburger: Yes – I am clearly responsible for all the fashion trends of the last 20 years #groundbreaking

TheIndyArts: What’s the funniest joke you can tell via twitter?

NeilHamburger: Jeez, you be the judge, after sorting through my answers to all these damn tweets I’m getting. #MaybeNoneOfThem

To read the rest of the conversation search twitter for #hamburgerchat and click here to find out more about Hamburger's show at the Assembly in Edinburgh and his run at Soho Theatre next week.