When Trevor Lock walks in to the Hen and Chickens Theatre Bar in Islington, heads turn. It could be his boyish good looks. It could be the fact that he is off of the telly. Or it could be his giant teddy bear coat. He arrives exactly on time, sits down and says "Hello. I'm not late am I?"
His comment - and indeed his coat - are clear illustrations of both his on- and off-stage personality: adorable and fluffy, charming and polite. His meandering ramblings take you into the different fantasy worlds inside his mind. His inspiration seems to come from another dimension, and the secret to his comedy seems to evade even Trevor himself. "Laughter. It's a weird thing isn't it?" When asked why he wants to make people laugh, his answer shows that this isn't something he has given a lot of thought to. "I think there are probably lots of different reasons. The classic thing is, comedians are insecure, lonely, sad, miserable individuals, so they go on stage and make strangers laugh to make up for that. I think it's quite exciting to be able to be in control, because when you make an audience laugh you're controlling them. So maybe there's a little bit of Hitler in me! It's the excitement because you can try and make someone laugh and they might not get it. Anything could happen, y'know, it's live. it's an exciting thing."
Somewhat unusually, for a stand-up comedian, Trevor admits that at times he sets out to deliberately not make the audience laugh. "Sometimes it's great to go to somewhere they expect to make you laugh - because the convention is you go to a comedy club, they're funny - and sometimes it's nice to not be funny. Then you're surprising people in a different way because that's what comedy is. Sometimes it's just a thrilling to defeat that expectation of laughter." So the aim is to go down badly? "Yeah! I mean you can't do that in a lot of places because you ruin your reputation and, y'know, it's unfair because the promoters have booked you to be funny. But in my own club, Kool Eddy's, I used to do that. It's really fun because people are confused and the other acts think 'He's just very strange', but you can't do it in a lot of places." This kind of unorthodox approach has got him into some trouble in the past. "I regret one show at the Edinburgh Festival. It was Kool Eddy's Secret Cabaret and it was one of the ones where I tried not to be funny and they didn't get it, they didn't like it and we actually couldn't leave for a long, long time. We couldn't leave the venue because it was so. it's not a nice thing."
Trevor has been performing on the stand-up circuit for the last few years but has been acting and writing since leaving university with a 2:2 - "I didn't look very good in it". He cites his influences as "Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Woody Allen, that sort of thing. I think Stew and Rich are a great influence. I never saw Fist of Fun but since I've started working with them I think they're brilliant, they're absolutely excellent, they're fantastic. I don't know much about the history of stand-up so I don't really know who else to say."
Which of his routine make him go 'ooh oh ah ha ha'? "I think I'm bored of them all really! There's one thing that I very rarely do, where I talk about death. I like that but I hardly ever do it. You can't do it in a comedy club because it goes - it's funny, but then it goes really unfunny. I can't do it in comedy clubs because it would ruin the night! So that's my favourite one, I think. But I do that very rarely and out of the ones I do, I don't really have a favourite." He pauses, and then grins. "Oh I do a gold suit! When I dress up in a gold suit, that's my other favourite one."
This 'Gold Suit' is probably the most amusing outfit since the Howard Moon's Turquoise Punishment Suit. It was featured in an episode of 'This Morning With Richard Not Judy' and was evidently the outfit that he chose to keep (Nathalie on the other hand chose that very gorgeous and flattering red dress from Episode 10). Despite his forays into other areas of entertainment, Trevor is of course best known for his appearances as the beautiful, mute, small faced slave to the King (or Queen) on 'Lee and Herring's This Morning With Richard not Judy'. "It was really good fun. All the people involved in it are all really lovely, really nice. I learnt a lot really - I think they're excellent writers and then there are brilliant performers: Paul Putner, Kevin Eldon and so on. Yeah, it's just really nice of them to put me in it really." As one half of the slave duo, 'Trevor and Nathalie', Trev sent many a heart a-flutter. Did he get much fan mail? "Not very many, no. I got a letter from an old teacher last week, which was quite nice." One of your old teachers? "Yeah! Not just any old teacher! No, one of my old teachers. You do get strange stuff from some odd people though. There was one guy from Denmark, he used a very strange word, 'Comported' and he said that I 'comported' myself very well, you know: 'I love the way you comport yourself when Mr Lee asks you a question. I enjoy it every week! You comport yourself very well!' But no one ever sends me anything really interesting. Nathalie would obviously get offers of sex and things like that."
Before you gasp with amazement, rest assured that Trevor is not without a dedicated following. David Darlington's Easy on the Eye website is devoted entirely to Mr Trev and the outfits he wore on This Morning With Richard Not Judy. What is it like having a website devoted to you? "Well, it was quite frightening when I first found out to be honest! Richard Herring rang me up to tell me that he'd seen someone wearing a t-shirt with my face on the front and that there was website. So I went into an Internet café and did a search on my name and found it and it was frightening. But subsequently I've met David and he's lovely. It's really funny and it's tongue in cheek. I think that's the idea. The joke is 'How bizarre to do a website about someone that no one knows'." He looks worried. "You see, the idea is that it's a parody of an obsessive fan, isn't it? Isn't it?!"
Other than the website, what is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about him? "Um. that I'm 'flimsy' and if I hadn't been in the show it would have got three stars instead of two. That was quite a nice thing. Oh no, that was a nasty thing. Oh yeah." Obviously not one to let bad reviews get him down, there is a long pause while Trevor thinks of an alternative answer. "Nice thing, um. I can't remember. I think it's nice if people don't say anything horrible really. The Scotsman said that I 'created my own unique world' which was quite nice, I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing but they said that and I liked it." In the world of stand-up comedy, it's rare to come across a performer that doesn't have a wealth of reviews, good or bad, at their fingertips. Trevor continues to ponder the question, and eventually remembers "Noel [Fielding, one half of The Boosh] and Julian [Barratt, other half of The Boosh] said a nice thing. In Time Out last year they said that I came from 'a land where there are no wars'. Which was quite nice. It's true as well but it was nice of them to point out."
To sum up thus far: he isn't the perfect stand-up, he sets out to deliberately not make people laugh and he is bored of his material. Is he in the wrong game? "I don't think that stand-up is the perfect thing for me. There's a lot of times where I think 'Oh I should just be an actor' or 'Oh I should just try and write a book' or," he laughs "'Oh I should just shut up and get a job!' or something."
What, then, does the future hold for Trevor? Will he concentrate on one aspect of his career rather than another? "I don't want to graduate from comedy into acting. I want to keep going with them both. I've got to write a show for Edinburgh, my Edinburgh hour. I'm gonna do another play. Those are the immediate plans - I can't think further than a year ahead." On the horizon is also the possibility of bringing his work to a wider audience. "Hopefully, I might be adapting the play that I did last year, Friday Night at the End of the World, for radio or TV. I'm not sure yet. I'll change the name to Babysitting, and change the plot slightly. well I'll change it a lot! In fact I've lied to them! They wanted an adaptation of the play and I've written something else but I've said it's an adaptation of the play!"
Any great big ambitions that he hopes to fulfil? "I'm just about making enough money to live on, to pay for my life, and I'd like to be just a little bit more secure - to get a regular income and then just to keep it like that so I can do enough things. I'd like to make a film, travel a bit more. I don't have a goal of 'I want to do this', I just want to be self-sufficient enough to be able to go wherever I want and to do my own thing."
Interview concluded, and the world put to rights, talk turns to the future of TMWNRJ. Trevor asserts that he would be happy to reprise his role if there was ever to be a new series, but this doesn't look likely. Eventually, Trevor leaves The Hen And Chickens to head for his gig that night - "um, it's a new material night um. not far from here, not quite sure where." Donning his fluffy coat once more, and looking more like an arctic explorer than a stand-up, he heads out into the big wide world. In the next fifteen minutes, Trevor walks past the Hen and Chickens four times, obviously completely lost, but looking quite contented. Every time he walks past the window, he grins and waves.
Trevor Lock - the loveliest comedian in the world.