Interview: Lawrence Leung

By Sean Lynch
Interview with Comedian Lawrence Leung
Star of "Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure"

Lawrence Leung is choosing his adventures... and doin' it Old School

If there is one thing schools don't seem to teach these days, it's nostalgia.

And that is a real shame.

After all, the history of pop culture is just as important in the way it has shaped society (and the generations that lived within it) as any wars or political fiascos.

Thankfully, the Time Ninja himself - comedian Lawrence Leung - has taken it upon himself to bring Pop Culture to the masses with his ratings smash hit Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure.

Sean Lynch caught up with the MacGyver loving star as he embarks on launching the two-disc edition of the TV show on DVD.

Before we start : Confirm or deny - have you been moonlighting as "Lawrence O' Leung : Zine Contributor Extraordinaire"?

[Laughs] Oh yeah!

Josie Long makes a 'zine every festival [Drawing Mustaches in Magazines Monthly Magazine (Bi-Monthly)] and I always put a little... well, I've done it twice now... being always

[Laughs] How did you get involved in that?

I've known Josie for years. I met her in Edinborough a few years ago, and the year after that she won Best Newcomer and started touring here.

I think I had a cameo in her [Comedy Festival] show last year - we went on a "Bread-venture" and she showed that on a powerpoint slide presentation.

Coming from a stand-up background, how did you go about developing and changing your stand up persona into the on screen "Lawrence's Adventures" persona?

I think with the TV show persona, it sort of evolved over the filming.

In stand up, when you are telling your stories, you're in control - you're there in charge of everything. But when you're off filming something, you are not telling the story, you are actually in the story.

So, it's a lot different to being a stand up and talking about something in hindsight, because you're actually wide eyed and a bit naive.

For example, I was in some situations that I was clearly not qualified for - like being in the mean streets of LA, trying to learn to freestyle rap with some pretty tough dudes from the street.

And I was scared - and you can't fake that.

You can't prepare too much because I didn't know what would happen.

How much of the show is like that, where you are literally capturing the moment - compared to set up stunts to help convey the narrative.

Well that one was capturing the moment. Because we were actually meant to be filming in this Hip Hop Community Centre on the corner there, and it was like an Open Mic Night. And I was thinking: "Wouldn't it be great to emulate an 8 Mile moment".

And then when we got into the Community Centre, there was only a few teenagers up on stage giving it a shot - and there was no one in the crowds. And we were waiting there for a couple of hours thinking "What's going on? There is no one here".

And it wasn't until I stepped outside for a breather that I suddenly saw the actual genuine battle was happening in the street. Because it's obviously a lot cooler to be out in the streets rapping than it is to be inside this old building.

So that was something that was totally unplanned where we just had to grab our camera and force our way into the cipher - that circle they had - and give it a shot.

I just got totally steamrolled by these rappers - one guy was huge... he was, like... 7 foot tall [Laughs] and 7 foot wide.

7 foot tall?... [Laughs]

[Laughs] He was huge! It felt like he was 7 foot tall... I shrunk.

Do you find being on stage - or having the camera with you - in those situations, you have more confidence and do things you wouldn't normally do (like jumping into the rap cipher) - having that "4th Wall" protecting you?

By throwing myself in there, by putting myself in situations where what was happening around me was sort of larger than myself - you find yourself in a situation where you don't have control of the scene. But I think audiences like to see people struggle a bit.

Like, you would know from when you guys do your live Shambles stand-up stuff, that if you get caught in a spiral - you can kind of improvise your way out of it - and the audience actually prefers the improv more than the scripted gags.

I actually think having the camera there makes you quite nervous too - because it's a different kind of pressure knowing it's going to end up on the television. So in many way, having the camera there is kind of... worse [Laughs].

Each episode of Adventures has quite a strong narrative, how much of that was pre-written and how often was the trajectory of an episode changed and determined by stuff that happened on the day?

Yeah, all the time, all the time. You sort of plan ahead and work out where you're going to go and who you're going to meet. I scripted the lines that I was going to say, but obviously when you're in the moment, you end up saying other things because the conversation changes.

But, at the end of various sequences, it doesn't always go according to plan. Because, as I said, sometimes we were filming sequences where we didn't really have control over what would happen - and the storyline has to follow that new direction and even that will probably end up changing in the editing room.

Having said that, some scenes that we filmed that we thought would be normal innocent scenes, turned out to be awesome or the unexpected would happen in an action scene - and that would take precedent in the editing room.

Lawrence Leung gets down with Shabadoo and a "Relationship Specialist"

In regards to the power of editing - we had a quick look at the DVD extras yesterday - and there is a great insight into the editing process there, in that you show the entire interview with one of the guys who gives "Dating Advice on Women".

Yeah - he was an interesting guy.

In the episode, he is edited in a way that actually makes him look quite sleazy and crazy.

But on watching the full interview on the DVD, he is actually quite intelligent and correct in most of his psychological analysis of men and women... but still quite creepy [Laughs]

[Laughs] Well, that's why we put it on the DVD, so people could hear more about what he had to say.

I found the interesting thing was people were watching it going "Awww, how disgusting and outrageous are these men!".

But I also wanted people to watch it later on and go: "Oh, actually, they do have some valid truth every now and then".

All the women I've ever spoken to, they always talk about "I know girls who would fall for that".

Your parents provide some of the stand out moments of the series - was it always the intention for them to have such a big role, or did it start out as just a little joke?

I think it expanded a bit, obviously - they were gold.

But it's my mum and dad, I always wanted them to be in the episodes just a little bit each episode... but I really like the fact that  [Laughs] their involvement in the show has been more and more with each episode - thats pretty cool.

Have they noticed if their public profile has jumped lately - how are they dealing with their new found fame?

Oh yeah, yeah - they're all getting agents and stuff like that [Laughs].

You attempted a lot of things throughout the series - and while it's an obvious question, it's one that should be asked - but what was your favourite adventure?

I've got lots of favourite things, it's very hard to choose. Obviously, meeting Angela after 20 years, jumping out of the aeroplane with the rubix cube - that was great fun.

And also, meeting Shaba-doo the guy from Electric Boogaloo.

I really wished we had met MacGyver at the end, but apparently he has broken his leg and kind of disappeared into Canada to stay with the family, or go fishing or something like that.

You recorded a killer track with The Sweatshop Boys for the "Rock Star" episode - how long until the ABC exploit that and release it as a single?

It's actually out in the shops at the moment [Laughs]. I certainly can't sing, but you know, maybe the ABC can make some cash out of my terrible singing abilities.

But there are remixes of it!

[Laughs] Like how in the mid-90s there was a "Latin Remix" on every single?

[Laughs] Yeah, but we've got a Bollywood remix - I'm serious!

Before we go, we quite like the idea of rumours starting from people being misquoted in interviews - so just for us - is there a particular myth we could perpetuate about Lawrence Leung...

"It is not true that I have not slept with more people than Russell Brand" - you can put a triple negative in there Lynchy so that people don't understand it [Laughs].

[Laughs] "Lawrence Leung: Sex Addict" - I like the sound of it...

"Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure" IS OUT NOW ON DVD.