Matthew's the one in the middle, fact fans.

Sorry about the lack of posts this week – it’s been a rum old time. But to make up for it, I’ve got a lovely treat for you today – an interview with comedian Matthew Crosby, one third of Pappy’s, one of Britain’s best sketch troupes. It’s funny stuff, and he wears glasses and is basically awesome. Read on, gentle reader…

Interview

Matthew Crosby

Hi Matthew, what are you up to right now?

I’m in the offices of a TV production company based near Waterloo. The first game of the World Cup is on the TV and I’m writing/watching/catching up on admin while it’s on. I fell down the stairs this morning and sprained my ankle so I’m elevating it. My view is thus:

Matthew's foot, everyone.

On a scale of 1 -10, how good are you at sports, with 1 being Stephen Hawking and 10 being a famous sports personality whose name is also Stephen?

Stephen Redgrave? Steve Cramm? Steve Ovett/Evett? I know nothing of sports but I think all of those guys are genuine sportsmen. I can also name 2 Stevens who play snooker but that doesn’t really count. As someone who cannot walk down stairs without giving himself a hairline fracture, you won’t be surprised to hear that I’m crap at sports. I was never good to begin, nor did I enjoy them so I try not to take part. For a while I wouldn’t even catch something that someone was throwing to me (like housekeys), I’d just let them fall in front of me and pick them to avoid sporting embarrassment.

Does touring with Pappy’s keep you fit? Or does it just give you an excuse to eat lots of takeaways?

It does a bit and I’ve been trying to eat healthily on the last tour but it’s very difficult. Service station food is horribly unhealthy or, if it isn’t, it’s almost comically pricey (Marks and Sparks Simply Food, I’m looking at you!) That said, we drove around one night- towards the end of the tour- trying to find an open McDonalds drive thru after 11pm. It was depressing how happy we were when we found a 24hr one. Depressing.

Do you have any good traumatic P.E. anecdotes from school?

Good trauma? My PE teacher used to pull me around the cross country track by my hair. Horrid man. Roy Archer is his name. If you see him, tell him I still haven’t forgiven him. No, wait, tell him I have forgiven him. It makes me seem like the bigger man.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever eaten? Do you have a healthy diet normally?

A massive 750g Porterhouse Steak. My favourite food. Ordinarily I’m quite good with my diet but I drink too much alcohol and coffee and not enough water. And I’m bad for skipping meals.

Can geeks and fitness ever be friends, or will they be forever trapped on opposite sides of the disco floor of life, glancing at each other shyly and flicking their hair?

I think fitness guys often are geeks, they’re always going on about stats and how far they’ve run and what special trainers or pedometers they’ve just bought. Men’s Health is arguably more geeky than White Dwarf. So there’s no reason why we couldn’t all just get along happily.

The new Pappy’s show, All Business, will be at the Edinburgh Festival from Aug 4th-31st at Pleasance One, 7.20pm. You should go! You can also catch up with Matthew on Twitter @matthewcrosby and at the official Pappy’s site: www.pappyscomedy.com.