Fonejacker

What do you think the big appeal about the show is?

Everyone’s done prank calls. Everyone thinks that they can be funny on the telephone. And the show looks quite lo-fi in terms of how it has been put together. It’s just fun – people feel ownership of the show.

Who is your favourite character?

Terry Tibbs is becoming a bit of an ambassador for the show: he’s very popular as well, people like him. He’s quite aggressive and on the front foot, it appeals to people. English people especially. They like an amusing character who’s a bit [London accent] “in your face, like, YEAH?”

How much research do you do on whoever you are pranking?

None. We go into the call with an idea, and the idea is based on whether the guy is selling garden furniture, or he’s got a flat to rent, anything really; the characters usually comes out of that.

Is there a script?

There’s no script, I just improvise. I have what I’m going to say in my head but I do hundreds and hundreds of calls – a few of them make it onto the show and a lot of them don’t. I have half an idea for one, which is half an idea for another, which is three quarters of an idea of the last one. That’s how I write the stuff.

When did you start pranking?

I started winding people on the telephone when I became an actor and was trying to get a break, appearing on the radio and stuff. I used to call people up and put them on speakerphone.

So did you do it for your own amusement?

Yeah, it was purely for my own amusement. I was angry, I was frustrated, and out of that usually comes something funny.

How did the Fonejacker outfit come about?

Me and my mate Ed, who I make the show with, we thought, right, the last 5 years acting, dodgy terrorists, this guy could be a telephone terrorist so we will give him a balaclava, just a cool shady guy- and then it turned into Fonejacker.

How hard is it not to laugh sometimes?

I don’t laugh. I have a bit of a laugh afterwards, but during the call, no, because I am in character and you only find funny what the character finds funny. And none of the characters find anything funny. I mean, if you were a school kid at someone’s house and you’re ordering 20 pizzas then you are going to laugh. But as an actor, I don’t.

What’s the most offensive piece of abuse you have ever received?

“I’m going to come round and cut your throat you wise-arsed c*nt.” You know you’re safe when you’re on the other end of the phone, but I felt like I had really trod on a wasps nest right there.

Have you ever really upset someone?

Yeah, there was a guy who was selling life jackets who we were filming live. I basically called from a sinking boat from the middle of the Arctic – my boat had capsized. I said I was in the water and the jacket that I bought off him wasn’t opening. We were playing splashing and screaming sound effects in the background. He got really animated, shouting: “JUST PULL THE CORD, PULL THE CORD!” – I was shouting to my wife saying: “Just keep swimming! The dog’s drowning!” He was totally convinced and when we told him it was a joke, he wasn’t happy. His wife then sent me a letter saying that he’d had to take a couple of days off work

Do you ever get sick of wearing that fucking hat?

Ha ha. Yeah I do – it’s hot and it’s itchy and I can’t see out of the fucking thing. So when people come up to me in the street and go “It’s the jacker, it’s the jacker” and they go to shake my hand, I don’t know where it is because I’ve got no fucking peripheral vision or downward vision – I can never see it. Then they go “Fine, don’t shake my hand. Fuck you.”

Who pays your phone bill?

Hat-trick, my TV production company.

Sweet.