Comedian Vic Reeves doubles as an artist. He tells Laura Davis about his bonkers new book

AND there is no space to hang them on the walls of his Kent home, which are already filled with paintings, including several Reeves made at art school.

The comedian’s student experience was suitably haphazard, and could perhaps have been passed off as a piece of conceptual art.

He attended Goldsmiths after completing a foundation course, but was never officially enrolled there.

“I sort of snook into Goldsmiths because they wouldn’t let me in, so I just went in off my own back and no-one noticed,” he says matter-of-factly.

“I went and used all the equipment and listened to lectures.”

Having painted “from birth”, Reeves is inspired by the work of French sculptor Louise Bourgeois, dadaist Marcel Duchamp, American figurative painter John Currin and . . . “Oh God blimey, anyone who takes my interest at the time”.

His artistic background may come as a surprise to those who know him best for his television shows – among them the surreal quiz Shooting Stars and the re-make of Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, both with Bob Mortimer.

But comedy and art share the same compartment in his unorthodox mind.

“When I started doing The Big Night Out (early 90s stage and TV comedy), it was performance art really,” he explains.

“I think it’s all the same thing. And there’s comedy in my paintings, so it all blends in.”

The sixth series of Shooting Stars began airing last month, after a break of several years.

“I never feel like six years is that long so we weren’t really reliving it, there was just a bit of a gap,” says Reeves.

“If it didn’t feel natural, we wouldn’t do it.

“Hopefully we’ll do some more and some more Smell Ofs (the duo’s sketch show).”

He’s currently working on another book, which he describes as “the same thing but about Great Britain”, and manages to find time to read about three books a week – currently Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and Seb Hunter’s How to be a Better Person.

It’s this insatiable appetite for reading that made him keen to take part in The Bluecoat’s Chapter and Verse literature festival.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing there yet,” he admits.

“I’m going to get some Power Point with images on it, and talk about the book and then have an open house.

“People will ask questions and then we’ll hopefully get to some kind of conclusion – but I doubt it’s possible.”

VIC REEVES is making a sell-out appearance at The Bluecoat, on Friday, October 16. Vic Reeves’s Vast Book of World Knowledge is published by Atlantic Books, priced £19.99.

laura.davis