Jim Moir: I like talking about teabags

Times

18 hours ago

Jim Moir, the comedian also known as Vic Reeves, will be in conversation with Hugo Rifkind at this year's Fringe by the Sea festival. What will he talk about? Moir gives us a sneak peak into how life as a painter has let him live on his own terms. And what else you should catch at the festival on the east Scottish coast.
On one of his childhood holidays to Scotland, Moir climbed up the Scott Monument in Edinburgh with his grandfather. At the top, the older man pointed across Princes Street to the Jenners department store in its Victorian glory: 'I was born there, you know.'
There's a good chance Moir will talk about art, comedy, wildlife and his childhood camping trips in Scotland (mostly to Loch Lomond and Kirkcudbright) at Fringe by the Sea. It depends on where Rifkind, and the audience, will take the conversation.
'I'll talk about anything,' he says from his home in Kent, birds chirping loudly in his garden. 'I like talking about teabags and stuff like that. I'm quite a connoisseur about tea. I say put milk in last because it has to be the exact right colour for me — it should look almost like coffee — and it either has to be Tippy Assam loose leaf tea or Yorkshire teabags. Or you can ask me about birds all day long because I know what I'm talking about.' (Top tip: if you're going to the show, ask him to do an eider duck impression — he nails it.)
• Jim Moir: 'I'll only do a TV show if it's about birds and art'
A benign brain tumour left Moir deaf in one ear and, although he can still hear pretty well, he can't always locate the source of noises. 'I always ask Nancy [his wife] where that sound is coming from. Even in the house, if she's calling me I can't always tell if she's upstairs or downstairs,' he says.
Now 66, Moir had had enough of the entertainment world. But he is happiest when painting in his studio at the foot of the garden or out birdwatching with his wife, so Sky Arts's offer of Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir was impossible to resist.
'I could be retired but I don't think I ever will,' he says. 'I'm just doing what I like doing and making a living out of it so everything's great.' He actually makes more money from his paintings than he ever did from television — which tells you a lot about the nature of broadcasting and the public appetite for his works.
His puffin prints sell particularly well and he currently has an exhibition called Dawn to Dusk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery Liverpool. One of the rooms of his show is dedicated to crepuscular birds, which are active at dawn and dusk.
But for all the paintings of blackbirds, crows and curlews in his portfolio, it's not all ornithological. A lot of Moir's work embodies his peculiarly funny way of looking at life — the lens that helped make The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Vic Reeves Big Night Out and Shooting Stars so special (and, to some, so baffling).
• Jim Moir: 'I stopped wanting to play Vic Reeves'
For £950 you can own the watercolour The Thirsty Walker (a tap coming out of the tip of a shoe) and a Pox Clinic poster fetches a similar price. One watercolour is of a dazed-looking Matt Damon, his mouth all smudged with lipstick after kissing someone, while Hot Dinghy Punch Up depicts a two-person scuffle in a boat. Of course it does.
Moir's been quoted in the past as saying that his comedy career was something of a distraction from art but that's not entirely accurate. It was more a 'diversion from painting — I'd say I saw the kind of comedy I was doing as art anyway', he argues. 'I didn't really think of it like stand-up or being a comedian, more a new way of showing abstract art. I still do.'
And will he take the opportunity to see some comedy at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe while he's back in Scotland — not all that far from the birthplace of his granddad? Unlikely. As he puts it: 'I'd rather see a bunch of gannets than a bunch of comedians.' Aug 10, noon, The Big Top, £22.50
How did we manage without Joe Wicks's YouTube PE sessions during lockdown? The Body Coach continues to inspire thousands to take care of their bodies through healthy heating (via his bestselling cookbooks) and, of course, his jovial way of encouraging people to move more. In this session he'll be chatting about his life and work.Aug 1, 11.30am, The Big Top, £20
Fancy listening in on some top-level showbiz gossip? Christopher Biggins — the panto dame and past winner of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here — joins forces with the Bafta-winning actress Patricia Hodge for a chinwag in aid of Leuchie House, the East Lothian centre that provides respite care for people living with neurological conditions. A limited number of post-show meet-and-greet tickets are available.Aug 5, 5pm, Lodge Stage, £20/£50
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Fringe by the Sea, Aug 1-10, North Berwick, fringebythesea.com