The Call of Now: Businessman Brian Butterfield is on tour
By Warren Higgins
Peter Serafinowicz, of Netflix's The Gentleman, Guardians of the Galaxy and Shaun of the Dead fame, is bringing his cult comedy creation Brian Butterfield to the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Described as a ‘Businessman Entrepreneur Businessman’ (pronouns: business/man), Brian Butterfield’s new tour is titled Call of Now.
Peter, people may know you from Spaced, Sean of the Dead and Guardians of the Galaxy and your BBC sketch show, but what do you enjoy doing the best, TV, film, directing, writing?
All of those things are enjoyable, writing for me is the one I’ve had the most difficulty with, that’s what I need to conquer, and I suspect that when I do, it will be the one I actually end up enjoying the most.
I’m fortunate that I can make a living by doing things that I enjoy, I sing in the (Call of Now) show, I rap in the show and in that moment, I’m thinking “Peter, people are paying money to see you sing and hear you rap, you’re a rapper!” It’s cool.
When you are doing stuff that is good, the material is good, the people you work with are good, that’s all you want to be doing. I’m lucky to be doing that, whatever it is.
Brian, have you seen any of Peter’s work before? Are you a fan?
Yes and no. No, I haven’t seen any of this man’s work – but I assume I’d be a fan. If he’s anything like Peter Jones from Dragons’ Den – and why wouldn’t he be?
Given they share exactly the same first name and that they’re both very tall, then I really admire his business acumen. Which is short for accurate mental calculation.
Peter, you are in The Gentleman, still in Netflix’s Top 10, and your character is a gangster. How was it being in the show and playing that kind of role?
I’m from Liverpool so my natural accent is from there, but it was never as strong as my character in The Gentleman, those type of extreme accents are crafted over time to be as aggressive and threatening as possible, I just find all that fascinating.
I’ve always wanted to play one of these people who basically terrorised me when I was growing up in Liverpool.
But what an amazing experience it was working with Guy Ritchie, he’s so collaborative and fun, but that scene (in episode one), honestly, I thought I’ve got to do this and there’s a risk.
It’s like big broad comedy mixed with menace so there’s the risk of this falling flat, to have somebody in a chicken suit, and people said to me, did you find that hilarious doing that?
And I really didn’t at all, I thought I’m just gonna trust Guy and really go for it and if I’m gonna be too big, then he can get me to tone it down.
Brian, have you ever found yourself on the wrong side of the law with any of your previous businesses?
Wait a minute! Is this a sting? Are you from The Cook Report? Are you pretending to interview me for public relations purposes only as a ruse to trick me into confessing to illegal business activities?
Well, it won’t work on me because (a) none of my businesses have ever broken the law. They usually go bust before there would be any time for illegal activities.
And (b) as the former owner of a detective agency, I have used the old ‘fake interview’ technique many a-time myself. It never worked for me either.
Peter, have you a process for getting into a new character, where would you take inspiration?
I think a lot of the time I want to be the cool cat and be like Mr Surprising, Daring or whatever, but starting anything with that in mind, or having that attitude about things, I don’t know...
The funny thing is the characters that just come straight from the heart, they’re just like a pure beam of light.
A lot of the times in my life, I’ve made jokes, written things that people have found funny, but what I’ve found funny is slightly different to what they find funny and I’ve sort of missed my own jokes!
Brian, you’ve had a range of jobs and businesses from Lord Mayor’s croupier to circus horse dentist to a dietician with your own Butterfield Diet Plan. What have you found to be the key transferable skills over your career?
The skills I learnt as a circus horse dentist were actually very transferable to my subsequent career – bovine dentist.
Sadly, my subsequent attempts to transfer those skills to being a human dentist weren’t as successful, as several patients were quick to tell me after they’d come round from such large doses of agricultural anaesthetic.
The one skill I have carried through all my different careers is persistence. It doesn’t matter how much I fail, or how badly, or how publicly, I dust myself off and try again.
Others might give up when their 1,500th business goes bust. Not me. I’ve just started my 1,501th business!
Peter, when preparing for a role, do you have a routine to get yourself in shape?
I tend to walk a lot but doing the Brian show, it is a workout itself because obviously you’re in a fat suit for two hours a night.
Richard, my tour manager, got in touch with me about month or maybe even six weeks or so before our first tour as he wanted to check I was mentally prepared for it because I’ve never done it before.
It’s a pain to go to the gym and to try and be fit and eat healthily when you are filming away all the time. It’s so easy to just eat some rubbish but it’s just not a good feeling to come back from filming something feeling less healthy than you did, so I always see it as an opportunity to start a little mini boost to feel good and rejuvenate yourself.
Brian, for your upcoming Call of Now tour, you are visiting 15 cities, how do you ensure you’re in the best shape possible for life on the road?
Staying in shape when you’re as busy as I am is no mean feat. This is why I am always exercising. During my sleep, I have several tiny weights attached to my fingers, toes, earlobes, etc, so that I can constantly flex and keep those parts of me toned.
I do push-ups, push-downs, chin-ups, chin-lefts and chin-rights (never chin-downs – very dangerous!) during all of my business calls.
And I walk from each venue to the next, which does I’m afraid mean that I’m often very late and utterly exhausted for some of my shows.
Peter, you do quite a bit of voice over work for animation and video games, have voices always come naturally to you?
Since I could talk, I would just copy, I just enjoy doing it and I really appreciate it when I meet another mimic as I’m constantly dazzled by other people as well.
But I love the craft of it and how people achieve certain things. I was a skinny, lanky kid and I couldn’t stick up for myself, I got bullied a bit and it was always by kids who were not in my year as in class, I was always the funny, slightly weird one. For me, it was always like a natural reaction, copying people and making fun.
Brian, growing up, I imagine computers were not around for kids to use, what did you get up to when you weren’t at school?
As with most children, I would say that the biggest proportion of the time I wasn’t at school was spent sleeping. That’s just what children do at night time. They sleep.
Aside from sleeping, I suppose I just did the same kind of things that all young entrepreneurs do. Starting businesses. Running businesses. Winding up businesses.
And that cycle has basically continued all the way up until the present day. Right now I’m in the “winding up” phase which comes round probably every fortnight.
Peter, what’s coming next for you?
I came back from filming in Canada on 20 May and start the Brian Butterfield tour on the 21st in Liverpool, and then in the summer I’ll have some time off and go on holiday with my kids, and I’m also developing a game show with Brian Butterfield.
Brian, what’s next on the agenda after the Call of Now tour?
Issuing refunds to dissatisfied attendees.
Brian Butterfield’s Call of Now is at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Monday, 17 June. Tickets, priced £33 and £28, are available from cornex.co.uk. For more on Brian, go to brianbutterfield.co.uk.
