Home > Interviews > 13 Questions: comedian Mackenzie Taylor
13 Questions: comedian Mackenzie Taylor
18th August 2010
Spike Milligan, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton; it’s not difficult to find comedians who have had their mental health problems discussed at length in biographies, interviews and even documentaries. It’s more tricky however to come up with anyone who has actually managed to make a comedy act out of their own experiences of mental illness. But that’s exactly what comedian Mackenzie Taylor has done with his stand-up show No Straightjacket Required, now playing at the Edinburgh festival.
In the show, Mackenzie, who is 31 and lives in Surrey, talks honestly about living with Bipolar Schizoaffective disorder, something which lead to a suicide attempt in 2008.
We took this unusually honest approach to comedy to mean he must be pretty good at opening up. The perfect candidate for 13 Questions.
We took this unusually honest approach to comedy to mean he must be pretty good at opening up. The perfect candidate for 13 Questions.
Today I'm thinking about ...
Not much, which is a blessed relief.
My first job was ...
With a firm of quantity surveyors. I started as an accounts assistant and worked my way up. It actually wasn’t that bad, but I ended up falling into acting, which was something I’d always wanted to do more of anyway.
I got into comedy ...
While working as a straight actor with a theatre company. I kept getting comedy roles and then a friend who was putting together a sketch show told me to come along and that was that. I was always really into comedians like Peter Cook and Fry and Laurie, but I’ll leave it up to the audience to decide whether they can see any influence.
I couldn't live without ...
My mental health medication, which is the serious one, but also music. At the moment I’m really into Mumford and Sons.
My ideal dinner guests would be ...
My family, because I know they’d come. There’s always that danger of meeting your heroes and being disappointed, so I think I’d invite all of the worst people in history and poison the soup.
People think I’m ...
Far more educated than I actually am. I suppose because I’m quite well-spoken and have read a few books they assume I went to university. I didn’t. I manage to bluff it most of the time.
If I didn't live in England ...
It would still be somewhere in the UK. The Isle of Skye, if I could improve the weather; I think it’s the most beautiful place in the world.
I spend most of my time ...
Performing. Writing is what I have to do to be able to perform, but its not something I enjoy, it’s quite a lot of work.
I relax ...
By watching TV and films. I’ll watch anything, but the last thing I really enjoyed was Inception, it’s very clever, a dream within a dream within a dream, and yet you understand it as you go through it.
Being a professional comedian ...
People sometimes expect that tears of a clown sort of thing, where on stage you’re really funny and off stage you’re miserable. I think they’re actually disappointed when I’m happy after my show.
No Straightjacket required ...
Is about me trying to kill myself two years ago, and my mental illness in the time leading up to that. But it is a comedy show, there are jokes in it. Hopefully it’s not too heavy! I’m also performing another show called Joy. It’s about aiming to find joy for an hour a day, which is something I am trying to do.
Being at the Edinburgh festival is ...
A lot of hard work, but a lot of fun. You’re immersed for 24 hours a day in what you love. I haven’t had a chance to see all of the acts I want to see at the festival because I’m so busy performing, but there’s still time.
Future for me is ...
To carry on trying to make a liveable career out of performing. I like doing live shows more than anything, I like that pressure. In comedy, you can tell how it’s going from how the audience is reacting, if they’re laughing you’re doing okay, that point where it is all going well is such a buzz.
Mackenzie Taylor performed No Straightjacket Required and Joy , at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival's C soco Venue until the end of August 2010. We're sad to report that Mackenzie took his own life on the 18th of November 2010
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Comments
I guess you didn't see Paul Merton's 'And This Is Me' tour. He talked about his experiences in a psychiatric hospital, and it was very touching and funny show.
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