All this month we are talking to the comedian Ed Patrick. Last year he took the Edinburgh Fringe by storm and he is also currently on his debut tour around the United Kingdom which runs until May (get tickets here). Today we find out all about working with anaesthetics, writing books and much more.

Hello Ed how have you been? What have you been up to since we last spoke?

I have been isolated in a dark cave of isolation, surrounded by scraps of paper,  books about potions, mastering knowledge such as how horseshoe crab blood is used to detect endotoxin. Wizardry you say? No, just anaesthetics exams.

For anyone that doesn’t know you are an anaesthetist as well as a comedian – tell us a bit about why you went into that as a career?

So being a doctor you’re generally expected to keep patients breathing and conscious. And then I discovered the spells and magic of anaesthetics that did the opposite, for some good reasons of course. It’s pretty much the coolest medical specialty, except anaesthetists seem to have an addiction to lycra.

“Comedy certainly makes me a better doctor (see communicating and building rapport above), but it also does give me that escape and chance to play…”

Ed Patrick

Stand up comedy is a very different style of work compared to that – when did you decide you wanted to be a stand up and how did you get into it?

Well they’re both about communicating well, building rapport and making sure no one dies. At school I loved watching and going to stand up, from being snuck into shows by my brother, and semi-famously having my hair cut by Ross Noble on stage. But I never thought it would be something I’d do. I was a rickshaw driver in Edinburgh at the time – what better place to start. I did a couple of gigs and never looked back.

Which comedians are your inspirations?

I find this a difficult question because there are a lot of comedians I find brilliant both new and established. Ultimately I love the craft of a good joke or story, it’s a special thing.

Your day job of an anaesthetist but be quite tough at times – does comedy bring a sense of escapism for you?

They are my Yin Yang, each balances out the other and I can’t imagine doing one and not the other. Comedy certainly makes me a better doctor (see communicating and building rapport above), but it also does give me that escape and chance to play, and express myself. I sound like one of those health blogs now.

You are on tour a lot this year – it sounds like it is going to be exciting – what can you tell us about it?

I’m very excited to be playing some fantastic venues across the country. I recently did the first of the tour at Leicester Comedy Festival and will be springing forwards to Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Newcastle. I hope you appreciate the alphabetical order I went for there.

You had a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe last year as well – are you returning to the festival this year?

I certainly am, and I’ll be taking Catch Your Breath back up for the first half of the Fringe (last year was the second half, so it makes sense to return and do the other). I’m also working on taking another show there for a few dates, and if you’ve ever listened to a podcast I do you might know what it is.

Before we end talking this week we must talk about your book Catch Your Breath – tell us a bit about it and how it came about?

Conveniently my tour show is also called Catch Your Breath and features some things from the book, but also others so you should definitely do both. The book came about as when I started anaesthetics I was amazed at everything we do (see stopping people breathing and making them unconscious above). So I wrote down notes of different things I was doing each day, as when something becomes routine it seems less amazing. So when everything shutdown a few years ago, my creative outlet was purely writing not live performing. And it was my escape during that time, and before I knew it a book was made.

“At school I loved watching and going to stand up, from being snuck into shows by my brother, and semi-famously having my hair cut by Ross Noble on stage.…”

Ed Patrick

Are there any more books in the future?

I’m working on a couple of things and very excited about them. Watch this digital space.

Finally, three words to describe your type of comedy?

Doctor doctor jokes