Paul
Hello and welcome to Regrets, I've had a Few. I'm Paul Hunter, Artistic Director of Told by
an Idiot, and this is a podcast where I talk to friends and colleagues, delving into what made
them the person they are today.

Hello and welcome. This afternoon, I'm joined by a wonderful, unique clown and performer
all the way and direct from Bilbao in the Basque Country. Aitor Basauri. Aitor, welcome.

Aitor
Hello Paul, thank you for having me.

Paul
You're very welcome. It's very nice to see you. I should explain to the listeners that we
haven't seen each other since, well, over a year, since all this terrible thing has happened.
But before we started you were talking about a regime and how the pandemic has affected
your physique. Would you mind sharing with the listeners the regime that you're currently
on?

Aitor
Well, my regime at the moment is, the pandemic is making me stay at home quite a lot. So
as, I don't know why, I love wine. Can't explain why I like it. But I do. So, because in the past
months of the, of the pandemic, of the lockdown, I kind of did use wine quite a lot. I decided
after as a new year's resolution, that I was only going to drink wine from one o'clock in the
afternoon, until three o'clock, which covers a little bit that beautiful moment of the aperitif,
that moment before lunch, and then during lunch, and I could afford to have an extra glass
of wine with my dessert. So that's what I'm trying, only to drink from one to three.

Paul
And how is this affecting your physique?

Aitor
Well, it's making me less fat.

Paul
I'm glad. I'm glad. Also, you've told me before, which this also must help with your physique,
where you live has an extraordinary coastline. I've obviously been there and seen you many
times. But you've been surfing. How is the surfing going?

Aitor
Well, when the 15th of March, lockdown in Spain happened, because we started the
lockdown on the 15th of March, and it was the same day as I had to go back to London to
carry on teaching a workshop that we're doing at Toynbee Studios. And I decided I was
going to try to be a professional surfer. So I got my board. And since then, I've been
consistently going every day surfing.

Paul
Very good.

Aitor
Now, if I drink, my belly gets a little bit bigger. So when I try to stand up on the board, today,
I had a difficult day because the waves were like a metre and a half. And I fell so many
times. So many times.

Paul
But your regime of the twelve till three drinking is not helping the surfing?

Aitor
It's not helping at all. It's not helping. I should not drink anything, but you know, it's far too
many hours with my own and in my own brain and alcohol very often helps me to deal with
myself in a more positive way.

Paul
But also you have alcohol and you have the ocean, both of which must be things that
stimulate in some way.

Aitor
I mean, this morning, I woke up at 6:30. It was dark. I took my car with my board, and I was
on the cliffs watching the surf exactly at 7:50 in the morning. And it was something like four
degrees.

Paul
That shows commitment.

Aitor
Oh my god.

Paul
I can say this as one middle aged man to another middle aged man. I had a similar thing
during lockdown with tennis, because I love tennis. So I kept playing sort of three times a
week in the hope that I would be able to maybe get onto the seniors tour.

Aitor
Nice. And how did it go?

Paul
Well, I can't play at the moment but my game has improved, definitely improved. Through
practice. Now Aitor, I want to take you back if I may, to your childhood and, remind me
again, and the listeners, you're near Bilbao. Where were you born?

Aitor
I was born in a small town and probably for the listeners will be like a suburb, north of
Bilbao, 12 kilometres north of Bilbao, called Getxo, in one of the neighbourhoods, and the
neighbourhood is called Romo. And I lived here until I was 20 years old.

Paul
Do you remember the first performance of any kind that you did?

Aitor
Yes, I do. I'm going to try to make this story not very long. And I'm going to try to use my
best English accent, so all the English listeners can understand what I am talking about.
Now, my parents when I was a kid, they did a kind of like, a comuna, if you will, like a hippie
comuna, but instead of being hippies, they were leftwing Catholic. So they all decide to live
together and, and with their kids, there were around like, I don't know, 20 couples and
some, some of the people that were in that part of the comuna, they were at the time
studying pedagogy and psychology and things like that. And one of them one day, brought a
play, brought a play called The Ball of Fire. As it happened, I was the oldest child in all the
comuna, so I was awarded the main character in the show. And I don't remember exactly
what happened. But it was the story of this boy that is walking on the streets and then hits
the ball, and that ball gets on fire. And then magic things happen. And I remember we
rehearsed the play with him and we learned the lines and everything. And that was my first
performance.

Paul
Wow. The Ball of Fire sounds like something that could be in a Spymonkey show, in a very
different form. We'll come to Spymonkey later, but when did you first feel that performing
was what you wanted to do?

Aitor
Well, it......I felt..... these silences are terrible for a podcast. It's only because with all the
situations that we are living, there is lots of time to think. And recently, I just thought about
that. And it has never been an epiphany. I never had an epiphany. I wanted to be an actor. I
started to play in a theatre because my friends were doing it. So I said, OK, I'll do it too. I'm
sure I'll be terrible. And I kept doing it and doing it and doing it until one point where I was
studying philosophy in the university, and I was all the time doing theatre and my parents
confronted me and said, "What are you doing? Why are you studying philosophy? If you're
just doing theatre, why don't you just do theatre?" And I say, OK. And I remember, the only
thing that I remember if I will have to put my finger in in one moment when I said, "yes, this
is what to do the rest of my life" is I went to do an audition to Seville at the Centro Andaluz
de Teatro and we auditioned for two weeks, and I had so much fun. So much fun. And I
remember I went back from Seville, which is in south of Spain to Bilbao in the north and I
was waiting for the phone call to find out if they have taken me in the school. And suddenly
I remember how they said "you are in" and I thought, "yes, I'm going to be an actor".

Paul
How old were you then?

Aitor
I was around 22. 21. 20, 20, I was 20.

Paul
And you mentioned studying philosophy. Do you have any regrets about not pursuing that
further or not?

Aitor
Yes. It's one of the biggest mistakes of my life. To not have finished my degree.

Paul
You could always go back.

Aitor
I could go back but um, yes, but yeah, I don't. Yeah. When I studied philosophy, the only
thing I did was flirt with beautiful ladies in the school, I smoked lots of dope, and I watched
lots of movies in, they have like a movie club in the university. And I will go and see all
Stanley Kubrick, all Chaplin, all these directors and I loved it. It was so brilliant to see movies
in black and white in the morning.

Paul
Yeah, and it sounds like a brilliant time of studying there, the combination of all those
things.

Aitor
It was. It was set in a strange time because the kind of, let's call it the...not the Industrial
Revolution, but they were kind of reshaping Bilbao to what it is now, so with the
Guggenheim Museum and all these things, and I was studying in my university was in front
of where now is the Guggenheim Museum, but it wasn't there. And the workers of Bilbao,
the industry, were fighting against the police in front of our university every single morning.
You know, imagine all these workers in Liverpool or in Manchester, fighting the police, you
know, the miners, exactly the same thing in Bilbao. And we were all these stupid students,
we sat in the gardens seeing how people throw in with fireworks and cocktails Molotov and
the police attacking and I was 18 year old, 19 years old. And I was thinking, oh my god, this
is the best time ever.

Paul
Wow. Now you talk about going to Seville to study. When you were at that theatre school, is
that where you discovered clown and or was it a more traditional school?

Aitor
Well, I discovered clown with Cesar Sarachu, from The Street of Crocodiles and Complicite,
because he came from Paris and the company of theatre I was working with in Getxo
offered him to give us a workshop. And while I was never the most talented actor in the
company, suddenly in that workshop, I was the best. I could not believe it. It was like I could
do no wrong. I thought, "What's going on here?" And, you know, this process of becoming...

Paul
So was that, sorry Aitor, so was that your moment of epiphany?

Aitor
I discovered something there. But there was a moment before where I thought, because I
always tell this story, which is that I was like the bad actor in the company. And we were
doing a play called, well, we were doing Sophocles' Electra. And I was playing a part. And I
was really bad. Not because I say so, because my mum will tell me, "I thought you are not
very good in that show". The woman that now is my wife and was my girlfriend at the time
will tell me, "I thought you were not very good in that show". Many people will say and I
remember I spoke to the director and I say, "look, everybody tells me I am bad". And the
director told me, "no, no, no, don't worry. It's all good". I say, okay. And the things got so
bad in the sense of the response I was getting to the audience, and my feelings and the
learning process, I thought, I don't care, you know, I'm going to be a bad actor. Okay, I will
be the bad actor. Because there has to be bad actors, so the good ones look better. So I kind
of took that decision where I said, I'm just gonna have fun. And then things started to work
a little bit better. And I am probably, suddenly that kind of abandon or this thing that I said,
"I don't care". It got kind of represented. It took shape in the clown workshop.

Paul
Yes. And suddenly you were liberated.

Aitor
I was. Certainly. I understood that suddenly there were many other ways of talking about
what we do than the one that I had been using up until that moment.

Paul
It's interesting, isn't it, those points when you discover something like that. I had a similar
moment when I first worked with John Wright, when we were studying, and I've mentioned
it before, he opened up a way of looking at performing and making theatre that was
completely mind blowing to me. I had no idea that that was possible. Could we jump
forward a little bit to when and I first met. We met in London, I realised, I looked this up. We
met in 1994, I think in London, you'd come to study with Philippe Gaulier. How did you hear
about Philippe and his school?

Aitor
Well, as one of the people that I've worked with is an Argentinian clown called Gabriel
Chame Buendia, that, funnily enough, worked with John Wright and Carla in a show. And I
think Steve Harper, took over the part of Gabriel Chame later on, I think, and I did a clown
workshop with him and he told me, you would love Philippe Gaulier and Philippe Gaulier
would like you. So, as I was doing my kind of degree in drama in Seville, I thought, I'm gonna
go to London. I'm going to study with Philippe, because, might as well.

Paul
My memory is also when you arrived, you had very little English.

Aitor
I had no English. It was, oh my god. It's so funny. This thing of people says, idiots, but, you
know, I was an idiot. I was just thinking, "Oh no, I study English all my life in high school. I'm
sure it cannot be so complicated". And I do remember arriving to London. And staying of all
places in New Malden. I was living in New Malden for four months or five months. Oh my
god, what a terrible place to live. And I have, because I decided to go to London eight
months earlier than the school started, so I could practice a little bit of English. And but I
didn't know anything. And I think when we met, we had already started the School of
Philippe and we went to do that audition for Gargoyle Theatre.

Paul
And I remember seeing you, it may have been exactly around that time, doing an
improvisation where you played a barber, you were cutting someone's hair. And I didn't
understand a word you were saying. But I remember Steve and me and a group of people in
absolute hysterics as you play and I had no idea what you were saying. And then we talked,
you know, through somebody else in the pub, and then I remember a friend of ours, of mine
at the time, was directing, going to direct Servant of Two Masters at the Sheffield Crucible
theatre, Roxana Silbert, and I was playing Truffaldino and directing the movement, as you
remember. And she asked me if there was anyone I could recommend for one of the smaller
servant parts. And I said, "well, I've just met this fantastic Basque performer, who's at
Philippe Gaulier and I think he'd be perfect". And obviously, Roxana spoke Spanish, so that
was good as the director, she said, "how can I meet him? Where is his agent?" I said, "he
works making coffees in Kings Cross Station". So, some directors at that point might have
gone, "no, thank you." But Roxana said, "Okay, I'll go and meet him". So I told you she was
coming. And she came and met you and, what was that meeting like with her in Kings Cross
Station?

Aitor
Well, she was brilliant. Because we just spoke in Spanish. And just, I don't remember exactly
what we said, everything is a little bit blurry. I mean, the things in my head are more like
telling to my partner, saying, "on Monday, I'm going to live in Sheffield". Like, "I'm going to
Sheffield".

Paul
And did you know where Sheffield was?

Aitor
Not at all. No, no, no, no, I didn't, no. I didn't know anything about anything of England. And
I remember getting the bus, I think

Paul
I also remember, when we had that wonderful time in Sheffield, with Hayley and Cal and
Jason and Steve, wonderful cast, Paul Baisley. And I remember you had digs with the
landlord and landlady who really looked after you, you got on very well with them, I seem to
remember.

Aitor
We had such a brilliant time. And I don't even remember their names but it's because my
memory is really bad. But they took me to see a football match with Sheffield Wednesday
against Manchester United. I still remember. It was a draw. And all my friends here in Spain
laugh at me to say of course they took you, it was the year that Cantona was not playing and
nobody wanted to go and see them.

Paul
Now I remember, there's one other thing about that time I wanted to get your memory on, I
may have remembered this differently, So it's a bit like Bunuel says, you know, we
remember things in different ways and our own memories you can't rely on. I have a
memory of a rehearsal one day in the rehearsal room. And out of the window of the
rehearsal room, across the road, you could see the cinema over the road from the rehearsal,
and I remember we were rehearsing and the stage manager used to put outside the door,
the times when you were called for your scenes as an actor, so you would check, it was
before mobile phones, you'd check when you were called. And I was in the middle of a
scene, and then you should have come on in that moment, but you didn't come on. And I
remember Roxana saying, "where is Aitor?" And we all went, "I don't know". And then
someone said, "maybe he doesn't quite understand the call system". And I think Roxanna
sent the stage manager to find you. Where were you? Can you remember this story? It
ended with you having a big conversation of Spanish in the rehearsal room with Roxana.

Aitor
I don't remember. But if I wasn't there, probably...I mean, I remember once, Joey, Mairead
and me, went to see Braveheart in the morning. And I remember the three of us, we just
cried so much watching the movie. And I just remember the three of us coming into
rehearsals, with our eyes completely red. Because we'd been crying watching Braveheart.

Paul
No, it was a great time. And it was a great time to, to kind of be together making something.
On the subject of dinner. You've mentioned this, obviously, we've gone on to do lots of
things together. But one time that feels very special to me, was when you invited me to
direct a show for you in Bilbao, with two of your colleagues. And I came out, it's 20 years
ago now, I came out for two months. And we, remember that, and you mentioned your
mother the other day, because I can safely say your mother has cooked some of the best
food I have ever eaten.

Aitor
I'm gonna tell her.

Paul
And it's something that you've introduced to me, certainly one thing is a love of Basque
food, which is is clearly extraordinary. But I remember one occasion when my then very
early relationship with Sarah Jane, she came out to see the show. And you said, "oh, we're
all going back to my mother's after the show". And it was about midnight. And I thought, oh,
there'll be some sandwiches. Your mother cooked food. And we didn't leave the table till
three o'clock in the morning. It was true. Remember?

Aitor
Yeah.

Paul
Amazing. Now I'm going to I'm going to put you on the spot right now. What is the best dish
that your mother cooks?

Aitor
Probably is cod with Vizcaina sauce. But my favourite dish is Spanish omelette.

Paul
Yes, a classic.

Aitor
Of the one that she cooks. Yeah, because I think we all have this kind of thing that when it's
cooked by your mum, that's the flavour that you never forget.

Paul
Yeah. It's interesting because you think, I cooked a tortilla last night, and it's obviously
nowhere near what your mum can cook. But you think it's deceptively simple, but it's also
complex.

Aitor
So difficult. You know, kind of making a metaphor with our work, is cooking has something
that is very much related to in the moment very often. Do you know what I'm saying, it's
about being in the moment. And one second more, one second less...And it's one of those
things that you say, "oh, this omelette is not very good. Let's hope for the next one."

Paul
And also, you're right, let's forget about the one that has gone, there is nothing we can do
about the one that has gone.

Aitor
Exactly. It's done. Belongs to the past. I always like to say that our profession is about in the
moment. And also that was one of my favourite things of playing the Servant of Two
Masters with you and all that gang. It was that it was so brilliant to be on the stage. That
feeling of a community of people creating something together. It was just so much fun, so
much fun.

Paul
Talking about people making something together most people who listen to this, I think,
who know you, will know your work through the brilliant and extraordinarily funny
Spymonkey, of which you are obviously a core member, co founder. Tell me how did you
meet the other Spymonkey gang? How did you all meet?

Aitor
We met, I met Toby in 1990 in Madrid doing a clown workshop. We didn't understand each
other with words because I didn't speak any English. He didn't speak any Spanish either. So,
but we play and we had a good time. And one of the friends of Toby when I was in London,
in the school, he came to the school and, 'Oh! Toby's in London!' so I hook up with Toby
again. And he was at the time being the Artistic Director of this Swiss company, street
theatre and outdoor theatre called Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau. And they did this big audition
in London. And Toby invited me, Petra, many other actors, and the person that got the job
was Petra. They never did the show that we auditioned for. And later in the year, they did
another show and they hired lots of German actors. They started to rehearse, and the
director hated the actors they hired. So they fired all of them. And they look at the videos of
the auditions they did in London. And exactly like with Roxana and with you, someone
called me late one Friday and say, "can you be on Monday in Zurich, to work in a new
show?" Okay, so I went to live in Switzerland for one year, and at the show it was Petra and
Toby. And the show that we did was bad, but we had a wonderful time playing together.
And with Petra, Toby and a Swiss actor, we created Spymonkey, 'Stiff', when we did the first
show of Stiff with Cal McCrystal, the Swiss actor wanted to leave the company because he
had his own company in Switzerland. And I remember asking people in London for a funny
German. And I think we always remember that it was you Paul, telling us, "well, I know one
that did a show with Rob Thirtle. He was funny."

Paul
Penny Dreadful. Yeah.

Aitor
Yes. And we brought Stephan from Austria, where he lives. And we play with him for one
day. And we love so much that we say, "yeah, come on". He learned the part of the other
Swiss actor and we went to Edinburgh.

Paul
And the rest is history. The four of you have an extraordinary chemistry, an extraordinary
chemistry, and I can remember many occasions when I have been unable to, I've wanted to
stop laughing because it was hurting, but I want something to happen again. I remember
one example of when Stephan in your show, Moby Dick has got the big shoes on and he's
trying to get up the stairs on to the next level, something as simple as that. And I wasn't
alone, the whole of the Lyric, Hammersmith wanted him to do it again. And it was just
delightful. You also obviously, have a reputation for being quite outrageous in your shows,
obviously, all of you, and that's a part of what you do. Is there anything that you've done on
stage in a Spymonkey show, or indeed any other show, that you have regretted?

Aitor
Well, regret, regret...

Paul
Too strong a word.

Aitor
Well, no. No, because I tell you why, I learn so much of the ones I have regret, and that I
could regret of. I don't know if that's the right way of saying it in English. But I learned so
much of all the things that now I could think oh, I regret. So in a way. No, no, no. Not really.

Paul
I was also fascinated, by the time, intrigued in a way, by the time when you all went off to
join Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, which was an extraordinary, must have been, and the
stories you tell, an extraordinary time in your life. And is there, I'm sure you met many
celebrities. Is there one celebrity that you, had the biggest impact on you? That you met
while you were there?

Aitor
Not really.

Paul
There was no one who came backstage, that you would think, "oh my god, I'm about to
meet..."

Aitor
Yes. But you see, with all the, how can I say this... with all these 'celebrities', they are just
industry celebrities, you know, I kind of, I still feel quite intimidated by people that perhaps
are not 'celebrities', let's say, like, I don't know, like Philippe Gaulier, because it speaks to
what it is important for me. Or Simon McBurney, or artists who I really respect, you know,
or John Wright, people who have...because I met Queen Latifah and she was very nice.
Bette Midler was delightful. They were really brief encounters. You know what I'm saying?
We did not really sat and talk.

Paul
You didn't stay in touch with Bette Midler then.

Aitor
No, no.

Paul
You'd be very good together.

Aitor
Oh, I would love to play with her any time.

Paul
Now Aitor.

Aitor
Yes, tell me Paul.

Paul
Now I want to, I'm going to say a few things here as we come towards the end, before I do
that, is there anything you might want to plug?

Aitor
I'm so happy you asked me. Because yes, I do. Let's make sure that this doesn't sound
prepared.

Paul
Absolutely.

Aitor
No, we are running a webinar with our lovely set and costume designer Lucy Bradridge.
About how does she work and she's gonna tell us all her secrets, the secrets of her craft,
she's an amazing collaborator of Spymonkey and she adds beautiful layers to the stupidity
and mayhem that we create. And it's happening next Thursday at four o'clock, I think, so,
just go to the Spymonkey webpage or Facebook page and come come, because it's gonna
be so brilliant.

Paul
It will be brilliant. I remember working with Lucy when we worked at Northhampton on the
Feydeau farce, Every Last Trick. She came up with some brilliant visual surprises for us. Now
Aitor, I'm going to say some things and I want you to answer immediately you hear the end
of what I've said. It'll be clear what I'm doing. Okay, are you ready? Okay. the French House
or the Coach and Horses?

Aitor
French House

Paul
Barcelona or Madrid?

Aitor
Madrid.

Paul
Jerry Lewis or Jim Carrey?

Aitor
Jim Carrey.

Paul
Fish and chips or steak and kidney pie?

Aitor
Fish and chips.

The Lindy Hop or the jive?
The jive.

Sawing someone in half or pulling a rabbit out of a hat?
Sawing someone in half. That's just because I've done it.

Paul
You have done it. And also, you have pulled many rabbits out of many hats. It's interesting
at the beginning, you said, "oh, I was I was a very bad actor". I think you're not only a
brilliant clown, but having directed you in serious things like Brecht, I think you're a
wonderful actor. And like all great clowns, you have the ability to be wonderful in drama.
Thank you very much for chatting. And I will see you at some point between 12 and 3 one
day for glasses of wine.

Aitor
I hope so. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Paul. It's really good, fun and very nice to see you. And I
was gonna say that it's funny because the last time we played together at the Royal
Shakespeare Company with The Three Musketeers, it was so brilliant, you know, and I think
it's, you kind of make me, help me to work very well, you as a director, because I have a
memory of that scene we did with Sinead. It was so brilliant. I had so much fun

Paul
You and Sinead Matthews. When you were the guard, the very religious guard. The very
religious guard trying to be seduced. Being seduced by her to the soundtrack of Barbra
Streisand. Amazing. That is a brilliant memory to end on. Aitor, take care. Give my love to
your family.

Aitor
I will, same to you, ta-ta.

Paul
Cheers Aitor, bye bye.