Comedy producer James De Fond sat with his writing partner and performer Tom Davis attempting to remember the multiple costumes he has inflicted on his friend.
'We did a kids show together, Saturday mornings on Nickelodeon', James says of one of their former projects, Ross Lee's Ghoulies.
'He phoned me as if he were going to get me loads of TV work, but it was actually numerous ways that James could humiliate me,' Tom says without malice. 'I was a six foot seven baby. In everything we've done together and we've done a lot now - I've always had to be undressed.'
'He's funny naked!' James explains.
'While we were writing [The Warm Up Guy], as with The Morgana Show and everything else we've written together, he was constantly going: "Um, it would be really funny if you there was a scene where you were just naked, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the plot."'
James interrupts again: 'He's got a bum like a squashed pancake.'
'I have', Tom confesses. 'I've got a terrible bum - I'd love to have a booty. My body's all out of proportion. In my head, in Heaven, there's a conveyor belt and we're all put together like Lego men and I got all the odds and sods - I've got Ostrich legs and massive hands. Generally if you're a man and you dress up as a woman quite a lot you start to get the same complexes as a woman gets. [When performing in drag] I'd start looking in the mirror and go "I haven't got the behind for this!"'
Having grown up together, Tom watched James rise in the television industry as a producer for projects such as Bo Selecta! and Keith Lemon's World Tour while working on building sites by day and performing stand-up gigs in the evening. At the weekends the pair would test characters on the unsuspecting public, filming around East London. 'It drove James' wife mental', Tom admits.
An opportunity came in the shape of the 2008 series Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack when Keith Lemon was invited to take over the infamous Big Brother House. Sensing the opportunity, James dressed Tom as a 14-year-old schoolboy and told him he was free to roam wild among the housemates.
Tom explains: 'We turned up in character and I was booting around footballs, letting off stink bombs and throwing around itching powder. Id say "Do you want to phone your mum?" to people and they'd say, "Yeah, yeah!" and then I'd say "Oh& I ain't got no credit." There was mutiny.' Unsurprisingly, Tom didn't survive the 48 hours originally allocated to his visit. 'I lasted 52 minutes.'
When Keith Lemon and Avid Merrion creator Leigh Francis began working with James on one-off special Cha'mone Mo'Fo' Selecta: A Tribute to Michael Jackson, the time was right to get Tom involved. As a result, he made his major TV debut in the sketch show as John Landis, director of the late star's Thriller music video, a performance that caught the attention of Channel 4's Head of Comedy, Shane Allen.
'Shane said, "I like that guy, have you got any ideas?" and we said we had this idea for a film called The Warm Up Guy,' James says. 'So then we had to put together some ideas and then pitch them.'
'We wanted to make something about a guy who was an optimist - a loser really - but someone who would stay optimistic no matter what happened to him, and Shane liked that,' Tom continues.
While The Warm Up Guy was in the development stages, another show co-written by the pair and starring friend Morgana Robinson, The Morgana Show, was commissioned. The E4-based sketch show allowed Tom to demonstrate his versatility as a performer with one of his creations, the Banker fast gaining cult status for his outlandish boasts and deserved comeuppances.
'The Banker is the opposite of Ian Bodkin, he's got no moral code. If someone swore in front of Ian hed be like, "Oops, potty mouth!" He likes computer games and wrestling. If he found success and money, I like to think he'd live in a room like Tom Hanks in the film Big.' Tom muses before declaring in Ian's voice, 'A large trampoline is an essential for any bachelor.'
Ian Bodkin, the central protagonist of The Warm Up Guy, allows Tom to move away from the cruel vulgarity and toupees of the Banker, and into a role that people can feel for and associate with, particularly as the character is inspired by real-life events.
'We went to see the pilot for [the ITV2 show] Celebrity Juice and this warm up guy came out, he was just doing the usual stuff, going through the motions with the audience. Towards the end of it he started to tell his own jokes and he was midway through a story when he had his microphone cut off. We looked around and saw this sad man walk off into the shadows. Afterwards in the green room with the celebrities and crew, we looked at the other end of the bar and saw the warm up guy on his own with a bottle of Becks.' James explains, 'We were like, that's it.'
'Russell Brand was a warm up guy, Alan Carr was a warm up guy. It's a stepping stone. But a lot of warm up guys never go anywhere, they just stay on one level and that's Ian.'
'Most people in sitcoms want something. Del Boy [from Only Fools and Horses], always wanted to be a millionaire, but as long as he wasnt a millionaire he was always hilarious. For Ian Bodkin, I think he thinks if he's famous, it'll solve every issue he's got going on, but he's not particularly social or good with people.' Tom says. 'The taster had this line where Ian was asked about not having a girlfriend and he said "No, no no, I'll wait 'til I'm famous. Then I'll probably go out with Kimberly Walsh or Alesha Dixon." In his head he thinks he doesn't want to bog himself down with a girlfriend as better ones will come along...I think like that!'
'You'll hopefully get an attractive one... ' James adds.
'Or a woman! I'm not even too fussy on the woman thing! My agent said, after The Morgana Show came out, "You are going to be having some great times when this kicks off." And I kind of thought that, after thirty years of working on building sites and having people coming up to me in restaurants and asking if I'm from the Addams family, that this might turn around and shit might get real!.' And has it? 'I'm still waiting.'
So is Tom more like Ian or the Banker? 'In some senses I'd like to be more like Ian. There are a lot of traits of mine in him.' Tom reflects, 'When we were first working together I'd been working on building sites so I had no idea how you'd actually act in an office. I used to come in and see James and tickle people. They'd be like "Oh my god, he's like Cloverfield, but a really big annoying version!" I'd love to tell people that I'm not Ian Bodkin, but I do slip into him quite easily.'
As the conversation concludes, the pair confess that they have their minds set on revitalising British comedy in the cinema, regularly meeting at the pub or chatting on the phone about potential ideas. They want to be as prolific as current US comedy heavyweight Judd Apatow and think that the forthcoming Film4 Inbetweeners movie could see more local talent hit the silver screen.
But how do they get started on their plans to conquer the movie world? James laughs, 'I ring up Tom and say, "I've got this great idea for a film where you're naked& "'
Catch up with Tom and James' other work, The Morgana Show, on 4OD.
