1. When did you think about a career in writing and what were your first steps into it?
To think about writing as a career choice is dangerous isn’t it? I mean, who ever made money out of writing? It’s just a thing I’ve always done. I was always confecting little stories, bits of business from way before I was eligible to go on a rollercoaster. I come from a background where such florid pursuits were actively discouraged, which served to make it all the more compelling.
I’d pretend to be studying for exams, but really I was sending off poetry to some PO Box number I’d found in the back of a magazine. I’m a creature of impulse and if I feel I have to do a thing, I’ll do it – including writing bad poetry. But really, I grew up believing that writing and ‘the arts’ in general was a party that didn’t have people like me on the guest list.
Years later, I still feel that I’m doing this without the required permission. Permission from whom? You’d have to ask my therapist that one…
2. Best gigs you’ve been to?
There’s one I think about the most. January 15, Edwyn Collins in the Black Box, Belfast. Five years on from a life-shattering double cerebral haemorrhage it wasn’t clear whether he’d regain full motor and verbal function, let alone perform on stage. Reader: he could.
The thing that still resonates is this palpable, almost viscous energy exchange between 250 people packed into a small venue and a man on stage performing these incredible songs against some incredible odds. One of those nights where everyone who was there remembers they were there.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
Roxy Music - with that bald bloke named after the liver salts twiddling the knobs.
4. The record you’d take to a desert island?
ABBA Gold.
5. And the book you’d take to a desert island?
Can I say Catch 22? It’s eminently re-readable, which is exactly what’s required in a desert island situation.
6. Top three films?
Nashville - I recently watched it for the first time and it’s fresh in my mind. Nobody in Hollywood could do what Robert Altman did. It’s a tightly organised sprawl of a movie. Even the songs are good. I find it slightly annoying that less deserving American directors get the respect that Robert Altman is so clearly entitled to.
Withnail and I - one of my greatest pleasures during lockdown was getting to watch movies with my son and introduce him to stuff I loved. And the greatest of these great pleasures was Withnail. It’s sort of perfect.
Evil Under the Sun - top notch big cast Agatha Christie..
7. Worst film you’ve seen?
The thing about film is, with the amount of planning, labour, creativity that goes into even a small-budget production, well you have to admire that. Having said that: Tenet? Turkey more like.
Read more:
Joe Nawaz on Five Days: murder, mystery and culture shock in Pakistan
Writer and comic Joe Nawaz on growing up in a mixed-race family in Belfast
8. Favourite authors?
Gore Vidal and Peter Ackroyd.
9. Sport(s) you most enjoy and top team(s)?
Football (soccerball). Everton, sadly.
10. Ideal holiday destination?
Venice or bust, baby.
11. Pet hates?
Noisy eaters, Audi drivers, people who think ‘party’ and ‘workshop’ are verbs.
12. What’s your favourite:
Dinner? What’s for dessert?
Dessert? Espresso Martini.
Drink? Espresso Martini.
13. Is there a God?
If I knew that, I’d currently be standing outside Belfast City Hall with a loudhailer.
Joe Nawaz will be performing his one-man show, Five Days, about his family travelling to Pakistan to search for their father’s grave at Bangor’s Open House Festival, on August 30, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre from September 14-16, Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre on October 25 and Down Arts Centre on November 24.
