With an exquisite grasp of the grotesque, Chris Lynam has been feverishly subverting the traditions of stand-up for more than thirty years. His reputation for unpredictable comic mayhem has propelled him to the four corners of the globe, and viewers and audience attendees here and throughout the world have been aghast and agog at his televised antics and stage performances.
Last year, we caught Lynam in Rimski’s Yard bringing his wonderful irreverence to the role of compère. Lynam applied the same irreverence to our interview questions, sent via e-mail.
Our first question was “Can you tell us a little about yourself?” Lynam took the question very literally, requiring only two words to answer it: “anarchic clown.”
There’s also a simple answer to how Lynam got live performance. “[I] woke up one morning in 1973 and said “ I want to be a Clown”, then got on with it.”
He says it’s “usually a blast” to be performing at the festival and he plans “lots of spontaneity, improvisation, collaboration and known bits” for his shows in the Theatre & Circus fields.
He returns to Rimski’s Yard as well as taking his show Nomads and Fools to A Little More Sensation in Bella’s Field.
How do you approach performing at a festival like Glastonbury, we ask. “Get out there ‘n make ’em laugh,” he says. It’s a mantra that any of Theatre and Circus’s comic performers can take with them.
Chris Lynam performs in the Theatre & Circus fields at Glastonbury Festival 2025
