HOW STEVEN SPIELBERG INSPIRED MY CAREER AS A STAND UP COMEDIAN
It’s hard to imagine cinema without Spielberg. There’s a magic in everything he does. And whilst there’s no doubt, especially here at The Daily Jaws, that his finest work is that film we all love about a shark who just found a good place to eat (closely followed by Jaws watched backwards: a film about an altruistic shark, who, in their spare time, fixes boats and then goes around spitting back loved ones to their families), his catalogue of films has to be one of the most impressive in *checks notes* the entirety of film.
My earliest film memories all seem to have a touch of Spielberg to them. Whether it was harassing my parents to take me to Jurassic Park as soon as it opened or watching Indiana Jones go on epic adventures whilst taking on Nazi’s (and no doubt wilfully abandon archaeological procedure) over Christmas, his films span from the warmest family favourites to the hardest, darkest parts of society (I’m looking at you S1-Ep1 of Columbo – Murder by the Book). It’s easy to see why his work is a loved as it is.
Now I come from a generation who love a good reference (I think largely down to the Simpsons) and in our pop cultured addled brains, often Spielberg is King. As such, Spielberg has had a resounding impact on my career, which for most of you reading this now and not having any clue who I am, is in comedy. Hi, nice to meet you. No, I won’t tell you a joke… I do live work as well as video. Now, you’re probably going, film, okay. He probably has been influenced by Steve (only I can call him Steve) and made some films in that style. Oh god no. Much less commercial.
The first ever “stand up” set I wrote had a bit about clocking my Gran in at 32mph and then luring her away with a flare (this is why you haven’t heard of me and why I put stand up in quotation marks). Once for an Edinburgh show I learnt the entire Indianapolis speech but changed “shark” to “Rupert Murdoch” and did an entire routine about how you recognise how tall he is at a party by looking from the dorsal to the tail. That’s a long 4 minute bit for people who don’t get the reference… Luckily my fans and Jaws fans often overlap and everyone can agree that Rupert Murdoch has black eyes ,like a dolls eyes and when he comes at ya, he doesn’t appear to be livin’.
Comedian Matt Highton continues to be inspired by his filmmaking idol Steven Spielberg
Spielberg’s not only influenced my group work. Every year the Weirdos Collective (a fantastic shifting group of alternative comedians that I am a part of) put on an alternative Christmas Panto, which is genuinely a silly play for charity (it’s won awards) started life because we decided to recreate Hook, in its entirety, word for word, on stage. It was great. I played Rufio. Sorry, I played Rufio, Rufio, Ru-fi-oooooooo.
I’m also in a group called Comedian’s Cinema Club. Our thing is we take a film and improvise/recreate it in an hour. It’s a lot of fun. And guess what, we’ve done A LOT of Spielberg. They work so well. Probably because of his love of well defined characters and simple story arcs (or maybe he always intended them to be recreated by six people who knows?). We even got to do Jaws at the Royal Albert Hall, which was a career highlight! Admittedly we were in the bar, but still, it impresses my Mum. It’s also how I know these guys, who if you look through the archives came to our live show and did our long dead podcast. It’s also why the worst hangover I ever have is because the DJ made me play a Jaws drinking game and my last memory before the three day recovery was vomiting over the side of Waterloo Bridge.
“Jaws - not at Royal Albert Hall”
He's the reason why, when I started to do more video work during the pandemic, I put googly eyes on all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
Or why I make weird stuff like this:
And he’s also why my loving wife has to endure me stopping on walks to take pictures and then do things like this:
Long story short, without me reeling off my entire CV, there is a magic to Spielberg that lasts. It never ages, never weakens and, even when new, feels instantly nostalgic. As a cinephile and someone who used to say Mise0-en-scene far too much all throughout my 17th year, it’s easy to see why Spielberg has had the impact on pop culture that he has. Inspiring the film industry and young filmmakers time and time again, as well as people who like to put googly eyes on things and be an idiot for a living.
But most importantly, *looks to camera* he gives people wonderful stories that stick with us as we grow. Corny as it may be, the world is a better place with storytellers like Steve and I hope his work long continues and the spark it ignites in people never fades. Let’s all drink to his leg!
Words by Matt Highton
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