Andy Smart to publish his memoirs

Outlandish travel tales from the Comedy Store regular

Veteran Comedy Store Player Andy Smart has written his memoirs.

A Hitch in Time will be published in July and will revolve around a 72,000-mile hitchhiking trip the comedian and improviser took during the 1970s and 80s.

His six-year trek was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Ernest Hemingway’s Fiesta – and on his travels he ran with he bulls in Pamplona, juggled with pig’s kidneys in Covent Garden, shared a sherry with Samuel Beckett and slept on the beach in Biarritz.

Smart has been performing improv at the Comedy Store since the 1980s alongside the likes of Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence and Phill Jupitus.

This year will mark his 40^th consecutive appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he has performed improv, stand-up and was part of the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe production of Twelve Angry Men along with Bill Bailey and Dave Johns.

He started out in the 1980s as half of double act the Vicious Boys alongside Angelo Abela. They won the Time Out Street Entertainer award and appeared on cult TV show The Tube. In 1988, the pair released another book based on their travels, The Vicious Boys Go On Holiday, which used a choose-your-own adventure format.

Smart is also a regular at Pamplona, and this year will be his 50th run with the bull, while he is also an annual participant in the medieval sport of Shrovetide Football, a 16-hour football game with goals three miles apart in the Derbyshire town of Ashbourne.

Fellow comics have already praised the memoirs, with Arthur Smith saying: ‘You need to read this book, Smarty’s a legend’, and Marcus Brigstocke adding: ‘If you are looking for outlandish stories, Andy’s will be at the far end of the scale.’