A biography for Lee Mackhasn’t been written yet.
“My great-grandfather was a variety hall comedian called Billy Mack.”
“The best comedy you can ever have is when you're in the pub with your mates. You can never beat that. That's what I try to recreate in stand-up.”
“Before Twitter, if comedians wrote what they had for lunch on a Post-it and put it through your letterbox you wouldn't find it acceptable - but now apparently it is on Twitter.”
“Loads of blokes think they're funny, but it counts for nothing unless you get up and have a go.”
“I do write a lot of stuff for my tours. I think I just want to give people their money's worth. They've paid to come and see jokes so I try to give them as many as I can.”
“Not Going Out' is what I'm most proud of.”
“When men sit around and talk, they are very competitive. One person will tell an anecdote and the next person will try to top that. When you get six women together, they share a lot more. They will be far more interested in what the other person has to say. The conservation is more interactive and less about individually showing off.”
“I'm on my own when I say this, but I'm one of the few people that think that 'Everybody Loves Raymond' is better than 'Seinfeld.'”
“Genuinely my big thing and the reason I'm in 'The Miser' is because I always ask myself one simple question when I'm offered anything: Will it get me nearer to being 'Doctor Who' or further away?”
“When I was 24, I went back to the academic life and did a degree in film and television at Brunel University.”
“If it's not a film in which Harrison Ford's wife is being kidnapped, I'm not interested; he's my hero.”
“I use Wikipedia and eBay; I look for singles for my 1950s jukebox.”
“Since 'The Office,' everyone has this idea that comedy is only good if it reflects the way people really speak. But that's nonsense - and it's a problem unique to comedy.”
“I don't look at comedy as a sliding scale of offensiveness.”
“I have a very clear separation between my life and my work.”
“I love buying things I wouldn't normally buy, especially cigars.”
“In TV, you get driven to work in a luxury car, and find flowers in your dressing room. Then suddenly you're on tour, drying your hair backstage on plastic curtains.”
“In British sitcoms, you can get five minutes of nothing before the story starts.”
“From the age of 14, I remember thinking I wanted to be a comedian. But that was like saying I wanted to be an astronaut. It felt like a million miles away, something I could never do, but would be great to.”
“My kids would say I'm strict, but I don't think I am.”