“Everything is funny,” pronounces Dundee-born comedian Jacob Topen.
“There’s nothing that can’t be funny. It’s just that if lots of people find it funny, then it’s good.”
Jacob is one half of comedy duo Book of Jam, whose new short film A Better Place recently aired on BBC3 and BBC Scotland, alongside shorts by big names including Trainspotting’s Mark Bonnar and acclaimed comic Ricky Gervais, whose film 7 Minutes is his first BBC project in over 10 years.
A class clown since his days at Longforgan Primary School, when his supportive headteacher Ms Reid “let me perform my skits in front of the whole school instead of doing maths”, seeing his name alongside that of one of his heroes is a pinch-me moment for 26-year-old Jacob.
“Ricky Gervais is a hero, it’s crazy to go from watching The Office growing up to being anywhere near his name,” he gushes. “My feet haven’t really touched the ground.”
Along with his partner in crime Ibrahim Clayton, from Birmingham, Jacob created the 13-minute film, in which he plays funeral director Archie as he tries to save the ailing family business – A Better Place Funeral home – in the wake of his father’s death.
With the help of his sister Moira (the mortuary make up artist, played by fellow Dundonian Darcy Montagu) and hearse-driving Cousin Ron (Clayton), Archie decides to put on an ‘open day’ to save the business, complete with a bouncy castle and ‘coffin rides’.
Creator’s granddad inspired morbid tale
For Jacob, the morbid subject matter was ripe for the Book of Jam treatment.
“I wouldn’t say death in itself is particularly hilarious, but with this story we felt that we had a funny situation surrounding a death,” he smiles.
“It’s that strange, unspoken thing that everyone is intrigued by – how to deal with that stage of life. And as Book of Jam, we thought we could find the humour in this story.”
“To most people, it’s very taboo to go anywhere near a dead person, yet we’ve got characters leaving their sandwiches on cadavers.”
Throughout the film, Archie and Moira’s dad lies dead in a chest freezer labelled ‘Dad’ at the top of the stairs – which Archie chats to as he tried to ‘undertake’ his new role as head of the family.
And Jacob reveals that his late grandfather actually inspired much of the story, and Jacob’s own fascination with death.
“My granddad had a great sense of humour and would tell all these stories about walking through Balgay cemetery when he was young,” recalls Jacob.
“There’s one story I can remember where he was walking through the cemetery at night and he heard footsteps behind him.
“So he started walking faster and then he heard them walking faster as well, and so he got really scared because it was super dark. But it turned out it was the belt on his raincoat banging against his wellies!
“He actually passed away while we started writing this,” he reveals. “And so a lot of the dialogue, especially Archie speaking to his dad, came from that time.
“We really care about what feels the most truthful and how characters will actually speak to one another, even when one is dead in a large chest freezer.”
A Better Place to show off east coast wit
The film takes place in the fictional village of ‘Kincully’, which Jacob reveals is based on a mash-up of Pittenweem, Broughty Ferry and his hometown of Longforgan.
And although the Better Place house itself is in Glasgow’s Southside, the exterior shots were all filmed in Bo’ness, as it was important to Jacob to have an ‘east coast’ feel about the film.
In particular, he wanted to use A Better Place to showcase the “warmer” east coast humour in contrast to the Glaswegian sensibility which often flies the flag for Scotland in wider comedy circles.
“It’s sort of a warmer sense of humour here,” he observes. “It could be to do with how much sunnier it is on the east coast of Dundee, in comparison to the sort of dreich, Glasgow humour. That’s a little bit more depressing, a little darker.”
Referring to another of his idols, he adds: “Famously, Robin Williams would come to Dundee and spend time in the pubs in the Hilltown, and find these characters that are so unique to Dundee. And he’d take that away with him to inspire him.
“It’s hard to put your finger on what’s different about Dundee humour compared to Glasgow, besides it being that it’s got a bit more of a positive tune to it.
“It raises you up rather than bringing you down.”
A Better Place is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
