Just A Quickie with...Miles Allen, the one man in One Man Breaking Bad at the Great Yorkshire Fringe in York

How would you describe One Man Breaking Bad, Miles?

"It’s a farcical love letter to all the people who went through the bloodbath and tears of Breaking Bad and who are wanting to kind of go on a nostalgia trip and laugh at all the different things that made it so special to them. It follows roughly the same timeline and the same plot points, condensed into a much shorter time frame.

"There are jokes I play on different scenes, including the more serious moments where we have an interesting take on them that leaves the audience in stitches. Along the way there are other pop culture references. It’s like a fusion of solo theatre and stand-up. Sometimes I’ll make comments about the series and my own experience with it, plus there a bunch of other different impressions in the show like Family Guy, Back To The Future and Lord Of The Rings."

Why did you feel Breaking Bad was ripe for parody?

"When the show ended, as I’m sure it was for many other people, I felt there was this huge hole in my heart. It was like ‘What am I gonna watch now Breaking Bad, the greatest television show on earth, just ended?’ I realised there was this huge love and desire to see the characters re-enacted through the YouTube video of mine that went viral in September 2013. It sort of developed from there, creating this one-man show that’s like a nostalgia trip for all the fanboys and girls to enjoy."

Which characters from the show do you feature?

"All the main characters. There a few secondary characters but mostly it’s the main ones: Walter White, Jesse, Skyler, Walt Jr, Hank, Mike, Gustavo Fring, Marie, Todd, Uncle Jack, the Salamanca twins, and Saul, Walter's dodgy lawyer."

Miles Allen in One Man Breaking Bad. Picture: Kippa Matthews

Which character was the hardest to nail?

"The most challenging – not in terms of doing the voice but more because of the social nature of it – was Walt Jr. He’s a character with cerebral palsy so it could be perceived that I'm making fun of or being insensitive towards someone with cerebral palsy. My argument on that is that to not impersonate Walt Jr just because he’s a character with cerebral palsy and not treat him like any other character would be a greater act of discrimination."

And the easiet?

"Jesse Pinkman, bitch! It started with Jesse and it spiralled from them, and I started doing all the characters."

How would you sum up the essence of Walter?

"Walt is very determined and he feels under-appreciated so he’s constantly trying to prove himself but always for his family, he says. Since he’s so smart he really believes he’s the best and that comes out in his alter ego Heisenberg.

"He’s this over-qualified high school chemistry teacher who could have been making millions or billions of dollars with Grey Matter, the company he left and then became very successful. So he’s got this huge inferiority complex he’s trying to get over."

Likewise, how would you define Jesse's character?

"It’s so funny how he starts out like this character who we all perceive as a lowlife with not much going for him. Originally creator Vince Gilligan and the writers were going to kill him off at the end of the first season, but his character become so much more complex in terms of why he chose to go into the drug business and how he actually is this really talented craftsman.

"He actually becomes more of a protagonist for us towards the end of the show than Walt is. We sympathise with him more because he’s still trying to do good and he experiences a lot of pain, whereas with Walt’s character it’s weird because our protagonist becomes more distant from us. We start to disassociate ourselves from him. I don’t know many shows that have done that and it’s what I find so riveting about the show."

Breaking Bad is not the funniest show in TV history, so in what ways have you made it comedic?

"That’s what’s so interesting. If I were to do a comedy about a comedic show I’m not sure it would be that funny. Because Breaking Bad was so serious in its nature, they had some comic relief on the show. They had to because the audience had to breathe at some point – and it’s because of that seriousness that the audience was more willing and ready to laugh to release the tension the show constantly built up.

"So I found it much easier to make a comedy out of a show that’s so serious because people are ready to laugh about it."

A hair-raising moment for Miles Allen in One Man Breaking Bad. Picture: Kippa Matthews

Was there anything that surprised you about the audience's reaction when you did One Man Breaking Bad initially in Melbourne and at the Edinburgh Fringe?

"I was entirely shocked because it’s the first one-man show I’ve ever done. I’ve been an actor and a comedian but it was my first attempt at doing an hour-long-format and I was surprised by how much fun they had. Doing voices and impressions is something I did in middle school because I didn’t have any other friends and I had to make up my own, so to go on stage and basically do what I’ve done since then – namely being in my room and entertaining myself – and have people enjoy it as well is amazing.

"It’s an amazing feeling to have your talents resonate with other people and to create laughter and joy. I love making people laugh. I think it’s a very noble cause because when you laugh you can’t feel any negative emotion. It’s cool that I can bring people to a heavenly state for even like a brief moment. I’m humbled by it."

Did you expect your original YouTube clip to cause such a sensation?

"No, not at all. Everyone says ‘Oh what if this goes viral?’ but no-one expects it to happen. That video clip was made really at my friends’ beckoning when they heard me doing impressions. I’d been growing my beard out for a time and they said I looked homeless and that they should shoot a video of me pretending to do impressions for food and upload it.

"It was like ‘friends might find it amusing’ but many more people found it amusing apparently. It was a big surprise. We had like 20 views when I uploaded it, then the next morning I’m getting calls from The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast and I’m like ‘Oh! OK! I just went viral. That’s cool’."

People genuinely thought you were some homeless guy, didn’t they?

"Yes, but I was immediately going ‘This is just a sketch’. I guess the real irony is now that I’m going on tour I am going to be sort of homeless. I’m moving out and putting everything in storage for this tour so I guess it comes full circle."

When did you first get hooked on Breaking Bad?

"I had a couple of friends recommend the show to me. I think it was when series four was on that I got hooked on it. I’d just graduated college and I didn’t have to do homework anymore so I was thinking ‘What am I going to fill my time with?’ So I started in on Breaking Bad and I was hooked by the pilot episode. I thought it was one of the greatest openings to a show I’d ever seen. That would have been in the May or June and by August when series five rolled around I was all caught up. There was a lot of time sitting on the coach enjoying Breaking Bad."

You have hailed Breaking Bad as “the greatest TV show ever made”. Why do you feel it is?

"I think it’s the greatest television show ever made because with every aspect of it everything is at 110 per cent. The writing, the acting – and not just a single actor but the ensemble of actors – the music, the editing… Everybody seemed to be on their game and I think better than any other story I’ve ever seen put on screen it looks at the concept of the slippery slope.

"It’s a very philosophical piece. In the first episode the question is posed: Is a morally compromising decision based on good intentions justified? I believe the rest of the series is an answer to that question and I think the answer is complex but also there’s a clear end result they show that comes from it."

Have you met any of the cast?

"I haven’t, but there was a guy with a fedora and sunglasses in one of my audiences once and after the show he just looked at me and gave me a nod. I’m not saying it was Heisenberg but who can know for sure? My goal is one day to be able to perform the show for cast and crew of Breaking Bad just because it really is a thank-you for everything they gave to it. I couldn’t appreciate everything they’ve done more. They gave America and the rest of the world a fantastic piece to be watched by generations to come."

How do you prepare for a performance that is so full-on?

"I do over 40 different impressions throughout the show and it’s an hour long. It's very tolling on the voice so there are a lot of vocal warm-ups and hot tea with honey and lemon before a show. I have to make sure my instrument, my voice, is ready because if that thing goes it’s not good. The show is reliant on my voice and my vocal impressions so I take a lot of care of my voice when I’m on the road."

Gripping stuff for Miles Allen in One Man Breaking Bad. Picture: Kippa Matthews

What originally led you into acting and performing?

"I studied acting in college and once I graduated I moved out to Los Angeles to live the dream, as people would say. I started out like any other person, a struggling actor trying to pick up auditions for as many gigs as possible. I had this idea that any career opportunity that happened would happen in LA because that’s where I was. Then, lo and behold, to my surprise my first big break comes from Australia, where I performed this show. I never saw it coming but I’m not gonna complain about it. It’s been awesome. It’s been a really cool ride."

When did you discover you had a flair for impersonation?

"I kind of say it jokingly but I was bullied a lot growing up and I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t really have any skills that set me apart either so I kind of felt lost in the shuffle. Some might say I was slipping through the cracks and my parents were concerned too.

"Then one day I just impersonated Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants on the school bus and everyone was like ‘Wow Miles, that was really good’. For me it was like ‘Affirmation’! So I bought a Spongebob DVD, watched the behind-the-scene feature about all the various voice actors and I was hooked.

"I was like, ‘this is so cool that they do this for a living’. I started to copy them and what they did, I did more and more impressions and that eventually became a repertoire of impressions. I lost count of how many I could do but in high school I think it was around 200."

What are the keys to a great parody and the common pitfalls?

"You have to walk the line of respecting the integrity of the show while picking out the nuances that the audience members really enjoyed about the characters, like how Skyler is always over-reacting and seems like a bitch in every single scene and how Walt Jr is always eating breakfast.

"You have Saul’s kind of sleazy nature and how he’s always checking his hair. It’s picking up on those nuances while always being ready to be adaptable."

Now that the prequel Better Call Saul is being shown on TV [on Netflix in the UK], are you keeping an eye on it to see if it could be your next parody project?

"Oh yes! I don’t want to give anything away about my show but I’m definitely keeping an eye on Better Call Saul. Who knows? A One Man Better Call Saul might be in the works."

Miles Allen presents One Man Breaking Bad in the Great Yorkshire Fringe's White Rose Rotunda, Parliament Street, York, at 6pm nightly until Saturday, plus 4pm on Sunday. Box office: 01904 500600 or greatyorkshirefringe.com