The Hollywood director behind ‘Bridesmaids’, ‘Freaks & Geeks’ and ‘Ghostbusters’ is now taking on our drinks cabinets.
Paul Feig gasps in horror when he sees himself in his Zoom screen window. He’s forgotten to put his expertly tailored pale grey jacket over the crisp white shirt he’s appeared in. Before I’m scarred for life by this unsolicited nudity, he slips it back on. Phew.
This is the perfect introduction to the man who spends the first part of Cocktail Time - his brilliant new book on how to throw the ultimate party - telling us to dress the hell up, get some fancy glasses and for god’s sake, give our guests some food. ‘Fun is the main goal’, he says. But often that requires a bit of thought and even sometimes, fake moustaches. Apparently, ‘a great equaliser’.
In 2011 my life changed forever when I saw Kristen Wiig let loose on a plane in Bridesmaids, perhaps the best drunken scene of all time. So it makes sense to me that the director of this and many widely celebrated comedies has now turned his attention to our drinks cabinets. I was very excited to get some brilliant boozing tips from the self-titled ‘funcle’. And he’s so good at parties he’s now even made his own gin, Artingstall’s, an elegant London dry.
He loved the process and I start to wonder if there’s anything, actually, that Paul doesn’t use as a vessel for joy.
‘I’m very much a lemonade out of lemons guy’.
This is perhaps best exemplified by a washed out charter in France he went on with his boat-loving wife and friends. This would have sent most to the depths of despair, but not Paul; in stepped the Dubonnet cocktail, a chance to catch up on some reading and hours and hours of laughter. It almost sounds preferable to the sunshine cruise that was planned.
‘The art of a great cocktail party needs to come back’, he says.
Hosting is more than just about the drinks, it’s about pulling together a group of interesting people. His friend, Kathy Lette, is the best at this and despite the social anxiety he often feels beforehand - ‘I always never wanna go... I dread it for days’ - with the right crowd and the right drinks, you’ll never want to leave.
Which brings me to perhaps the most important question of all: how does it end? Do the overhead lights go on at 10pm? Or come morning, does he find people sleeping in his bath? He says his parties often finish very late, especially as he doesn’t cap the martinis at 2, like his favourite London bar, Duke’s. ‘I don’t limit anybody, I just want to make sure everybody has a way home!’
He pauses.
‘I have a friend, Michael Tucci, he’s hilarious. When he wants people to go he takes out the vacuum cleaner and starts vacuuming the room that everybody’s in’.
He also knows people who just go to bed at their own soirée. Something tells me this wouldn’t stop Paul from carrying on the party. And that’s why I love him.
August, 2023
