Seven Questions With… Sara Pascoe

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Sara Pascoe is one of my favourite comedians. She writes, performs, acts, and has appeared on virtually every panel show on television. With her wonderful comic timing and important yet often silly subject matter, watching Sara perform on stage is an educational but thoroughly entertaining experience. She observes the unobserved, with reference to incredibly academic topics like the evolution of mankind. Pascoe is an excellent comedian with natural wit and I really respect her opinions as well as her talent, and lest us forget about that time she won Celebrity Pointless.
I asked Sara these seven questions to get insight into the mind behind the comedy…

1) A skill or talent you wish you had?

I have always been pretty brilliant at everything, but I do wish that I could function properly in the mornings. Or better still not need to sleep at all. For most people, not sleeping for a few nights leads to psychosis and then after 7 days, death. But there are rare cases of people who have a disease that stops them needing to sleep, I would like that please. Then I could get so much more work done.

2) What is your favourite time of day?

Late, late at night when it feels like I’m the only awake person in the world. The sky is a grey orange just before the dawn and the air feels thick and it’s suddenly as if everything makes sense and you understand it all. Not necessarily in a good way, but there’s a logic to it. And then in the morning it’s noisy again and any sense is gone.

Sara Pascoe

3) Proudest achievement of your career so far?

Being invited to answer questions by Becca Moody. It’s what we’re all working towards, I never really believed it could happen to me, but I worked hard, put in the hours and here I am!! 

4) Generally speaking, are you a winner or a loser?

All comics are losers, that’s what makes us. There are few winners trying to slip through but they never make it. You have to be outside accepted society to comment upon it properly. So I’m a loser, but I’m winning at losing.

5) Worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Hayley Consuegra told me, after I bleached my hair blonde for the first time, that I should use moustache lightening cream on my eyebrows to lighten them too. They went white. I was 15 and already unpopular. They called me ‘eyebrows’ for the rest of school and by ‘they’ I don’t mean friends.

6) What are your opinions on public transport?

Thank you for asking, I think there should be a separate ‘artists’ carriage for during rush hour, it’s not fair that people like me should be crushed up with the others, I’ve made life decisions to protect myself from this. Everyone else is going home from work but I’ve just got up and am on my way to look at a pond I’ve heard was interesting. I haven’t even brushed my teeth, I shouldn’t be imprisoned with the workers! The artists carriage will have walls where we can hang drawings and poetry, and soft floor for relaxing yoga. I am currently applying for arts council funding to launch them.

7) Who, or which group of people, would you most like your comedy to reach?

People who like sitting and can listen well.

For more information on Sara’s latest movements, visit her website, or follow her Twitter at @sarapascoe.

SEVEN QUESTIONS WITH…

Review: Noel Fielding – An Evening With Noel Fielding

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Symphony Hall is a beautiful venue in itself, but walking into the room last Thursday evening meant stepping into a fantastical world that I never wanted to leave.

Symphony HallAn Evening With Noel Fielding is an incredibly diverse spectacle, beginning with an announcement from The Moon, quickly followed by around forty minutes of intelligent yet ridiculous stand up from the secret king of observation himself. Noel is a natural performer; confident enough to be comfortable doing an impression of a herbal teabag in front of 2000 people. In other words: when this man starts a sentence with “I had a dream I was a teabag,” you know it’s going to be an interesting night.

The stories were far-fetched to say the least, but it was surprisingly easy for the audience to get on board with any zany idea that the group presented to us and the atmosphere was remarkable. Both Tom Meeten and Mike Fielding had multiple hysterically funny roles that were all superbly acted (give or take a few giggles here and there, but I think they made the show even better).

Judging by the shouts and cheers, the crowd was clearly delighted to see the abundance of plenty of well-loved Luxury Comedy favourites, particularly Fantasy Man, Joey Ramone and New York Cop. We were also introduced to many new characters, played by Tom and Mike, that are already so intricately well-developed and brilliant that they may as well have been around since the The Mighty Boosh.

A striking aspect of this variety-style show was the impressive animation and fluency of its integration into the evening, to the point where I began to believe that a giant plasticine Joey Ramone could actually walk straight out of his plasticine world and onto the stage. I guess a horrifically creepy and violent human version would have to suffice. Everything about An Evening With Noel Fielding has been made with stunning quality, from the efficiency of New York Cop’s audience interrogation (minus a nearly broken toe) to the fantastic music and choreography throughout the proceedings.

Noel Fielding

Thanks to Noel’s lovely managers, Anna and Sean, I was reserved a backstage pass which meant I actually got to meet Noel, Tom and Mike after the show, and it was truly an honour to be able to speak to these lovely people. Anyone who knows me will know that Noel is my absolute hero, so this was a massive deal for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

It’s strange to look back over events and realise the vast expanse between the show’s humble, low-key beginnings with just Fielding on stage, to a mission in a plasticine world with a couple of deluded nitwits riding on a unicorn. But we didn’t even notice the transformation as it happened; that is how skilled these comedians, and everyone working behind the scenes, have been in creating this absolutely wonderful evening of quality entertainment and madness.

Information and tickets are available here

NOEL FIELDING’S MOODYCOMEDY INTERVIEW

Review: Katherine Ryan – Glam Role Model

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Birmingham Glee

© Birmingham Glee Club

Katherine Ryan is one of my favourite comedians (I mean, people) of all time and I hadn’t seen her since the beginning of last year. Luckily, the evening of Wednesday the 12th of November finally arrived and I had the opportunity to visit the infamous Birmingham Glee Club for the first time to see Katherine’s delightful new show, Glam Role Model, at long last. And before the evening had even properly started, I got to meet my lovely twitter friend Sophie, someone who I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for Katherine (so nice one mate).

The support act was Sean Mcloughlin; a new comic for me who has a wonderfully confident stage presence that made his entire set look effortless. He is refreshingly open and modest to the point of self-depreciating, which is something he certainly doesn’t need to be as he is clearly a very naturally funny man. The material that we saw was relatable and accessible to all in the room, as Sean picked apart his own personality and his frustrating lack of money; two hangups that almost everyone has about themselves.

And then the highly anticipated moment arrived. Katherine’s set was honest, diverse and outstandingly funny; she effortlessly combines topical material about pop stars, the royal family and glamour models with precise and intentional messages that she relays to her audience without appearing overbearing at any point. The show also gave us insight into what living in Canada is like as well as comparing that to life in Britain, with clever observations of our culture that many of us living here all our lives haven’t noticed, such as the fact we are the only country where things like Glamour Models and Page 3 are entirely commonplace.

Here we have a comedian who isn’t afraid of potential danger; who often aims to shock in order to get her ideas across, and I think that is the best trait a comedian can have. If you don’t push boundaries with your material, what are you really doing? She has been described to ‘frequently skirt with bad taste’ and I think this captures aspects of her comedy style well, and though this is what has unfairly got her into trouble in the past, I believe it’s what makes her comedy so intensely brilliant. Katherine may be classed as ‘mainstream’, but she has elements of something completely different: this show is perfectly and intricately crafted so that everyone can feel included, but also tackles issues that your average ‘mainstream comic’ wouldn’t dare touch. And she tackles them with force.

Katherine Ryan

Katherine is a comic who leaves a room of people feeling like they have gained something, and they have. Glam Role Model has frequent references to celebrity culture (her signature thing) but she never aims to bring specific people down; rather, she shuns actions and certainly not individuals. Katherine has said that she “soon learned that you won’t get anywhere in this world unless you have a voice,” and that she feels “a great responsibility to say meaningful things through comedy.” Well she has certainly achieved those goals with this fantastic show.

I’ve made it clear in the past that I hugely respect any female comedian, not at all out of sympathy, but purely because I can see what an immensely difficult task that must be, being a teenage girl myself. However, my admiration and respect for Katherine goes beyond this. It’s obvious that here we have a lady who has been through difficult times, particularly relevantly with her reference to recent events in her life that she talks openly about, but Katherine is never one to moan or complain: she just gets on with it. And not only that, she has made something magnificent, heartwarming and ultimately hilarious as a result and that shows amazing strength of character.

If you’re looking for a brilliant role model who just so happens to be a little bit glam too, look no further than my role model, the incredible Katherine Ryan.

Click here for more information about Katherine Ryan’s tour, which she has recently added new dates to

Review: Jason Byrne – You Name The Show

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Jason Byrne arrived in Bromsgrove at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, ready to perform to a relatively small crowd, more of a ‘group’ in Jason’s words.

JasonOn stage stood a giant, colourful wheel that was full of interesting headings that seemed unsystematic but gave us a tiny smidgen of insight as to what was to come. Alongside it stood a whiteboard full of winning titles from each night of the show, from Aberdeen to Colchester and everywhere in between. Each title made no sense to today’s audience as it’s clear each show developed its own ‘in-jokes’ as they progressed. With this in mind, I had no idea how very cliquey our experience was to be, and how strange the people I was surrounded by actually were!

Jason moved around the space with ease. He spoke confidently and we could see that he obviously hugely enjoys what he does. We were assured that he’d never performed stand up at 3pm before, and we were well aware that we were making history (though weren’t sure as to what extent yet).

The show was kicked into gear relatively early on, with an orchestrated act of theft from a man on the front row who, under Jason’s command, stole an air freshener from the toilets. This was entertaining and a source of laughter, but was certainly how the comedian expected things to go. That was until a person went out to the foyer later on and returned with a bin, and then another who came back with a chair, and finally, a man who returned with a massive 6ft stand from reception full of leaflets and flyers which flew everywhere as a small group attempted to get it up on the stage. The scene was an absurd, leaflet-y carnage.

Jason

Jason, Chris, and a room of lunatics

There was a clear definition between material and crowd-work but it ended up that the majority of the show was unique to us, which was by no means a bad thing. Most of the biggest laughs came out of moments of madness from within the audience: such as the person known only as ‘Someone Else’ and the man who spends his days looking at monkeys. This new style of show allows each performance to be entirely incomparable and mean something different to each audience that watches it, whilst also demonstrating Byrne’s brilliant improvisation skills.

Byrne ended by individually thanking each person he had spoken to during the show; people seated here, there and everywhere. As result, and as opposed to my experience in October with the audience for James Acaster (though through no fault of his own), everyone was brought together in beautiful unison. This skilled comedian had managed to make a room full of strangers feel like a gathering of old friends; the atmosphere was electric and many laughs were had.

And that was ‘Three Chris’s, Half a Finger and a Monkey Fucker’. Thank you Jason, and thank you Bromsgrove.

Review: Bramall Comedy Night, Kate Smurthwaite, Stephen Grant & Gary Delaney

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A beautiful new music hall has opened at the University of Birmingham, and with it, a great new monthly comedy event is born. I attended the venue’s second comedy night last Thursday and with such a gorgeous room and discounted prices, what more could you possibly need?

This show works on the basis that there are three acts: a compere, a first act, and a headline act. This time around, our compere was Kate Smurthwaite, a skilful comic who was quick to bounce off her audience and got to know us within minutes. She effortlessly brought us all together, in typical compere-style, by communicating with people of all ages and backgrounds, from all areas of the room.

Bramall HallNext was Gary Delaney, a man who I think understands comedy really well; probably because he works with it on such a small scale, as a one-liner comic. It must be a difficult juggling act performing singular lines to an audience, but Gary was able to judge the room excellently and adjust his material to suit it. As well as the obvious ability to memorise such a vast amount of material, which is often timing and word-order dependent so incredibly easy to get wrong, Delaney also showed great skill at being able to think on his feet by linking jokes fluently and responding to the reactions of people in the crowd. I’d never seen a one-liner comic live before, and though I think I would struggle sitting through a whole hour of solid puns and word-play, I still thoroughly enjoyed the set.

Finally, it was time for Stephen Grant’s relatable and friendly style of comedy. This comic was fast and cynical but open and personable, who spoke confidently with the audience and clearly enjoyed being on the stage. He easily had us all on side which paved the way for some more dangerous material, and one of my favourite jokes of the night, which, with it being the day after bonfire night, inevitably involved terrorists. Needless to say, I’ll definitely be following Stephen’s comedy after seeing this set.

This night of comedy at the Bramall was great fun and I look forward to visiting again later in the year. If you live in or around Birmingham, I definitely recommend you check it out.

Noel Fielding Interview, Part Two: Luxury Comedy

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In the first part of my interview with Noel Fielding, we talked about how he has found performing the first few dates of his tour, An Evening With Noel Fielding. But that’s not all we talked about… During our chat, Noel gave me great insight into the workings behind the second series of Luxury Comedy and how he feels about how people reacted to the show.
© Dave Brown / Channel 4

© Dave Brown / Channel 4

Were you pleased with how the second series of Luxury Comedy was received?

It’s difficult because you want to be free and experiment but a part of you still wants to be accepted. The response to the first series was shocking: people either loved it or hated it and the people that didn’t like it were really hostile. But when you think about it, the Internet didn’t really exist when I did the Boosh and me and Julian weren’t really into that sort of stuff, so we didn’t really get involved in it. But now, the Internet is difficult to ignore and I like to be a bit more involved, a bit more a part of society…

Someone called Luxury Comedy ‘the second 9/11’ which I thought was amazing; I wanted to put that on the DVD cover. But we were never really coming at it from anything other than just an experiment and trying some stuff out.

Some elements I thought were really good, like Serge, from Kasabian, doing the music with me, and we had characters, a story and I thought the animation was amazing. We had loads of people working on the show who were doing an amazing job and I just felt it had potential, so had it set in one place, made the main four characters a family and made it a bit more like a sitcom.

For Series 2, I just used the most successful characters: Fantasy Man, New York Cop, Joey Ramone and we just worked very hard to make the second one more accessible and people seemed to like it.

Fantasy Man

© Dave Brown / Channel 4

We loved all the characters in different ways, but it’s just that there was too many for that first series, it was like a bombardment of characters. Those shows are quite concentrated, even I can only watch about two of them and I have to go “alright, I’ve had enough now”. They’re like undiluted orange juice.

We wanted to make something very different and to try and do something that no one had done before. I think we managed that, but people just want to get the idea and move on; they don’t want to have to watch it two or three times. I think that first series was a bit like a difficult album. You have to watch it two or three times to get into it as it’s quite layered. And television’s quite a disposable medium so it doesn’t get repeated very much so it’s tricky to make television like that. But we did it and I’m proud of it.

Is there still space for the show to change again?

Yeah, but I don’t know, I’d like to do another series. I could just do another one of those, or I could do something different. I’d quite like to do a Fantasy Man series. That could work really well with the juxtaposition between real life, somewhere urban and gritty like Hackney or something, and then this pink fantasy world.

I always talk of a Boosh film too but I sort of got to a point where I really wanted to do something live again and connect with an audience. I’m really enjoying this and I just want to take this as far as I can now.

© Dave Brown / Channel 4

© Dave Brown / Channel 4

Important question here, is Daddy Push ever coming back?

Ah Daddy Push, I love Daddy Push! Do you know what, he was really difficult to get into the series because he’s set in real life. We almost got him in though, we had a joke where we tried to leave the show for a bit because nobody watches this show anyway, and Andy Warhol was going to say ‘but what about the people watching at home?’ and I would say to him ‘what people?’ and then we were going to cut to a family watching our show and it was going be Daddy Push’s family…

Daddy Push and his wife, she was going to have a shell for a head, and the kids, and they had shells for heads, then the dog would have a shell for it’s head. So Daddy Push would be watching our show but it was just for that one moment, and it was too difficult. We’d have had to make a whole like a set; it would have been a nightmare so in the end we didn’t make it but we so wanted to do it.

Me and Nigel love him as well. He was a one off, he’s like Mr Bean, really frightening, horrifying. I’ll have to make a Daddy Push film with him just milling about. I love the fact that you like Daddy Push.

Information regarding Noel’s recently added tour dates for 2015 are here.

CLICK HERE TO READ PART ONE OF MY INTERVIEW WITH NOEL, WHERE WE TALKED ABOUT HIS 2014-15 TOUR.

Review: Paul Foot: Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon # Major

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Another year means another Paul Foot show that I just had to see. This year, Paul brought along a support act in the shape of comical poet, Malcolm Head. Malcolm has a refreshing persona on stage, with his quirky dress sense, aka an over-sized jumper, schoolboy rucksack and small bongo drum, with a National Trust cap to top it all off, to promote the charity (inner workings at play there, as there’s a lot to be gained from having the National Trust on side, apparently).

This poet’s haikus are almost anti-jokes: deadpan and literal, but delivered intentionally tentatively. Malcolm came prepared for heckles of any kind (you’ll have to see him live to learn more) and also had a supply of observational poems and odd thoughts he sometimes writes down. He is a very quaint comedian with a quiet, calm voice but a powerfully funny comedy behind it; I really liked him a lot.

Paul FootPaul’s show, on the other hand, was mismatched and frantic but planned meticulously and performed effortlessly, with a double-bluff fake entrance and lots of shouting and running around in circles- this style of comedy is niche, to put it mildly.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a performer so happy to be on stage in front of a crowd, or so eager to become a part of the audience himself (at the expense of a poor man on the front row). Armed with a stack of whimsical stories, which we are assured are all lies, and a whole new batch of brilliant Disturbances, Paul had the audience in the palm of his hand. A hand that can’t keep still, mind, for this strange comedian’s physical ticks and exaggerated jolts, almost convulsions, are enough to convince an audience that he may be having some form of breakdown before their very eyes. His movements are air-guitar-esque, with hair flicking and head banging that tired him out so much, he had to take off his snazzy jacket.

But a talent of Foot’s is that he can effortlessly swap in and out of his seemingly uncontrollable lunacy, and come out with something quite profound, whether that be in the context of his ‘Hindu Humour’ or his take on homophobia (an extension, perhaps, of his infamous ‘levels of homophobia’ routine that explained the very worst kinds of homophobia, that are increasingly extreme, to say the least).

Paul showed his wicked side with pointless hypotheses, and here again I draw comparisons with Rich Fulcher’s Tiny Acts Of Rebellion, which highlights the most pointless but life-affirming ways to get your own back on the world, like deliberately upsetting owners of a bed and breakfast by abusing the unspoken rules of the breakfast diner. He also managed to mount the same man three times, scream at another man for being allegedly homophobic, and also give us insight into his life as a dinner party host.

I loved this evening of absolute madness and look forward to Paul’s next tour (you can still buy tickets for his current tour here) and I have also found a new hobby of meticulously checking Malcolm’s Twitter feed for more of his hilarious poetry.

READ MY REVIEW OF PAUL’S SHOW FROM LAST YEAR: WORDS.

Noel Fielding Interview, Part One: An Evening With Noel Fielding

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An Evening With Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding has recently embarked on his first live tour since the second Mighty Boosh tour over five years ago, and this time he’s got a whole new agenda. Noel is my comedy hero, and I was honoured to be invited to talk to him about his tour, An Evening With Noel Fielding.

How’s the tour going so far?

It’s going well. Well, it’s alright. It started off well and then I got a bug so I was really sick… but you can’t really stop, that’s the problem. You’ve got to keep going; got to keep doing the gigs! The tour won’t stop so you just have to sort of get on with it.

But it’s going well. The best one, so far, was Halifax.

You’ve added more dates recently as well.

Yeah, tonnes more, I think there may be another thirty or forty, and then twenty after Christmas. I think we’re going to Australia and maybe America, even some parts of Europe or New Zealand, we don’t know yet.

I’d love to do something in America at some point; something completely different. But this is going to be quite a big tour. We’re only at the beginning of it really.

Artistically speaking, what were your aims for this tour?

Well, I wanted to try and make something good, and have it be interactive and have animation so I could make a show that showed all aspects of what I do. But something you’d still be able to enjoy without you having to have seen the Boosh or Luxury Comedy or my stand-up.

I wanted it to be funny for people that hadn’t seen me before and have some audience interaction as well as stand-up, some music and a narrative. We’ve been working on it religiously all year. My brother’s in it, Mike, from The Mighty Boosh and Tom Meeten, who’s a really great comedian.

What kind of ages have your audience members been this time?

I think it was pretty broad even with the Boosh. There were lots of young screaming teenagers but that’s okay, and there were lots of older people in the audience as well. This tour has been quite mixed. There’s a bit where I go into the crowd as a character called New York Cop and I have to interrogate the audience and I chat to them. It’s much more mixed than I thought it would be, which really pleases me.

How have you found the process of writing for a tour compared to writing for television?

It’s a different thing really to writing a TV show; I wrote TV shows back to back so I was getting stir crazy.

I like working with an audience and I love the energy of live gigs so when you’re making TV shows, you don’t really get much feedback other than on the Internet and a few reviews. It’s a bit like working in the dark or in a tunnel so when you come out and do live stuff it’s great to get a reaction straight away.

I had a lot of ideas for the tour show already because I hadn’t toured for a while and I just sort of brought them all together to make one show and made sure it wasn’t too lumpy or too much like a collage of different ideas. I wanted to try and make it flow.

Are there any comedians that you’d like to work with in the future?

I love Tony Law, Paul Foot and James Acaster. Being on Buzzcocks means you get to work with them, but, yeah, I’d love to do stuff with Paul Foot. He’s brilliant and so underrated. He should be a household name.

Russell Brand’s just written a book and I’d quite like to do something with him as well; an improvised show, something unplanned. I like working with Russell. He’s very brave.

What else would you like to do?

I’ve fallen in love with stand-up again whilst doing this tour. There’s about forty minutes of stand-up in the show, and I was very scared because I hadn’t done stand-up for a while, but I managed to do it and I was really enjoying it much more than I thought I would be.

I would like to do a pure stand-up show now as well. And with the Loose Tapestries, Serge and I are always talking about going on tour so that would be fun. I’d like to write children’s books too, so maybe I could do that. I want to do everything!

Information regarding Noel’s recently added tour dates for 2015 are here.

COME BACK NEXT WEEK TO READ PART TWO OF MY INTERVIEW WITH NOEL, FOR EXCLUSIVE INSIGHT INTO THE WRITING AND RECEPTION OF LUXURY COMEDY SERIES TWO.

October: Comedian Of The Month #9, Luisa Omielan

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Each Comedian of the Month on MoodyComedy is a comic who has never previously featured on the website. Reasons for selection can include various current projects the comedian is involved with, or perhaps recent appearances on television programmes or podcasts. There is no strict criteria however, as Comedian of the Month simply stands as a collection of recommendations, highlighting interesting and original aspects of certain comedians and their work.

This month’s Comedian Of The Month is the ever sweet and ever sassy Luisa Omielan, a woman who bravely talks of her life and relationships whilst also demonstrating great creative and observational skill.

Not only is Luisa’s material very funny, it also pushes boundaries and that is everything we should expect from such a great comic (think, Katherine Ryan’s sharp putdowns paired with Sarah Millican’s smut). I know I could say this for virtually every comedian on the circuit but I am going to say it here nevertheless because it’s become very apparent in the case of this particular comedian: Luisa Omielan takes great pride in the effort she has taken to get where she is in her career; she has a clear passion and care for the industry, and her place within that.

It is evident from the clip above that Luisa truly cares about her audience and wants to make them feel good about themselves and happy in general. She is very obviously using the platform of stand up comedy to achieve something, or to share a message, to a large number of people who are willing to listen, and that is what comedy is all about really.

My reading of Luisa Omielan’s comedy is one of feminism at it’s most positive and constructive: there is simply no bitterness or anger present on the stage whilst Luisa is on it, other than when it is truly justified. And in taking on this persona as a comedian who builds women up rather than put men down, a rather prominent gap in the industry that needed to be filled has been filled with ease and charm, and her audiences are left feeling liberated and empowered.

For information on live shows, Luisa’s website is here and you should follow her Twitter too.

SEPTEMBER COMEDIAN OF THE MONTH

Seven Questions With… Katy Brand

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© British Comedy Awards

Katy Brand is a massively successful comedian and writer who has dipped her toes in virtually every water: she’s worked as a stand up, appeared in films and countless television shows, had her own television series, written for newspapers and, most recently, written and published a novel. Here is a woman of obvious ability who is keen to push her own limits to achieve many exciting things and judging by her rich and varied career so far, we can only assume that there will be great things to come from this wonderful and talented comedy-machine.
To delve further into Katy’s fascinating life and learn more about the person behind the comedy, I asked her these seven questions…

1) Do you have any strange hobbies?

Well, for years comedy was my hobby, and then I made it my job, so I think I’ve sort of forgotten how to have a proper hobby in some ways.  I miss having a hobby – I’d like to have one again, but I’ve been working pretty flat out for so many years that it’s fallen by the wayside a little.  It’s important to have hobbies though – I think they stop you being an arsehole, or obsessing about your own little professional world too much.  They give relief and joy (does that sound like the name of a sex shop?)… I remember doing a show with Josie Long called The Bubble where comedians were locked in a house with no internet, TV, phones or radio for three days so we couldn’t see the news, and she was using the time to study for her maths A-Level, just because she wanted to.  I thought that was very inspiring.  I love astronomy, and although I am terrible at maths myself, I would like to get into that more.  And archaeology and anthropology.  I love drawing and painting, too.  I don’t do enough of any of it.

2) Who are your biggest comedic influences?

There was a great run of TV comedy in the 1980s and 1990s when I was growing up that was biting and anarchic and quite rude and raw – The Young Ones, Spitting Image, Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke, French and Saunders, Absolutely Fabulous, and so on.  It seemed very evenly spread too, in terms of class and gender, though perhaps not race.  There were also phenomenally crafted comedies from the US on late like Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show which I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch.  I remember The Kids in the Hall being a great favourite of mine around that time (a lunatic Canadian sketch show), and a British character called The Divine David, created by David Hoyle (go and see him if you ever get the chance) which just blew my mind.  Outside of comedy, Gilbert and George also inspired me a lot – I like anything that feels like trouble, as if the wheels might come off at any moment.

3) You studied Theology at university, how did you find this? What drew you to it? 

I took it upon myself to become an evangelical, happy clappy Christian at the age of 13 (no fault of my parents, who found it simultaneously baffling and hilarious) and I stayed on until the end of my first year at university.  I wanted to study Theology because I wanted to understand more about the origins of my faith, but I was also drawn to the philosophical and psychological aspects too.  My church was not terribly supportive (they were quite rigid about Bible interpretation), and by the end of year one, I was more interested in, ahem, ‘other things’.  I didn’t go back to church, and I threw myself into the comedy and drama scene at University, so I can’t say I was the pride of the Theology Department, although all the tutors and professors were incredibly fascinating, open minded people of the kind you really wouldn’t mind being stuck in a lift with for a few hours, so I enjoyed my studies even if I wasn’t a very diligent student.  I will always defend the study of religion as the social evolution of humanity as a great subject for anyone to get stuck into. 

4) If you could only drink one beverage for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Champagne.  Sorry, but there it is.  I fucking love champagne, and I don’t even care.  I also like Robinson’s Peach squash, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s as good as champagne because it isn’t.

5) What is the worst thing in the entire universe?

Spiders.  They look like death to me.  I shudder and am consumed with mortal dread whenever I see one.  This is one of the reasons why I have been unable to accept the several kind offers I have received over the years to participate in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here.

6) What is the most exciting thing about comedy for you?

That you can stand on a stage and say anything you want and get an immediate response.  It may not be the response you want, but still, you can take an idea from your bedroom to a roomful of strangers in only the time it takes to get to the venue, and see how it plays.  That’s live comedy, of course.  With TV and film, you’re looking at more like two to five years if you’re lucky, which is a little less thrilling…

7) Do you have a piece of knowledge that everyone should hear about?

Here’s three: 1) Sexual promiscuity in women has as much anthropological basis as men, perhaps even more so (for more details, see Sara Pascoe and assorted scientists).  2) Things won’t get better for society until we have a proper system of paid paternity leave which men take without worrying about the consequences.  3) Dogs are the fount of true, unconditional love – you can tell everything you need to know about a person by how they treat a dog.

For more information regarding Katy’s wonderful book, Brenda Monk Is Funny, check out her website or visit her Twitter at @KatyFBrand.

CLICK HERE READ MY REVIEW OF BRENDA MONK IS FUNNY.

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