British Comedy

Seven Questions With… Josie Long

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The name Josie Long is one that every comedy lover will know, and is a name that brings a smile to the faces of many, including myself. Josie is a loveable and sweet yet sharp-tongued and foul-mouthed stand up comic whose material spans from the fantastical to the satirical. She is a bright and positive light shining through the cracks of an often bitter and brutal comedy industry, and, beginning stand up comedy at the age of fourteen, here we have a lady who was quite simply born to perform.
To learn more from this fascinating comedian, I asked Josie these seven questions…

1) What is your favourite day of the week?

I like Thursdays. I usually have some time to write, and spend the day in my office with my friends Neil and Bryony who run Arts Emergency. Plus the place downstairs does Ethiopian food at lunchtime and it is great!

2) Biggest misconception someone could have about you?

That I like pointless twee tat. I like things that have a lot of functionality to them. I do really like homemade things, but I don’t like that many things that are purely decorative or too silly.

3) How would you define your ‘audience’?

I feel so lucky to have such kind and friendly people at my gigs. Is it too shallow and stupid to say they look really cool? I think my dream crowd is on a wavelength with me- so earnest, slightly awkward nerds are probably my dream audience. It’s interesting though I think – because I do a lot of different types of things, my audience can vary a lot; sometimes it’s a very political crowd, and sometimes it’s more people who’ve heard me on radio 4. Other times it’s just drunk people who don’t want to be there!

Photo: Giles Smith

Photo: Giles Smith

4) What is your opinion on poetry?

I love reading poetry. I wish that everybody read more poetry. There is so much out there to discover. There’s a poetry library in the RFH on the South Bank and it’s such a brilliant place to go and just enjoy finding new poets.  I like poetry because you can always dip in and out of reading it. You’ve always got time to read a short poem, and they can capture something so important or so beautiful that they can profoundly help you, or stir you, or challenge you. And you might just be reading it in five minutes on the bus and POW that’s your life changed!

5) What are you driven by in life?

I think I just like the idea that I could keep trying new things and meeting interesting people. I really want to get better as a writer and as a performer too. I would also say I am quite heavily free meal/canapé/free sparkling wine/free travel motivated. I will take pretty much any gig if there is free food or a jolly involved. Other than work, I am driven by trying to do things for the people I love and trying to make the world a better place in my own silly way.

6) What is your favourite thing on TV right now?

I’ve been watching The Fall with Gillian Anderson on iPlayer and it’s very good. I think she’s a fantastic actor.

7) Is being a performer the best therapy?

TV Review: Toast Of London, Series 2

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The king of voiceovers, the prize idiot, the most unsuccessful actor ever to grace our television screens: Steven Toast is back.

Matt Berry is a true talent who has proved he is able to play a huge variety of different roles, but each character always has that signature Berry-style about them, and that’s what makes him so enjoyable to watch. Series two comes armed with recurring jokes from the first series, with appearances from Ray “Bloody” Purchase and regular and consistently awkward conversations with the delightfully irritating Clem Fandango.

Steven Toast has an air of self-importance and a clear sense of disgust and disregard for anyone else, despite him often being the one portrayed as the fool in a wonderful example of dramatic irony. This dramatic irony is what makes the series so entertaining and even painful to watch in some places; Toast is an arrogant cretin who says and does the most terrible things, yet the joke is always on him.

With its offbeat storylines accompanied by incredible and hilarious musical interludes (written and performed by Berry), Toast Of London is peculiar, rapidly changing and absolutely outrageous. The stable and sarcastic character of Ed Howzer-Black (Robert Bathurst) compliments Toast’s childish pedantry brilliantly, with his dead-pan delivery of such horrendous lines. As well as Bathurst, Doon Mackichan is a delight to watch, playing Toast’s agent, Jane Pleugh. Mr Pleugh gets the limelight in one of my favourite scenes of the series, her incredibly funny acid trip in episode four (“High Winds Actor”). The new instalment of Toast Of London also includes appearances from the likes of Peter Davison (Doctor Who), Matthew Holness (Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace), Morgana Robinson (House of Fools), Steve Pemberton (The League of Gentlement) and Terry Mynott (The Mimic).

Toast of London has been accused by some of being sexist but surely it is satirical. Steven Toast is a man that we aren’t supposed to really like. He’s a moron; an egotistical snob who’s career really isn’t going anywhere. The show is often uncomfortable and intentionally distasteful, smooth to the extent that the sarcasm can be missed, to the point that watchers may be inclined to look away from the screen or cover their ears. My reading, however, is a positive one. Many parts of the show I found unnecessary, such as the sheer amount of nudity in every episode, as I generally don’t think a good comedy needs to hide behind crude references in order to be funny; Toast could do without it, though it’s likely that this aspect is relied upon for Toast’s own character development.

The second series of Toast of London has taught me a lot about my own taste in comedy, and the more I think about the programme, the more I realise how much I enjoyed watching it.

CATCH UP WITH TOAST OF LONDON, SERIES TWO ON 4OD.

Podcast Review: Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast

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When Richard Herring shouts “RHLSTP!” to his audience at the Leicester Square Theatre, they holler it back instantaneously, and at twice the volume. It immediately becomes clear that I’ve stumbled across a society, a cult, and something that I want to be a part of.

Beginning the podcast in 2012, Herring has now hosted over fifty interviews of at least an hour per episode. With a rich array of popular guests, ranging from the wave of newer, trendy comics like James Acaster, Sara Pascoe and Katherine Ryan, to the classics, including Steve Coogan and Tim Minchin, this podcast has something for everyone, be that comedy-obsessive, like me, or not. Herring is an expert. He combines his sometimes childish nature with excellent wit, sarcasm and often surrealism in a perfect balance that enables viewers and listeners to be educated as well as entertained. Both he and his guests clearly enjoy the discussions they have, and in turn, I thoroughly enjoy listening to them, and will continue to do so until there are no episodes left to hear.

richard herring

If you are looking for in depth insight into the comedy industry, I recommend you start with Sara Pascoe’s interview. I also particularly enjoyed her episode because I think she is an incredibly interesting person, with a great philosophy about her which I could listen to all day long. As with these podcasts, if you don’t normally listen to them, it is so important that you listen to the ones with comics you don’t know as well as the ones with people you do. This works to both the comic’s benefit and your’s, by enabling listeners to be introduced to new names. And there are so many new names.

Despite these podcasts already working on the basis of paying whatever you want to, whatever you think the show deserves, and whatever you are able to pay: in yet another act of generosity, Richard has decided to release the latest batch of RHLSTP episodes as videos on Youtube, which are normally only available to paying listeners. As a person who can’t afford to pay for these podcasts right now, I feel it is only right to spread the word about these hidden gems of the internet. They’re perfect for long car journeys or to fill time when you should be working, and they also teach us a great deal about the secrets of the industry. We even get some gossip, which is always a plus in my book.

You can, and should, listen to and download Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast via his website, or on iTunes. It would also be brilliant if all of you that are able to could pay something towards the running of the show.

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

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.

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.

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