November: Comedian Of The Month #22, Jessie Cave
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.
Jessie Cave is a comedian with her fingers in many pies, epitomising the spirit of a naive school girl, with a style of comedy that borders on being uncomfortably honest. Recognisable from major franchises such as Harry Potter and Glue (Channel 4), Cave is an actress, artist, blogger, stand up comedian and all-round creative with a great deal of natural talent and innovation. It only takes a brief glance at her Instagram page to determine that here we have someone who is one of a kind, and is making a great success of that fact.
Though the amount of pure stand up available on the internet is extremely limited, it is easy to see that Jessie’s stage persona is very similar to the persona she presents through various other artistic mediums, such as through her cartoon doodles and short films. Her latest stand up hour I Loved Her has been praised for its truthfulness and bitter edge, describing the woes of neurotic obsession, possessiveness and extreme loneliness.
© Jessie Cave
In 2012 Jessie Cave worked as essentially a part of Simon Amstell’s publicity team, creating a series of strange YouTube interviews with the aim not only to promote Amstell’s show Numb, but also as a means of attempting to make the comic as enthusiastic about the internet as Cave is. As well as being able to portray Amstell in a way that is more realistic than that of other comedy appearances (note his time spent as controversial Never Mind The Buzzcocks host), these videos demonstrate Jessie’s ability to derive humour from standard conversations, a side effect, no doubt, of her bubbly personality.
It is hard to avoid the fact that Jessie Cave is a character, or at least an exaggeration of the performer, but this is a character that audiences feel inclined to indulge. She is like being in the school playground; she is misbehaving in class.
For more information, visit Jessie Cave’s website, follow her on Twitter and subscribe to her YouTube channel.