What do your parents think of your job?
There’s a lot of family-centric stuff in my show, and I mention my dad briefly. I called him to ask for his permission and he said he didn’t care what I’d written, as long as it was funny.
My mum, on the other hand, never actually gave me permission to mention her. In my show, I talk about how she and her siblings were brought up in a cult and left when they were teenagers, so I guess I should have asked… My mum has seen the show though and invited a bunch of her friends to come to the next one, so I think we’re good.
I’m lucky because I come from a family who will even make jokes inappropriately in the middle of a crisis. My cousin once told me that she wanted me to talk about a particular family event in my standup because it was ‘comedy gold,’. I was like, ‘But you’re crying?’.
What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?
Being a comedian can be quite lonely at times because everything you go through, you go through on your own. Luckily, I have a good support network and a brilliant agent, which helps.
Also, the travel. Don’t get me wrong, I love gigging up and down the country. However, when I became a comedian I’d been an actor for many years. I remember saying to myself, ‘I’ll never have to stay in another Budget Ibis again.’ At this point in my comedy career, I’m on a first-name basis with most of the late-night Budget Ibis receptionists in the North West.
I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?
It depends on the day really. When it comes to standup (my sketches and web series obviously don’t apply here) I don’t play a character on stage and am unashamedly myself - existentially lost and a bit quirky. Usually, I feel good about that. Every now and then, however, I have to remind myself that not everyone is going to relate. More often than not, I’m proud of the things I’ve achieved so far and I’m very grateful that I get to do comedy, but occasionally, I want to run away and live on a farmstead in the mountains. Actually, I wish there was a way to do both!
How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?
I don’t earn a lot unless it’s a surprise lump sum, which I get very excited about and spend on frivolities like expensive rugs and central heating. I’d like to earn as much as it takes for me to stop worrying about how much I earn. That would be good.
How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?
I do feel lucky in the sense that I’ve met some really great people who have liked what I do and championed me in their own ways. I wonder what most performers would end up with if they weighed up all the hours of work they’d put in and divided them by all their lucky breaks…
I spent a bit of time gigging in LA recently and the people there are so different in the way they react to compliments! If someone says, ‘Hey dude, you did a great job!’ they won’t say, ‘Thanks, I was lucky *insert self-deprecating comment*’, they’ll say, ‘Thank you, I worked really hard on that!’. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there exactly, being eternally British, but I’m trying to bring in a pinch of it into to way I see things.
Alan Davies has said that comedians fall into two categories - golfers and self-harmers. The former just get on with life, the latter are tortured artists. Which are you – or do you think you fit into third category?
Unfortunately, my brand is sort of ‘faux-posh millennial has a meltdown’, which doesn’t lend itself well to golfing.
Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?
My friend used to live with this woman, Estelle. She was French, in her 80s and lived in a flat with a garden in Chelsea. Her house was filled with art from the 60s and every weekend she’d have her single 80-something friends around. They’d drink coffee with Baileys in the garden at 11am, whilst smoking Silk Cuts (and usually, also, weed). I only met her once but I swore then that, one day, I’d be like Estelle.
Do you keep your drawers tidy and if not why not? (please think long and hard about this question, it's to settle an argument with my girlfriend. The future of our relationship could depend on your response).
I watched all of Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up in one evening on the week the show came out. Without doing much research, me and some of my housemates threw away half of the items in our shared accommodation, saying, ‘I hate this,’ every time something new went in the charity shop bag. It was an aggressive misinterpretation and, Marie, if you’re reading this, I do apologise. I also tidied my sock drawer that night and did the foldy thing. I’ve never looked back.
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