Comedy dynamo Susie McCabe is heading out on a Scottish tour this Spring with her new show, Femme Fatality. McCabe is a brilliant, honest storyteller who is not afraid to get personal. In this latest set she charts her life from growing up in the East End of Glasgow and coming out as gay as a teenager in the 1990s to the present day as one of Scotland's most admired stand-ups.
McCabe has become a familiar TV face, appearing on Have I Got News for You and Frankie Boyle’s New World Order as well as Question Time. Onstage McCabe has played sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and has supported Kevin Bridges, Frankie Boyle and Jason Manford on their tours.
Susie McCabe’s Femme Fatality tour starts on March 24 in Berwick-on-Tweed and runs until St Andrews on May 27. Susie will also be at the Edinburgh Fringe in August. Full details here.
Susie McCabe can be seen on Richard Osman's House of Games from Monday, October 30 - Friday, November 2, 6pm, BBC Two.
Your tour stretches from big cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides.
I’ve got the best job in the world. I love Perth, I love Inverness, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Aberdeen because I used to work there. Dumfries is sold out. I don’t know what it is with me and farmers but they love me!
The Isles of Lewis and Harris are just extraordinary and the people are so friendly. A lot of people want to go to New York to perform but Stornoway is like nowhere else. I played there the night after Alan Carr and my opening line was “Well Stornoway, you wait 200 years and you get two in the one week.” It lifted the roof off. They laughed at themselves, they laughed at me.”
The show is called Femme Fatality? Does it have a theme?
The theme is about me being a disappointment and not living up to the things that I should have lived up to. I was born in 1980, a time when women had specific jobs and expectations. None of the women on television looked like me.
Your comedy appeals to all sorts, all ages, all genders, all sexualities.
The show is a kind of journey so I talk about being gay to frame it at the top, but it's a show for everyone. I enjoy storytelling and holding things up in society and comparing the past to the present. It's all daft, silly and funny.
You are playing hometown gigs at Glasgow's King's Theatre. How does that feel?
The first show there is being filmed for BBC Scotland. It will go out later this year. It’s the first time my show has been filmed. It’s so good to get a female, working class voice on screen. If you had told me 12 years ago when I started that the BBC would be filming me while I dance around for 90 minutes at a sold out show in King's Theatre in Glasgow I’d have bitten your hand off.
Do you have a support act on tour?
I’ve got two support acts. Christopher Macarthur-Boyd and when he is not doing it Paul McDaniel. But neither of them can drive so that was terrible planning by me! But I quite like driving and the journey from Inverness to Ullapool is breathtaking. And I'll get to see the Cairngorms, the Isle of Skye, dolphins and otters. Put on the playlist and it's beautiful...
Will you be taking Femme Fatality to the Edinburgh Fringe?
I'll do a shorter version there. A month in Edinburgh is a long time for any Glaswegian. But I'll commute. I might go to the pub if friends are around but I’m very glad to go home. I’ve got someone at my end staying up to make me a cup of tea and a slice of cheese on toast while I jump in the shower. What matters is that I come home to that person. In fact we are getting married on the Sunday after the Edinburgh Fringe finishes.
Congratulations! Does your partner Nicola get a mention in the show?
I talk about her life and my life and how practical she is compared to me. The humour comes from the clash and I’m always, always the butt of the joke. I try jokes out on her over dinner. She loves comedy, she’ll go to the Fringe and run about seeing all sorts of stuff so she’s a good litmus test for me.
You started doing stand-up in your thirties. What did you do before then?
I used to be an electrician. I worked on large projects – hospitals, prisons, colleges and then became an electrical estimator tendering for work. It was a very good job. I went full time as comedian in 2018 then went back to it during the pandemic so I could earn some money. I was very fortunate that my audiences stayed with me and I was able to come back.
How was Have I Got News For You?
It was great. Jo Brand was host and was everything that I wanted Jo Brand to be. I talk about it in Femme Fatality. The first woman I ever saw on television that was like me was Jo Brand. I remember thinking 'wow, there’s a woman with just a mic being funny'. And then to do Have I Got News For You with her, a programme I’ve watched since I was ten, I absolutely loved every minute of it.
You were very serious on Question Time last year. Would you say you were a political person?
I’ve never been a member of a political party but I do have political views. For the majority of my life I've lived under a government that I haven't voted for, my family haven't voted for, my city hasn't voted for and my country hasn't voted for. I think there's a lot of problems and people who are incredibly poor or cold, or hungry. So it was not up to me to sit there and collect funnies.
Do you have any pre-gig rituals?
I take two berocca tablets and a bottle of water, especially during Edinburgh. For the King's show I’ll probably have a steak and salad around 3pm. After a certain time I can’t eat. Sometimes I'll have a wee nap if I’ve had to drive far. I tend not to drink on tour, it slows you down. I treat comedy like a sport, you’ve got to be match fit!
