What do your parents think of your job?

I’m very careful not to ask them because, while my pain tolerance is high, it has limits. 

What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?

Sometimes I feel like a very sad clown and the nature of making people laugh feels disingenuous. Insert joke here, to lighten that! 

Also, I still get quite anxious ahead of a show much of the time. I don’t like that feeling.

I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?

Thanks for the kind words! 

It depends on the day and the moment of the day. Right now I’m feeling pretty okay, but I’m very hard on myself.

“Oh, right now you’re okay? When was the last time you volunteered at a dog shelter? The house is a mess. You’re not even ready for your show tonight.”

That’s just a fun sampling, native to this very moment!

But also… I think I’m a complex, poetic individual with a love of language and animals and music, and I like those things about me. 

How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?

Not trying to be cagey but I don’t know how to answer that question. It varies so wildly. I’ve made $60k for writing a script, and gotten a residual check for $1. I’ve done commercials that paid well and done loads of stand-up for no money at all.

What I can say is that I’m always nervous about being broke and for many years I was. My first real splurge was at 26 years old on a brand new mattress and bed, compared to all the used ones I’d inherited.

I want to say I’d like a billion dollars, but I think I’d have a hard time with that, too. 

I’d like enough to not worry about money, but I think I’ll always worry about money — and everything else.

Let’s say 25 million? (If you were anxious reading that, imagine being me, ALL THE TIME.)

How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?

I believe luck is EVERYTHING. I’ve seen the most talented of people caught in relentless and eternal struggles, and some of the least talented people reach the highest of career heights. 

Sometimes it’s timing, or connections, or the right “look.” 

Perseverance is a huge component, but even that’s sorta the luck of the genetic lottery. Some of us get too tired, and rightfully so!

I have a friend who is an incredible artist and writer and has been for decades. But it was only when he started working with a family member, who has business savvy, that anyone cared and he started to make money. He always had the talent but without that stroke of luck — a relative who saw dollar signs and knew what to do with an artist like him —  he’d likely be in that struggle forever. 

I made a series called 7p/10e (www.7p10e.com) and released it at a time when people were interested in web series. It was named the second best of the year by LA Weekly, and I think that led to CBS finding it and ultimately licensing it. 

I worked hard on it, of course, but it leading to financial success took enormous luck. I think my newer series, Passover.gay, is just as good, and its found the loveliest fans, but it hasn’t led to any money or opened any doors. There’s no coverage of web series now. Things change.

It’s ALL luck. 

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?

Self-harmer all the way, baby! 

I hate it. 

I feel every little thing. My mom told me that as a 5-year-old I wept for a discarded couch on the side of the road because it was once beloved, and now it was abandoned. 

I try to play it cool but even now I feel so much of the suffering in the world. If anyone knows how to teach golf, in that philosophical sense, sign me up! Tortured is for the birds. 

Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?

Leonard Cohen. He makes me believe in something greater than myself, he makes me feel holy. Sometimes his songs are my only tether to the world. 

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

“You can drink it or you can nurse it. It don’t matter how you worship. As long as you’re down on your knees.”

“Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good, so I never tried.”

“Going home without my burden, going home behind the curtain, going home without this costume that I wore.”

I could do this all day so I’ll stop. Devastated I never got to meet him before he died. Every story I hear from anyone who’s met him is more lovely than the last.

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 do, BUT… everything around them is messy. I’m a perfectionist about my drawers — they’re all folded Marie Kondo style. But when I’m harried and rushed (aka ALWAYS) — there are piles of clothes all over the place that don’t get put away for ages! But the drawers themselves? Stunning!

Avital Ash’s debut stand-up show ‘Avital Ash Workshops Her Suicide Note’ is at the Monkey Barrel: The Tron at 10.05pm from 1st – 27th August (not 14th) for tickets go here.

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