What do your parents/children (delete as applicable) think of your job?
My children are all really supportive and have all seen my show but I think they wish they hadn’t. I asked my youngest (17) if she had any tips for me and she said ‘Yes, don’t get your bum out’. My dad calls my show ‘the dirty show’, he would never come and watch it and if pressed urge other people to miss out as well. My mum is dead but she was a big fan of my comedy and once she and her friend Carolyn appeared in a sketch show I had written as the Porn Grannies.
What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?
The worst thing about being a comedian is how one minute you can be confidant and the next you don’t even understand what makes anything funny. Like Wilbur, you have to stay humble. I spend a lot of my time talking to myself about my confidence, which, since menopause has been harder to locate.
I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?
Tbh, I adore myself. But I do struggle with my imperfections. I am really proud of the family that I have raised and all the relationships I have and I feel that I have done some good work but I also feel that the best is yet to come, I have always been second or third fiddle but now I feel ready to step out into the limelight and be first recorder.
How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?
If my outgoings weren’t enormous I would consider that I earn quite a lot but my ambition is to have a couple of years when I earn eye watering amounts as I have a few plans I want to put into action.
How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?
You can’t underestimate how important luck is in terms of success. Hard work and natural ability always walk hand in hand with lady luck. They are all a team and to deny that is to say that all people less successful than you either didn’t work hard enough or don’t have as many natural talents. My first big TV job (This Life) was a lucky break - I went in for another character that I wasn’t right for and they spotted me for the part I eventually got.
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?
I am definitely in a third category - I would say I was a blithe panicker. I spend half of my life coasting along sure that this is the best of all possible worlds but the minute enough stuff goes wrong I become a shivering wreck. I panic, realise no one is coming to sort my life out, pull myself together, fix it and go back to being blithe. Until the next crisis hits.
Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?
Once I went to get my mum a passport when I was a kid. She hadn’t given me the right kind of payment and having queued up all day they wouldn’t issue her emergency passport that she needed urgently. The man behind me paid for it and gave me his address to pay him back which of course I did. I am a big fan of him. In Tesco’s today a man paid for a steak pie an old lady couldn’t afford - those are my favourite kind of people. But my favourite person ever has to be Dolly Parton. Although a good rule of thumb of who your favourite people are is who you would want on your deathbed and I think I might be a bit freaked out if Dolly turned up.
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 answer
I don’t keep my drawers tidy as life is too short. I feel that a quick rummage and most things can be found in a drawer...except for socks. I really like getting into my sock drawer and balling my socks whilst watching MAFS*, it makes MAFS feel like a constructive activity.
Juliet Cowan’s ‘Fuck Off & Leave Me Alone’ is at the Pleasance Dome – Jack Dome @ 7.00pm for tickets go to www.edfringe.com
*I presume Juliet means Married At First Sight unless there is a show called Men Are Flipping Stupid.
PHOTO CREDIT – KARLA GOWLETT
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