By Bruce Dessau on 31/7/2017
6. What do your parents/children (delete as applicable) think of your job?
They are very proud and supportive; almost too much. They are at the Fringe for 3 days this year and they’ve booked my show every night. It’s madness. GO AND SARA PASCOE, I tell them. OR RACHEL PARRIS. But they won’t. Sorry to brag but they REALLY like me.
7. What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?
The look that people give you when you tell them what they do and they’re trying to stop themselves saying, ‘But… you’re not that funny’. Telling someone you’re a comedian always seem to invite an awkward conversation. I resorted to saying ‘I work in comedy’ on my dating app profiles, which once got met with, ‘Oh what, do you serve drinks in a comedy club? #Casualsexism for the win’. Reader, I married him.
8. I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?
Thank you Bruce. I think you are very good at what you do too. I think I’ve got a lot better. I’m not very proud of a lot of the stuff I did at the beginning of my career, but I think I’m improved a fair bit. I do sometimes find myself getting sick of the sound of my own voice, so I’m thinking about playing a few voice overs of Gregg Wallace from Masterchef during my set to break up the monotony.
9. How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?
I would like to earn £10,000 - that is currently the biggest number I can think of. When I did last year’s tax return, I had three consecutive months of earning £41 a month, but things tend to balance out with adverts and voiceovers. I’ve gone about a year and a half without having to temp or get another job,
10. How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?
I don’t know if I believe in luck to be honest. I understand the concept of being in the right place at the right time, but I don’t think you get by purely on luck. The talent and the work ethic has to be there. I suppose I could say that I was lucky that I got the agent I wanted, and lucky that I started doing online youtube stuff at a time when it was still a new and exciting platform, but that came from a lot of hard work and seven years of getting nowhere.
11. 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 a third category?
It depends on where I am in my cycle. Most of the time I’m a golfer- I can be quite stoic and I’ve got a thick skin and I don’t take things too personally. But for about five days a month I’m tortured and can’t dress myself and cry at Countdown.
12. Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?
I think at the moment Chance the Rapper. Or maybe Camilla from Love Island. For the same reasons - they’re both kind and sexy.
13. 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).
Absolutely not. I do try; I read a book called ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying’ which encourages you to fold all your clothes in a very specific way for optimum tidiness and ease and minimal creasing. It’s the perfect thing to do when you're procrastinating and trying to put off writing an Edinburgh show, but other than that it’s entirely unsustainable.
Jenny Bede: Eggtime is at The Pleasance Dome, August 2 - 28. Tickets here.
