A slightly longer version of this interview appeared in the Evening Standard in April here.
Twelve months ago I predicted that Rachel Parris would be famous. She was writing catchy comic songs, picking up roles in sitcoms and performing onstage in the improvisation group Austentatious. I didn’t predict that her fame would come through discussing Piers Morgan having his face between Donald Trump’s naked buttocks.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” says Parris as she relaxes in the cool, glass-walled conference room of the swanky PR company she has recently taken on. Her weekly slots on BBC2’s satirical show The Mash Report — tackling topics and asking questions including gender equality, “How not to sexually harass someone”, “Are millennials really a bunch of snowflakes?” and, most notably, Piers Morgan’s interview with the American President, regularly went viral.
Just before The Mash Report Parris had planned a modest tour including an imminent run at the Soho Theatre. “The tour was so small no publicist would take it on. But now shows that were selling 20 tickets have been selling out.” This may be partly due to Piers Morgan repeatedly tweeting the now-infamous illustration by Ben Blease and complaining about the BBC broadcasting the image, prompting people to check out the accompanying monologue by Parris.
So after Parris in the spring there is now Parris in the autumn, with a major tour and a London show at the Leicester Square Theatre in September. Oh, that gig has sold out too. There is now a further London date in March 2019.
Working with a team of writers was intense, as attention on her snowballed and pressure increased. “After the first week, when I did a thing about sexual harassment. The challenge was not just to be funny but also important. It was an insane time. That Trump/Morgan week was a wholly unexpected amount of attention, good and bad from all sides of the world. My anxiety levels went through the roof. It was a great time but incredible and scar
There is an anxious side to her as well as an upbeat side. Her 2016 show Best Laid Plans was about her reaction to hitting 30 and splitting up with her partner just when she thought she was about to settle down. “That was my darkest phase.” Depression hit her hard and eventually she contacted the Samaritans. “I wasn’t suicidal, I just needed to reach out to someone to have a dialogue. They really helped me build myself back up.”
She is keen to talk about mental-health issues. “I’m lucky to have depression less severely than a lot of people. I know some find it useful to talk about it and people are definitely doing that more. It’s becoming less stigmatised.”
While she describes herself as “Left-leaning and liberal”, cutting-edge politics had never really been on her CV. Her last show, Keynote, was about being invited back to her school to talk to pupils. While the spring tour will be an updated version of Keynote, the autumn tour, entitled It’s Fun to Pretend, will mix old and new material.
“I feel I’ve got more to say. People are going to be coming to the show expecting a live version of The Mash Report with my hot takes on the issues of the day.” She cringes when she uses the phrase “hot takes” but she knows that is how she is seen .
It does seem as if she is still slightly stunned by all the attention. Nothing in her background prepared her for it. She grew up in Leicester and describes her parents as “normal people”. Her mother is a hairdresser, her father worked in a bank. She graduated from Oxford with a BA in music and before her comedy career took off she worked as a piano teacher and in cocktail bars.
As well as being busy touring, The Mash Report is due to return for a second series later this year. It has previously been accused of Left-wing bias. Parris, who lives in Stockwell, not far from Westminster, suggests that while it is natural to criticise whoever is in government, the programme is an equal-opportunities lampooner. “We mocked the absolute shambles that is Brexit and the horror that is Trump, but a lot of the sketches highlighted the excesses of oversensitive liberals.”
She acknowledges that there are “more Corbyn supporters than May supporters” on the show but maintains that this does not force the programme to lean to the Left. “It doesn’t affect it as much as you think. If Corbyn was PM we’d take the same line on him. It’s not a Labour Party script. If Labour were in power they’d get a lot more s*** thrown at them.”
She has Piers Morgan to thank for turbo-charging her rise. Perhaps he should receive a slice of her ticket sales. But if she didn’t have the talent to back it up she would soon fall by the wayside. They haven’t met but Parris says: “I’d love to chat to him if the occasion arose.” Maybe he should support her on tour.
Rachel Parris is touring It’s Fun to Pretend from September (rachelparris.com). Austentatious has a monthly residency at the Savoy Theatre, WC2; austentatiousimpro.com and tours the UK from September 2018.
