Viva Brighton Issue #61 March 2018

COMEDY
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Sara Pascoe
Has her cake... and takes it home
What’s the new show
about? Having fun,
trying new things.
Attempting to be braver
and more self-reliant
as I get older. Not in a
‘growing up’ way, but in
a ‘there’s so much more
I haven’t experienced’
way. It’s not a political
show, but it’s the usual
over-sharing and
mini-rants.
Does comedy enable
you to say things that
you wouldn’t say normally?
I have a routine
about this is in my show,
actually, it’s worked the
other way around. Being able to say what I
want onstage has made me far less reserved
in real life and sometimes I should shut up
and not say everything that’s on my mind!
Are you daunted by such a long tour after
taking time out to write a book? I love
going on tour. I love our nation, I love rainy
days up north and cold evenings by the seaside.
It’s a luxury to get to travel for one’s job
and it’s still a novelty for me. Ask me again in
twenty years! Writing a book has changed my
stand-up, I think I’m funnier now because
I can spend more time with ideas for the
books. After a day’s writing, doing a gig is a
release and much sillier than thinking about
porn or FGM.
Are there any subjects you try to avoid?
At the moment, party politics. I feel like we
all build narratives of bad and good, and we
are having our buttons pressed by current
events but sometimes
emotive reactions are
not constructively useful.
I haven’t found a way
to talk about politics in
general which is funny
and non-binary. When I
do, I’ll... well I’ll do it.
Do you think the world
of comedy has changed
at all since you started?
Hmm, I think audiences
are changing and that
directly influences the
acts. Comedy used to
be a crueller place, and
while there’s still lots
of that stuff (and lots of
people who love it) there
is more diversity now. And I hope that continues.
Live comedy is flourishing within an
economic downturn and that is because the
people making jokes are from a much wider
spectrum. Their experiences are fresh and
exciting and audiences want that.
What was Brighton like when you were
here for university? I’ll always love Brighton
and Hove. It’s a vegan Mecca, there are
restaurants that call to me ‘come down for
the day and take some cake home with you’.
Although I have to say, I appreciate it much
more now. Because of money. I was poor at
university and couldn’t take advantage of
all the great things to do because I couldn’t
afford to go out. But I did love walking my
dog Rusty on the Downs and by the sea, and
that was free!
As told to Ben Bailey
Brighton Dome, Wed 7th Mar, 8pm, £19/15
Photo by Matt Crockett
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