How did you get into comedy? I studied the history of variety and vaudeville under Oliver Double at university and then did a master’s in standup comedy. I was really interested in laughter theory: what laughter is, why humans do it, how making people laugh works theoretically. It had a certain amount of practical work where you had to do 10 gigs and document them. I did 40 and then never stopped. Who did you look up to when you were starting out? Eddie Izzard is the first comedian I became aware of – I remember finding the shows and the vibe so funny. My parents had a cassette of the show Glorious and my sister and I listened to it endlessly. For my 17th birthday my sister took me to see Sexie and that was my first live comedy show. When I got started, Tiernan Douieb was beyond lovely and I had support from the producer John Fleming who seemed to see something in me and was very kind. I’ve always loved Zoe Lyons. I’m very drawn to the people who are funny, kind and bemused by the idea you would look up to them. Do you have any pre-show rituals? I used to not be able to wear shoes on stage. I was so distracted by my feet being in them. I got over that when I sliced my foot open on some broken glass on stage in Birmingham one night. Can you remember a gig so bad, it’s now funny? It makes my blood run cold thinking about it. I’d been booked to do a gig at a racecourse, which is not unusual: I thought it’d be in a function room somewhere. Oh no, it was outside on a small podium in the thoroughfare where all the food stalls were. They wanted each comedian to do 15 minutes between the races. We were just talking to a crowd of people who had absolutely no idea why we were doing it or that it was meant to be standup comedy. It was, and I don’t say this lightly, truly one of the most humiliating things I have ever done. Any bugbears from the world of comedy? When I have hosted a comedy night and someone who has enjoyed my bits comes up and says: “Oh you should have done a spot, have you ever thought of being a comedian?” I just want to scream. With the instability caused by the pandemic, what can be done to keep standups on the circuit? I’d like to see more nurturing of new talent and the amplification of voices who have been around a while. The industry likes to rocket people or ignore them. Rocketing people can, but doesn’t always, strip them of the time required to develop naturally. And on the flip side, brilliant voices are ignored because they matured in their own time. Comedians like Mark Nelson, Abigoliah Schamaun, Will Duggan and a hundred others I could name are doing really interesting things and are all the better for having been on the circuit for a few years. I’d love to see them have a few more TV breaks. I think social media is changing that, people like Troy Hawke are having phenomenal success bypassing the gatekeepers, but an industry that didn’t write people off if they’re not a regular TV panellist within a year would be better. Your debut novel, Pivot, came out earlier this year. What interested you in fiction writing? I didn’t want to do the research required to write nonfiction really. I like stories, I like people and I like humour. Writing fiction allows me to write things that wouldn’t work on stage because of the limitations of standup comedy. I have a voice and a persona my comedy needs to fit with, but a book lets you try on new perspectives. Are there any similarities between writing standup and writing a novel? I found them very different. Standup offers almost instant gratification for your ideas and jokes whereas a book is playing the long game. But writing a book was looser because I didn’t have to write to a tight frame of: “This gig is 20 minutes, a joke every minute at least … structure the sentence to best get the laugh.” You can build more without needing to stick to the rhythm of live comedy. Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Put some shoes on, your foot is bleeding. Worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given? It’s essential to do the Edinburgh fringe every year to build “momentum”. What are you most excited for right now? My new podcast, Lexx Education. I’ve been working with my younger brother, who is a huge science nerd, on a podcast where he teaches me GCSE science. It’s exactly the sort of project I love: giddy, silly, interesting and made purely for the love of it. I’m also resurrecting a project I did through lockdown – writing a book based on audience votes. The audience votes and then I write a new chapter and read it live. I did it nightly through the lockdowns and the community we built was absolutely stunning. I’m restarting it from October, as a weekly project, for people who might need a bit of free comfort and company through the winter months. I’m excited about that because, again, it’s forging works that are very me instead of chasing a vague idea of what I “should” be doing to “win” at having a career.