Comedy: Jo Caulfield interview
Joining Lewes’ most hilariously funny night, Comedy At The Con, Jo Caulfield stops in from her current tour
How the devil are you?
“I am in that blissful state at the beginning of the year where I deludedly think ‘This is the year I will become a better person!’
“I will be the new Angelina Jolie! Now I’m thinking how easy it would be if you looked like Angelina Jolie. Already I am spiralling into mean and cynical thoughts… well, maybe next year will be the year.”
What’s it like getting back into touring after the seasonal lull from gigging?
“Speak for yourself. Slacker. Christmas and New Year are busy times in comedy. I started work again on 27 December. Post Christmas shows are great fun as everyone has survived seeing their relatives and are delirious just to be out of the house.
“I love Christmas because it’s the one time of year that my taste in décor is appropriate. Some people call it Christmas, I call it Drag Show Kitsch, and it lasts all year.
“New Year’s Eve is a great night to work. I get paid to let strangers buy me drinks. What could be a more positive way to start a new year?”
Your BBC radio ‘Speakeasy’ show gathers storytellers. What drew you to that?
“I started telling some true stories on tour, usually involving me humiliating myself and, much to my annoyance, audiences really liked them. Apparently the more I make a tit of myself the more they enjoy it. Thanks audience.
“I also enjoy watching storytelling and I basically set up a night that I would enjoy watching. We have a wide variety of people telling stories – comedians, journalists, magicians, writers, performance artists, rappers, poets. wWe’ve even had a mime artist.
“I also like it involving people of different ages and from different worlds.”
What would you say the difference is between stand up and storytelling?
“It’s great watching comedians when the pressure to be funny is taken away, when the story is what’s important. They often actually end up being much funnier!
“There is more time in storytelling to bring out different emotions. What I like in storytelling is also what I like in the best comedy – you go on a journey and you know the comic/storyteller better at the end of the show.”
Last year’s Edinburgh Fringe saw you in a satirical play of the BBC, which counted a number of recognised comics in its cast. Would you like to do more acting?
“I would love to! Mainly because I don’t have to write it. I just turned up and learnt their funny lines. The part was perfect for me. In fact, I was a little insulted that they offered it to me without even auditioning me. They said: ‘It’s so you!’ Mmmmm… I played the part of a hard, cynical and hugely sarcastic MP who plots the destruction of her closest friend.
“I do find the ‘loveyishness’ of actors hilarious. They are always telling anecdotes about famous people, but famous people they’ve never met. Nothing annoys them more than saying; ‘Oh, so when did you work with Lawrence Olivier?’
“They are also a bit to quick to ‘love you’. I’m used to comics. We are all horrible to each other. We show affection with a nicely worded insult. The nastier the insult the bigger the love!… well that’s what I tell myself…”
What are your official plans – and your secret plans – for 2014?
“Damn, don’t have any secret plans. I must make some secret plans. Official plans are… continue writing funny things to say. Also continue to waste my time putting ideas into TV. Also, I would like to learn to sea kayak. but I’ve been saying that for ten years. That’s my secret plan – I will NOT learn to sea kayak again.”
What do you think of the current trend towards touting ‘feminist comedy’ at the Next Big Thing (™) in the media?
“Typical annoying media nonsense. If a woman goes out on stage as a working comic, believe me, she is a feminist. However it’d be great if feminism becomes something that young women are proud to acknowledge again because of this recent media interest. The battle for female equality is not over.
“I want women to leave my show feeling happy and more confident because I did a good job. I want them to be proud of me, well not me, but me because I’m a woman.”
Which comic you’ve seen recently would you tag as live comedy’s best kept up and coming secret?
“I worked with a very interesting young comic recently. Jonny Pelham, funny, intelligent and interesting.”
Comedy At The Con, The Con Club, 139 High Street, Lewes, Saturday 1 February 2014, 8.30pm, £10/8, www.wegottickets.com/ComedyAtTheCon, 07582 408418.
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