Comedy: Jo Neary
Playing at several shows in the Brighton Fringe is character comic Jo Neary who took time for a chat with Victoria Nangle
You appear to be doing oodles of shows in the Brighton Fringe. How important is the Brighton Fringe to you as a performer?
I love Brighton so much, I really lord it about at my Brighton gigs because I feel so relaxed and welcome, with an appreciative audience, I just love these gigs.
It boosts my confidence to the extent that my colleagues in London and at the Edinburgh Festival would hardly recognise me. Stand up comedy is quite a lot to do with confidence, I think.
I’m going to be at the Komedia which is one of my favourite ever venues, even though it’s gone through many changes over the years, it’s still brilliant and they have an anniversary this year.
I’m at Bom-Banes in Kemp Town which is like a venue in Cornwall in the 1970s – adorable. And I’m at the Speigeltent for the BOAT benefit that same night, it’s very exciting. Very pretty. Maybe I’ll work on a musical box routine for that or a lady dressed as a standard lamp, perhaps? To fit the decor.
I think I’ve not missed doing something at Brighton Festival for what feels like 18 years. You can be very experimental and try new things in Brighton, which is exciting and terrifying because often you don’t know if something is going to work until you’re onstage and doing it. That freedom and support is crucial to my development as a performer.
What made you choose to write comic characters to perform as opposed to straight stand up or sketch comedy. It seems to be where the two meet?
I was really inspired by Joyce Grenfell when I was in my twenties and I didn’t know what stand up was. And when I first went and did a stand up night, I did my Welsh grandmother and nearly got picked to go through to ‘So You Think You’re Funny?’ (respected UK new act comedy competition) but didn’t, because it was a character and they wanted stand up obviously. But I guess I could have called it stand up? I mean, Mark Watson used to put on a Welsh accent for his stand up, didn’t he, and he’s not Welsh? And Al Murray’s Pub Landlord is a character doing stand up. But my first ever performance as a Welsh woman, was a bit bonkers.
I find doing characters very freeing as I can say things I wouldn’t dare say, in someone else’s voice. I actually think I’m a rather boring individual and I haven’t really wanted to stand on stage and hold court in my own voice.
You’ve done a fair bit of work in TV and radio. In a perfect world what would your own show be like and in which format?
For radio, I’d like to do The Tuesday Week Show which is me and Al Kerr as Celia Johnson and her husband Fred, hosting a radio show in a local village hall, looking at local events and interviewing local celebrities who no one else has heard of. There’s an agony aunt section, DVD reviews and Talent Turns. A bit like Viz but not rude and presented by a married couple who could be from the 1940s and make it look like it’s all about to fall apart. We actually did make that as a pilot for BBC2 a few years ago and our guests were John Sergeant and Joanna Page. John really ‘got it’. They built us a village hall at BBC TV Centre, it didn’t get commissioned though.
I’m not the world’s greatest talk show host but we had fun trying. HA! As for a different idea for TV,
I always want to copy the last great thing I’ve seen. I’d like to do comedy inspired by the art world. It would work best at 9pm on BBC Four. Are you asking for a friend? Email me.
Jo Neary VS Dyball & Kerr
Mon 5 May (6pm) and Mon 26 May (4.30pm), Komedia
Russell Neary
Fri 23 May (7pm), Bom-Bane’s
Jo Neary And Friends
Thurs 29 May (8pm),
Caroline Of Brunswick
