Emma McAlpine talks to comedian and actress Sara Pascoe ahead of her shows at the Soho Theatre this weekend.
After splitting up with a stand-up comedian, Sara Pascoe found the best way to mend a broken heart was to get behind the mic herself. Now she's won awards and has appeared in several TV comedies from BBC2's The Thick Of It to Channel 4's Free Agents. Speaking to Sara from a rather noisy train station, Emma finds out about what it's like to get yelled at by Malcolm Tucker and what makes her yell back...
Could you tell us a bit about what we can expect from your show?
The show is basically loads of lies. Stand-up involves pretending stuff has happened in your life that didn’t actually happen. Mine involves people who I wish were my friends or my ex-boyfriends. It’s stories, songs and a 'dad' joke section with bad puns.
Do you still get nervous before you go on?
It depends. I only get nervous when I’m doing new material. I know some people who are sick on stage beforehand but because I’ve been an actor for 10 years, I’m used to being in front of people.
So does it help to pretend you’re playing a role on stage?
I think audiences really pick up on pretence. If you put a barrier between yourself for your safety it ruins their enjoyment - there needs to be a bit of rawness. I think if you’re nervous you have to acknowledge it to people and then they’ll embrace you rather than fake bravado because people hate being lied to.
How did you first get into stand-up?
I was going out with a stand-up and when we split up I was utterly broken-hearted and it was a fantastic way of venting. It’s the perfect thing to do because it gets you out of the house, it gets you into places where there’s drink and new people. You can’t sink any lower either, your ego is at rock bottom.
How did you prepare for your first gig? What inspired you?
I wrote a five minute set on High School: The Musical. I thought it was a really bad example for young people as school is actually really hard, so I wrote Secondary School: The Musical. It’s weird when you look back at the things you did and the first six months of London gigs - it seems really rough now.
So how do you think your style has changed over the last few years?
You just get better at writing and subtlety. In your first gigs you really point out jokes and make them really obvious: 'and that was just the teachers...' kind of thing. It’s better when people are laughing halfway through lines and they don’t know why. I guess that’s the point – developing subtle links and punchlines. If you ever have a bad gig and no one’s laughing at your joke, you can move on and pretend it’s supposed to go that way!
You've a fairly versatile comedian - you play characters, sing, do stand-up and sketches, when are you most at home?
It depends on my mood. Stand-up is the most free thing because anything can happen but character acts are fun because you can push them much further and put opinions that aren’t yours into their mouth. Like at the moment I’m developing a character based on Lady GaGa. She’s so earnest and maintains her own intelligence the whole time. There’s nothing funnier than people who tells you what kind of person they are and then prove they aren’t.
You played an aggressive BBC radio producer in The Thick of It - was it exciting to be part of an Armando Ianucci programme?
Totally, although I had to improvise the audition. They gave me boards with pictures on and said “Right you’re rebranding the Tory party – go". When I got the job I couldn’t believe it. When I first saw Rebecca Front my legs almost buckled! Armando came over at one point and said thanks for being a part of it and I said “You think you’ve hired an actor, but you’ve just let a super fan on the set!” My first day was Peter Capaldi (Malcom Tucker) shouting at me and I just kept grinning, thinking “This is brilliant!”
You also played another tough character (Emma) in Channel 4's Free Agents – are you feisty in real life?
I don’t think I’m feisty but occasionally there are gigs where people do things that really piss me off. I was at the Comedy Store recently and the MC came out after my set and told everyone I was a female impersonator. First of all he said “She’s funny for a woman” and then he said “She’s one of the best female impersonators around”. It wasn’t funny and the room went quiet. It was one of those times when I thought I don’t want to leave now, this is not on, so I waited and was quite feisty with him when he came off!
Do you think you'll keep doing stand-up as well as screen work?
Yes. The most beautiful thing about stand-up is that once you get to the point where you can pay your rent by it, no one else can take it away. There’s a brilliant American cabaret act where this old woman takes all these bras out of her top so I can of envisage myself as someone like that in the future, being quite batty. Still dressed as Lady GaGa of course!
Sara Pascoe's show runs from 5th-6th February at the Soho Theatre
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