Interview with Harriet Braine
CB: How long have you been gigging in comedy?
AS: I was escorted rather forcefully by my elbow to my first gig on the 16th of November 2010. I didn’t want to go. Why would I? I wore a brown suit, black dress zip boots, the kind Elvis wore in the rehearsal sequences in ‘That’s the way it is.’ and a green T-shirt. I wasn’t sure I enjoyed myself. I didn’t enjoy myself. Be careful what you wish for.
CB: How would you describe your comedy?
AS: Every time I find something it’s usually not what I was looking for. Either you’re trying in vain to paint yourself into a corner, or you’re looking down into the well. It’s never what you think it is. Years ago a girlfriend of mine shouted across a room in desperation “For God’s sake, why don’t you just join in!” I knew what she meant. I’m trying to move around more on stage. Be more animated. “Why didn’t you smile?” My partner says to me after my gig. “I thought I was.” I always say.
CB: Which comedians influence your comedy?
AS: I urge you to watch ‘An audience with Kenneth Williams.’ LWT 1983 I think it is. Quite brilliant. The early incarnation of Frank Spencer. I once spent many months salving a bruised spirit with a four cassette collection of Max Miller. Other influences would be Quentin Crisp, Liza with a ‘z’, Elvis, Chuck Berry ( Who I actually met ) Doris Stokes and Bob Dylan. The last one was a joke! Incidentally I also spent a long period of going to bed with a double cassette of ‘On The Road’ read by the late David Carradine. I used to enjoy a cup of tea and an audio tape. I’ve calmed down now. You can’t sustain that kind of lifestyle forever.
CB: Did you always want to go into comedy?
AS: I think I have searched out a spotlight my entire life, in one way or another. I don’t know what pull us into it. The ‘why’ I suppose is really of little interest. I’m quite practical now and I’ve learned to think less. I’ve always dreamt of doing it. So I’m doing it. Every night I don’t want to leave the house. Yet I always go out. I quit every day, and gig every night.
CB: How do you go about writing your material?
AS: I write every day. Allow it to unfold. Be there. Write something. Anything. That’s all you can do.
CB: Do you gig as a comedy performer full time or is it more of a part-time hobby?
AS: If so, do you find that your main job influences your material? I’m out of the house as much as I can. Six nights a week is usual. I always try to have one night in where I climb under a sheet on the sofa with my partner and watch something about Myra Hindley or the One Show. I am paid to gig now on a regular basis, but I couldn’t, if asked this very minute just nip out and purchase, for example satin trousers with the money I’ve made this month in Comedy. I once wore linen trousers to a barbeque. Within about ten minutes the trousers smelt like pork. Even when I wasn’t near the pork.
CB: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the comedy circuit?
AS: I love the discipline of leaving the house. Waking up and writing with coffee. If I don’t have a routine of sorts I’ll just whirl around in the centre of the living room. I have a friend who tells me when he’s alone he’ll walk around the house like a dinosaur. He needs a routine. I need to be weighted down or I’ll spin off. I love the solitude of it. Virginia Wolf said. ‘ ..Human beings do not go hand in hand the whole stretch of the way. There is a virgin forest in each; a snowfield where even the print of birds’ feet is unknown, here we go alone and like it better.’ I love that! I adore it when my Hilary comes to watch. Then we can go for an Indian before the gig. She likes vegetable Dansak. “Would you like any Poppadom ?” – “Yes please, One each.” I don’t find anything frustrating. If I don’t like something I simply avoid it. The end. My granddad used to say “End of chat!”
CB: What’s your favourite type of audience to perform to?
AS: I often forget, but I really do think you have to talk to the audience and share something. Absorbing the mood from them. Somehow feeling what it is on that particular night. Adapting the way in which you might move or the energy with which you speak. And often you get it totally wrong and it falls apart. You really have to be alive only then, and for them. It’s people in a room. Of course if you’re opening and they are all eating ham sandwiches, then you’re fucked.
CB: Have you been heckled a lot since you’ve started gigging? Do you enjoy being heckled? What’s the best heckle you’ve had?
AS: I shall never forget a barely audible ‘Oh dear’ during a pause in what was already an unbearable Opening twenty in a very busy room. I lashed out the next day at a weekend girl in my local co-op.
CB: What advice would you give to new acts thinking of starting out in comedy?
AS: I’ll let the words of the divine David Hoyle sum it up for me. “Who here hasn’t worn a broach, which was sapphires ruby’s and emerald’s, welded to the back of a cockroach. I think we all have.
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