Interview with Harriet Braine
CB: How long have you been gigging in comedy?
KV: I’ve been doing stand-up since early 2009 so just over 5 years. Before that I used to do sketch comedy and comedy improvisation.
CB: How would you describe your comedy?
KV: I’m resisting the urge to say “funny”. It’s a combination of observational comedy and personal musings and my style is…well…Jim Campbell (fellow comedian) described it as “Imagine a willow tree that has come to life and gone instantly mental”.
CB: Which comedians influence your comedy?
KV: My earliest influences are from the Muppet Show and Greek comedic actresses of the 1960s, followed by Monty Python, Eddie Murphy and Eddie Izzard. More recently I love watching Maria Bamford and, rather predictably, Louis CK.
CB: Did you always want to go into comedy?
KV: I always wanted to be a performer. I started out as an actress with a natural tendency for comedic parts and slowly found my way into stand-up comedy.
CB: How do you go about writing your material?
KV: This is a tricky one for me because as a starting point I don’t actually sit down and write. When I get an idea or I say something in conversation that I think might work as a bit, I make a mental note and then talk it out loud to myself (when I’m alone – not right then and there, at dinner or in the cinema, that would be heinously awkward…) and then try it onstage. I try not to write anything down fully before I’ve said it onstage first because it tends to crystallize in my brain the way it was first written down. Whereas, if I don’t write it down, it retains a flexibility and a fluidity that I can work with from gig to gig. It takes about 5-6 gigs for a bit to find its form and then I can write it down without fear that I won’t be able to change it. I record all my gigs now. For the longest time I’d forget to record gigs and rely entirely on memory, but now I record all of them.
CB: Do you gig as a stand-up full time or is it more of a part-time hobby? If so, do you find that your main job influences your material?
KV: I’ve gone full-time as a stand-up since 2012. (The last two years have been the poorest years of my life.) Before that I temped and it was rare that my jobs would provide any inspiration.
CB: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the comedy circuit?
KV: Enjoyable:
– the way you develop friendships with and will always remember people who started about the same time as you; it’s a bit like you were in the same year in school
– I love that you can gig pretty much every day of the week in London
– running your own night: co-running and co-MCing Angel Comedy was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I have ever done
– the bitchy camaraderie between comedians
Frustrating:
– travelling long hours to dubious gigs for very little to no pay in the beginning
– how oversaturated and fixed in its ways the circuit can be in the UK
– running your own night: the admin involved is excruciating
– the bitchy camaraderie between comedians
CB: What’s your favourite type of audience to perform to?
KV: At the moment it’s international audiences. And anyone who has lived in or experienced countries outside the one they were born and raised in. Or people of dual heritage. I’m going through a phase where I’m really enjoying playing around with language and stereotypes and I get so much material and such brilliant responses out of internationals.
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?
KV: I haven’t been heckled that much. Every now and again, someone will shout out something about my hair and five years in I think I’ve pretty much heard everything I could about it. From “SideShow Bob” to “Brian May” to “Slash” to “I’m a hairdresser, I can HELP YOU!”.
CB: What advice would you give to new acts thinking of starting out in comedy?
KV: Watch a lot of professional live comedy in established clubs as well as open mic nights and then focus on your own stuff. Try to not get distracted by other people’s successes or failures, just focus on getting good. And be nice.
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