Women get better at comedy when they become mums

...so says Sara Pascoe

Women are better at comedy after having children, Sara Pascoe has claimed.

The mother of two says every female stand-up she knows got better after becoming a parent because it made them re-evaluate their priorities.

Appearing on the Table Manners podcast, she told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware: ‘Everyone I know who’s had children, all the women I known who do comedy, have got better.

‘I watched them and I thought something incredible is happening because [having children] made comedy less important, it made them better at it.

‘Comedy isn’t important, it’s throwaway, it’s inconsequential, don’t overthink it.

‘I feel much better on stage at the moment because when it’s over, it’s done and I’m not thinking about it any more.’

Pascoe, 42, is married to fellow comic Steen Raskopoulos and they have a two-year-old, Theodore, and six-month-old Albie.

The comic also told the Wares she got into stand-up by accident, having wanted to be an actress.

She said: ‘It wasn't a conscious decision. It was a meander, it was an accidental thing. I was trying to be an actor, I'd always wanted to be an actor.

'I was auditioning for drama school, trying to do all these jobs that were acting adjacent like Theatre in Education, or working in old people's homes doing plays. That's what I really wanted to do and then I was doing a topical sketch show [NewsRevue].

‘There was this boy in it doing stand-up comedy and I had never been to see it. I thought stand-up comedy was improvised.

‘I thought Jack Dee was making it all up or Billy Connolly just went on stage like 'Hey, a funny thing happened on the way here…"’

But it was seeing some terrible open mic acts that convinced her to have a go.

She said: ‘I went to watch a gig with all these lads in raincoats with pads...they weren't very good! But I was like "Oh I could do that!"

‘And I did stand-up for a while as a character so I did it as an acting thing to try and keep my hand in while I was temping doing proper work.

‘I had Mrs Nudie, who was kind of this detective who was naked under her coat. She solved crimes and I'd put all these clues underneath the audience's chairs and they had to solve it.’

Listen to the Table Manners podcast here.

Thanks for reading. If you find Chortle’s coverage of the comedy scene useful or interesting, please consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off ko-fi donation.

Any money you contribute will directly fund more reviews, interviews and features – the sort of in-depth coverage that is increasingly difficult to fund from ever-squeezed advertising income, but which we think the UK’s vibrant comedy scene deserves.

Subscribe or donate here

Published: 18 Apr 2024