"In primary school I wasn't very cool. I never got Hula Hoops in my packed lunches because my Polish mum would give me cucumbers and I hadn't seen High School Musical because we didn't have Sky. Without those two major assets, you had to find a thing and mine became trying to make people laugh. I made a YouTube channel when I was 14, then eventually worked at the Edinburgh fringe when I was 18, and saw some amazing standup."
"But a system like Footlights is at risk of producing a very samey, repetitive type of comedy, especially when the committee is dominated by white men, as it was when I was a fresher. In my second year I co-founded Stockings, a comedy society for women/non-binary performers which held workshops as well as open mics that you didn't have to audition for to try to help create some new, less intimidating spaces and encourage different voices to participate."
Early social outsider experiences and limited cultural access motivated a turn to humour and self-initiated creative outlets. A YouTube channel at 14 and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe at 18 established a foundation in standup, shaped by seeing both excellent and poor acts. An unusually elderly audience responded enthusiastically to risqué material. Cambridge provided practice and privilege but also revealed risks of repetitive comedy when committees are demographically narrow. Co-founding Stockings created workshops and non-audition open mics to support women and non-binary performers and to foster less intimidating, more diverse performance spaces. Favorite comic inspirations include Jack Black and Robin Williams.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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