Doing comedy online destroys live stand-up

STEVIE Martin likes it when one of her jokes falls flat.

This is perhaps a surprising admission from a comedian who is building a name for herself both on the circuit and on television.

But she says it’s all part of the learning process in an industry to which she came late.

She once fainted on stage during a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the audience thought it was part of the act.

“There’s nothing funnier to me than when I really go for a joke and it doesn’t work,” she says.

“I find it so funny and you kind of build this nice relationship with the audience.”

Stevie will be appearing at the next Honk! live comedy gig in Henley next week with a preview of her show for this year’s Fringe in August.

The 35-year-old grew up in Cheshire and went to Durham University, where she was part of the Durham Revue and became friends with Nish Kumar and Ed Gamble.

She appeared at Edinburgh in 2014 as part of the sketch group Massive Dad and made her solo debut there four years later.

It was when she returned the following year during a heatwave that the fainting incident happened.

Stevie, who is now a writer and podcaster and lives in London, says: “I came to comedy quite late. I’m from a working-class background and can’t do that, so I was like 26 or 27 and had a full-time job when I did my first Edinburgh Fringe.

“It’s just in the last five years that I’ve been able to do it full-time — and afford to do it.

“I was in a sketch group for a long time and we did quite well and then I did my own solo stuff.

“But it’s so expensive to do live comedy and I didn’t have any money. I couldn’t really go back and do another Fringe show, so I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll maybe try to do online sketches’.

“This was at the beginning of 2020 and we all know how 2020 unfolded. It was a horrible time but it was helpful in the sense that I was forced to do online and it went very well and got me other work.”

Stevie became known for her video clips on YouTube with titles such as “Verifying that you’re not a robot”.

She recalls: “I was really enjoying it and I really liked the control I had but I missed doing live shows.”

Her latest show is about the differences between performing online and in person.

“I talk about how it doesn’t really make sense to be doing live yet we still persist,” says Stevie.

“It’s actually better if people aren’t online and that they come and watch because it’s just silly jokes.

“When it’s online you can write a minute-long sketch and you can pack some jokes in but I was quite excited to see how many jokes I could pack into a full hour — that’s basically the vague premise of my show.

“It’s amazing that somebody can reach millions of people from their bedroom — and it allowed me to do so much -— yet it’s also in a sense destroying the very thing that I love, which is comedy, and everyone’s brains.

“I used to be online a lot more. I used to be on social media and Tweet a lot more but I’ve got to the point where with AI and everything like that I think is decimating the industry that I’m in. I write for TV shows and for other people and I can see a world in which that doesn’t happen any more because you could just get AI to write jokes and scripts and suddenly we’re competing with robots.

“We’re more expensive, we’re human and we’re messy but that should be a positive.

“That’s why people love art and come to see Edinburgh previews because you see the comedian kind of working it through.

“I almost prefer doing previews than the final show. In the final show people are judging it on a different level whereas with previews you can have fun with it, you can ask the audience what they think.

“Like if something goes wrong, it’s really funny because it’s like a peek behind the curtain.

“You don’t get that with AI and with online stuff. You see the end product, a sketch that has been edited, and you can spend ages composing the perfect Tweet to make yourself look very cool.

“On stage you can’t hide and that’s the joy of it but, sadly, that’s something that is becoming harder to do. It’s a very tricky time for creative people.”

Stevie, who has appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and written for shows including The Russell Howard Hour, plans to move out of London, so is looking forward to visiting Henley.

“I’m actually currently looking at nice places to live that are near London, so I’ll be looking at Henley on a real estate level,” she says.

“I’ve got good practice because any time I look for anywhere in London, I immediately need to sit down.

“I imagine Henley’s quite pretty and when I arrive there’ll be just boats everywhere and the venue is floating on a boat and I have to race to the stage on a boat.

“If that doesn’t happen, I’ll be very disappointed.”

Also on the bill at Honk! is Elf Lyons, a 32-year-old award-winning comedian and writer who also teaches clowning workshops.

She is the daughter of economist Dr Gerard Lyons and together they have an Apple podcast series called Elfonomics.

Stevie says: “Elf and I have gigged together before and we’ve hung out. She’s great and you never know what she’s going to come out with.

“She could be dressed as a swan, she could be doing some sort of gothic horror, you know, she’ll be doing some excellent stand-up. She’s multi-talented and always very exciting to watch.”

• Honk! live comedy with and Stevie Martin and Elf Lyons is at the Relais Henley hotel on Thursday (January 25). Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Tickets cost £11.55. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/honk-january-
comedy-night-tickets-750780523757