Circuit Training 78: Auld Lang Syne, Josie Long

And so, as we step gingerly into the New Year and wade through all those achingly predictable stuff-to-look-forward-to-in-2015 previews, one comedy question looms: what's Josie Long going to be banging on about, come August?

Back in 2011 our first Circuit Training chat with the Kent-born comic was very much concerned with her then activism-heavy output, a rabble-rousing raison d'etre that remained firmly in place until a few months ago. Long's 2014 Edinburgh show, Cara Josephine, was an unexpected lurch away from lambasting the mad, bad and dangerous to vote for, and instead wandered into the murky waters of love, heavily inspired by a hefty break-up.

And the tour version of that show now launches her 2015. Well, once she's got a few other pressing matters out of the way, including this interview...

How's it going today, Josie?

I've got a big script deadline, so I'm bloody busy! These two days have been the most stressful days of my entire life.

Ah, sorry for intruding. Can you tell us what the script is?

I'm making a feature film. I'm on like the fourth draft and it's the most intense draft I've ever had to write, because literally every line needs to be shorter, every scene needs to be shorter. So it's very hard work, but good.

Does a new year feel like a new start for you? I always think a comic's year is more like a football season - the old tour ends in May, then the new show starts in August...

It is a bit like a football season, yeah, and I'm continuing the show from last year, so there is some continuation there. But personally I quite enjoy the New Year. I feel quite excited about what potentially might happen differently.

I heard you say recently that you don't start writing a new Edinburgh show until quite late, around May. When did you start this one?

For me it doesn't feel late, it's just got to be fresh when it comes out, it's got to feel like it's alive and relevant to me. Although it's funny saying that as its now six months later, and I'm still doing it!

But yeah, how long have I been brewing this one? I think it's always cooking in the back of your head, even if you're not focussed on it, so I'd be coming up with bits and bobs in the September and October, 2013, and obviously with the stuff that just happens, like breaking up with my ex, it just happened that summer.

It was so intense and I think it really occupied me, it definitely had been what I'd been doing personally. So it was like a slow brew. It wasn't necessarily a conscious decision not to do a political show. I did initially have that five, 10 minutes at the start, but it just became about what I was interested in.

Did the personal stuff just matter more to you than politics at that point?

No, I suppose it was just more what I really wanted to talk about - I'm still running the charity [Arts Emergency] and that does take up a lot of my life, and I think I thought 'I'm definitely doing something in my daily life that's helpful.' So I thought 'I'm gonna surprise people who think they know what I'm up to,' just to see if I could do something to stretch myself as a writer and a performer.

The people you talk about in the show, did you run it by them first?

I've actually tried to be a bit discreet about it, because I don't want anyone to think that I'm taking the piss out of them, but I'm trying to fend off anyone seeing it. Or hearing about it. But with anything like that, it's not really about them, it's about you, I'm writing about how I felt, not about him or what he did. But then with my sister, I do worry. I don't know what she thinks, all of it really is about how much I love her. I hope she isn't too embarrassed or weirded out by it.

As friends or relatives of a comic, you've really got to be prepared for that.

Yeah, you've got to be aware of writers, man - especially miserable writers! My ex-boyfriend is a musician and - I doubt he will - but I feel like 'oh please don't write a song about how little you liked me.' It's definitely a thing. It's better not to get involved with writers because they're vampires and they'll use everything.

You seem very happy doing independent projects these days. Do you still care about getting stuff on TV?

I'm always pitching stuff. There's a show that I really would like to make and I'm really hoping we can make it, but who knows, it's such a long and difficult process that often I don't have the patience for it. I guess I'm quite focussed on my film at the moment, I'm gonna do a Radio 4 series this year, I did a pilot, and the same characters in the film are in that. But I think I'm very weird for TV, a bit awkward.

The last time we spoke you were doing the 6music show with Andrew Collins, and I was surprised that didn't become a longer-lasting thing. I thought you'd end up presenting Glastonbury or something.

Oh thank you - yeah it was a shame about 6music, we really loved doing it, but we weren't quite right for it, I don't know why we didn't get to do it anymore. Which was a shame, but I'd always be up for doing it again. I found it really interesting, and you get such a great knowledge of music. I mean, oh my god, for those six months I knew everything about what was going on. Not any more.

Perhaps it was when the coalition came in - you started berating them on Twitter and the BBC thought 'we can't put her live on the radio!'

Maybe. That'd be quite sad really, but you never know, and you don't know how things would've panned out anyway. There are all these things that you think are gonna happen then don't, and there are also things that you think will be nothing and suddenly they're a massive job or a really interesting thing - like Skins. I worked on that for years and years, and the people behind it were so amazing, they just saw me at a gig, and the next day were like 'do you want to come and join in with us?' And I was like 'sure!' and that became a massive thing that changed my life.

Speaking of Twitter, there was a dramatic bit on the Comedian's Comedian podcast recently, where you talked quite matter-of-factly about getting some horrible abuse over the years

I can't stop talking about it now, every interview it's like 'yeah, this happened.' I just took it all upon myself. I should have talked to someone really.

We've just finished Christmas gig season - did you used to get much stick at those?

Yeah, luckily I don't have to do them anymore. Robin [Ince] started doing his Christmas gigs in 2005 or 6, so I've had quite a smooth ride of not having to do that stuff. It's always been an awkward fit with me, a lot of those places are not places I'd feel comfortable going to, let alone performing. I'm not very good at it. The people who do those clubs look at me like I'm shit, and I am shit, at that. My friends that do them are fucking warriors.

Jeremy Hardy told me that he struggles to do a tight 20 minutes since doing longer shows - how do you find it?

I tend to take a little bit out of a show, or just muck around, see what the atmosphere is on the day. But it is definitely harder to do shorter sets, and also you're so spoiled if you're touring your own show, you're so used to people coming to you. Then you go to another gig and it's like, 'oh, you guys don't like me, but I'm trying so hard!'

You've put 'Romance and Adventure', one of your older shows, on YouTube. In that you encouraged everyone to revolt. What did you make of the Russell Brand stuff?

Well, I don't have that man's profile. I don't know... [Josie goes uncharacteristically quiet and awkward at this point]. It's funny isn't it, people keep asking me what I think of Russell Brand, I don't know what I have to say really, it's funny for me because I'm such a small fry lower league player. So, yay, very successful...

I meant the media reaction to his comments really.

Anything that takes the mainstream political discourse away from the right wing immigration bullshit, anything that challenges the mainstream narrative is helpful, or at least in some way useful.

It's good, because what I've realised recently is that Nigel Farage has had his day. And when I realised it, I was so thrilled, like 'oh god, he fucked this up, he did it too early, he's peaked too early.' he needed to peak in April and he hasn't, he's peaked in November. He fucked it mate. You mark my words, next year, he's fucked. And thinking about it - oh, it delights me.

He's been overhyped, and now the media backlash has kicked in?

Not just that, people are getting bored of it, even cunts who would really love him are sick of him. Believe me, I've realised this. I'm so happy about it.

I do think that you've inspired people to be more political with what they do, comedians and otherwise.

I hope so - the more people that do things, the more people that just have the defiance to talk about it and occupy different viewpoints, the better. The thing is, you're constantly being told how stupid you are, how wrong you are, how embarrassing you are, and the more people that [argue back], the more that those voices won't be as loud, telling you off.

Well, apart from the Twitter twats. Do you think people are scared of passion?

Yeah, people are. And earnestness. And any of that shit.

Josie Long's show 'Cara Josephine' tours the UK from January 19th, kicking off at the Soho Theatre. Visit www.josielong.com for details.