Circuit Training 95: Lou Sanders is Very Giving

Now, how to describe Lou Sanders, for those who've had the misfortune to miss her thus far? A quick google should do the trick - you'll quickly come across a bold bikini-clad mock pop video from 2008; a blog post from alternative-comedy guru John Fleming about a gig in which Sanders tempted death by swallowing loads of cinnamon; and her website, which documents previous shows such as 2014's Excuse Me You're Sitting on my Penis Again.

If this all sounds a bit in-your-face, don't worry, Sanders' schtick is awfully good-natured. True, she readily admits that her more out-there long-form stuff mightn't be for everyone (audience members have been known to get stuff on their faces) and she was even dropped from Stewart Lee's show for being too alternative, but, crikey, let's just rejoice in a performer who gleefully pushes the envelope. And if you've ever tried pushing an envelope, you'll know how tricky that is, the bendy bastards.

Circuit Training spoke to Sanders before her gig at Laughing Point this coming Tuesday, at London's Hippodrome, in aid of the fine youth-homelessness charity Centrepoint, with Adam Buxton headlining. Or 'headling', as she puts it. All will become clear.

Did you always want to do something different onstage?

I do find odd things funny, things that make you laugh and you don't know why. It's about having the confidence to do it. Like Kristen Schaal had a bit called 'Kristen Schaal is a Horse', her galloping around onstage, and you can't explain why that's funny, it's just the pure joy of someone... I don't know. Why is that funny?

But I love all kinds; comedy that makes you think, and sometimes I'll watch that and think 'oh my god, that's what I need to do.' But of course it just doesn't sound right coming from me.

You had a stab at a different style recently, went more traditional?

It annoyed me a bit that people put you into [pigeonholes], they think you're just wacky and can't write a gag, or structure, so I wrote a very structured show, to prove to myself that I could do it. It had a very definite beginning, middle and end - as did the show before. Sometimes you hide the structure.

But this next show is now for me again: it's quite silly. Comedy is too safe and too corporate, but even saying that you sound like a bell-end. But then I've tried to go more 'safe' too... ah, let's move on.

You're doing the Laughing Point fundraiser on Tuesday, which I believe you've performed at before. You must either be really generous or haven't worked out how to say 'no'.

Oh yeah, I do loads of frigging charity gigs. I do enjoy them. But the thing I am going to start saying no to is podcasts. There are so many podcasts out there, so much content, and it's so fucking boring, there's too much content in the world!

It's true, and the problem is, you get personally involved in them, you know all about these people's lives.

That's the worry, yeah, I tell everyone everything about what's going on, and it's too much, too honest. It's unfair on the audience, my family. But no-one really cares.

Then again, a lot of your broadcasting so far has been co-presenting radio shows, which is similar...

The show I did with Richard Herring [on Fubar Radio] was quite low risk, because we knew that no-one listened to it. I'd write stories about an hour before the show, which is great because you've got the pressure but not too much, and you don't really care, which is the best environment to write in.

David Letterman's whole career came out of that - his original daytime show was cancelled so for the last few shows they went nuts and that whole Late Night style emerged...

Really? That's so nice. That's why Edinburgh is the worst, because everyone feels pressure. But why? I suppose because people have spent money. That's why it's hard to be funny when there's someone you're trying to impress in the audience, the stakes are higher.

So what happened with you on Stewart Lee's The Alternative Comedy Experience?

I did it and I got cut. I did a load of sound cues that I'd made in my bedroom, and they said 'these sound cues sound like you made them in your bedroom' and I said 'yes, I did!' And they said 'they're terrible' - the quality that is, not the content. Content-wise they're adorable. There was stuff with the audiences, throwing props around: the words he used were 'it would be an absolute nightmare to get an edit together of that stuff.'

Ironically, the way they chop up that show actually favours traditional gag people, rather than alternative comics.

I'm not sure but I think it's a great show and they back great people. Maybe they just hated me. ha ha.

So what sort of stuff do you do for gigs like this Laughing Point one? Have you got a regular charity-show set or do you mix it up?

I always vary it, I always do whatever set I'm trying out at the time. It's nice to do a charity gig, you feel like you're doing something good, and they're generally nice audiences. I'm doing another one on the 8th of May for the Royal Free Hospital - Al Murray's headlining.

On the 'gigs' bit of your website, for the Centrepoint one it says 'Adam Buxton headling,' which I rather like.

Does it? Sounds like something I'd do.

There's also a gig on there called 'Aisling B and Me' - what's that about?

We're doing a show, we don't know what it is yet. We've had one phone chat about what it's gonna be - because it's exciting to make something from nothing.

You do a fair bit of improv too - did you train in it?

I hate improv and I hate improv classes, but I love doing it. It's like drunk singing for me: drunk singing is so horrible when other people are doing it, but as soon as you join in, it's great.

It can be a bit self-indulgent. Comedy jazz.

Some improv is brilliant: Cariad & Paul, Austentatious... so good. I do improv with a woman called Vanessa Hammick. We're cheating a little bit, we don't know all the rules of improv as we're quite new, and we don't stick to the rules we do know. So we've got someone overseeing it, in a funny way - Cariad did it the other night, telling us off on a spare microphone or telling us what to do - 'stop laughing. For fucks sake, do this.' It's a really good way to learn.

By the way, I've changed 'Adam Buxton headling' now, thank you very much.

Shame. I'll be interested to see your shorter set - I remember taking a couple of people to your show 'And Now for a Nice Evening with Wallan': two of us loved it and the other one was baffled. I was a bit disappointed to see you go more normal after that though.

Well, I'm going less straight with the next Edinburgh show. In a club set I'll go straighter.

So when I just said that, did you ignore the 'two of us loved it' bit and think 'aagh, someone was baffled!'?

I always seek out the face(s) that hate it, and I think other comics do as well. It's the same with criticism, which I'm trying to train myself not to. But if you get 10 positive Tweets and one horrible one, it'll be the one horrible one that affects you.

I was reading about it the other day: the reason you take the negative things so much more seriously than the positives is because that's how we're built, to know danger - one poisonous berry will finish you, whereas 10 compliments wont endanger your life.

I think also we don't really believe compliments - we think people are just being polite.

Oh, I believe them, bebe! (Just not when they're about me)

I think a lot of it is the intensity you do it with. Did you have less passion for it when you tried to go a bit more trad?

Maybe, yeah. But whenever I get to Edinburgh to do a show I always say to my producer, 'ohh, my last show was better wasn't it?' And they say 'you say this every year.' Did you see that Wallan show on a good day or a bad day? It really varied. If the energy in the room isn't behind me it's hard.

You had a couple of walkouts, but you rode them brilliantly, I recall...

Oh! Was it... the guy who rented me and my friends the flat for about four and a half grand, he texted me and said 'can I have free tickets for me and my eight friends?' And I said 'I dunno, I can do you four comps or something'. He talked his way in anyway, but it wasn't for him at all, he hated it and me.

So he despises it, and I'm like 'you can just go!' and he didn't. In the end I think I made him go and made a joke that we were paying four and a half grand and he got a free ticket for a show he didn't want to be in. Was it that night?

No - but that sounds like the best show ever.

It was quite a special one. One guy got really upset about being covered in glitter, a bald headed guy, it was all over his face so he had a blue glitter face, he was so angry. I felt really bad when he walked out.

How do those sorts of guys end up in a show like yours?

Good question. Maybe his wife, or everything else was sold out - sometimes people just take a chance don't they. Ha!

Wasn't that the show with the slightly, er, suggestive flyer?

No-one got my joke! I thought it was funny, someone told me about film posters, often the man is looking straight to camera - 'I'm in charge' - and the woman is often looking up, and apparently that's because she's supposed to look like she's giving you a blow job and looking up at you.

Jesus

That coquettish air of 'oh, I don't usually do this, but as it's you and your dick, then I will...' Also the other thing they do is women will hold a cup of tea - 'I'm non-threatening, I'm cosy, don't worry' - whereas the guy is aggressive.

So I thought it was funny to do an overly sexual one, with like something in my mouth, looking up, but no-one really got the joke. I'm handing them out to people in the street and they'd go [brightly] 'oh yeah' then they'd look at the pic and go 'no thank you.'

My friend's agent said 'I don't know why she's made herself look so ugly for the poster.' Ha! Thing is I still, of course made myself look nice (so I thought).

How are previews for your next show - What's That Lady Doing - going?

Yeah I did one last night and it was really fun, but lots to do on it. I get it ready about 4 weeks after Edinburgh - then it's perfect.

I don't suppose you ever fall back on old material - I imagine stuff is constantly flying out of your brain?

Yeah, but it's easy to generate ideas, if you get real gold then I suppose you want to hold onto it. Maybe my jokes aren't strong enough that I want to hold onto them. Maybe it's that.

I bet you'd get horribly bored doing the same safe gags year after year.

Taking risks and failing horribly is important. Which I do, quite a lot.

Lou Sanders will be joining Adam Buxton and Suzi Ruffell at Laughing Point on 10th May - for details visit Eventbrite.co.uk. And Lou's own self-edited gig list is at www.lousanders.com