Roisin Conaty interview

The Edinburgh Comedy Award jury named Roisin Conaty the Best Newcomer 2010 for her debut show 'Hero, Warrior, Fireman, Liar'. Roisin is now bringing that show to London, so we gave her a call to find out more...

Hi Roisin. Your name is obviously not pronounced how it is written down [it sound like 'Roshine']... do many people get it wrong?

Yeah, I do get people mispronouncing it quite a bit. I've got used to it though. It's quite nice in a way, because I feel like I can work towards becoming a 'one name person' - one of those people who don't need to have a surname for people to know who they are. That'd be nice!

Ah, sort of a bit like a Madonna of the comedy world... but obviously without the horrible arms, and all the adopted kids! Well, here comes the inevitable question you must be bored of answering by now, can you guess what it's going to be...

What was it like to win the Edinburgh Comedy Award? Well, I can tell you it was amazing! It was a lovely, lovely thing to happen at the end of my first solo Edinburgh run. It was a bit overwhelming - but really, really brilliant.

When you were sitting in the award ceremony, did you have any feeling you were going to win?

This may sound a bit false, but I genuinely didn't think I was going to win. I went to bed the night before really late - like really late. I was out with my friend Carl Donnelly enjoying my last night of 'success' before I lost out to one of the other nominees - I was pretty sure I had no chance of winning you see. I showed up to the ceremony the next morning a little bit tired, with a massive bottle of Lucozade.

I genuinely didn't think I was going to win, not because I didn't necessarily deserve to win, I just didn't have that feeling you get when you think you're going to win something, if you know what I mean? But in the last five seconds that changed - as Al Murray opened the envelope he moved his body towards my table and then he looked toward me - so that's when I knew.

It was great a great feeling. All my friends were there, and it's something tangible for my mum to tell her friends about, which is good!

Has winning the award meant people are coming to see you now with heightened expectations?

I don't think it's been a problem, but certainly people are now watching me with an expectation that wasn't there before - but I find people like what I'm doing, so it's fine.

It certainly appears opportunities are now opening up for you. We spotted you on Russell Howard's Good News the other day...

Yeah, and I've just done The Angina Monologues with Victoria Wood for The British Heart Foundation, which will be on Sky later this month. Thinks like that are amazing. I didn't have a profile before August, so I probably wouldn't have got any of those things if it wasn't for the award.

As part of your act you talk about living with your Nan. Is that real?

Well, up until Edinburgh I really did live with my Nan. 'Interesting' is one way to describe it. I think living with parents or relatives is something a lot of people in their 20s are doing at the moment. It's certainly a really awkward living arrangement though.

Are you now tempted to stay with other relatives to build up more comedy gold?

What like an old aunt or something? Well, I've got 80 cousins so that could be an idea... I could see them at weddings and things.

Sorry, it must be a bad line as we heard '80'...

Eight zero cousins! It's a massive, massive family, I know. So yeah, I can maybe hang out with them. For an hour long show I'd only need, er... less than a minute from each!

You're now bringing 'Hero, Warrior, Fireman, Liar' to the Soho Theatre. What can people expect...

Well, the show is based on me getting an invite to go back to my secondary school and give a speech to school leavers. It's about how I'm in no place to give these people advice. It's also about what happens when you're forced to examine your life and think about the things you thought you were... and the things you thought you'd be.

It's a great premise. You also perform as a character called Jackie Hump in the show?

In 2007 I went to Edinburgh with Caroline Ginty to perform a character based long-form sketch show, so I've always been interested in playing characters. It's very different from the stand-up.

My character Jackie is a woman who has written a solo show about her 'pain', and she performs bits from this show to the audience. She's also my support act and so she's there to warm up the audience. It's quite fun and I think audiences really like it. At the start people are expecting me to walk on stage, but when I come out as this character people are thinking 'What the hell is this?'... but they soon really get into it.

So, will you be doing a show in Edinburgh next year?

Yeah, I'll definitely be doing Edinburgh next year... but I've got Melbourne first for a couple of months.

Woah, cool!

Ah, it's amazing. I'm going there in March and then I've got a few other places to go too. I'll be writing a new show about then as well - it's going to be the difficult second album!

The next step many comedians take is to appear on panel shows and other such TV programmes. Is this something you'd be interested in, or would you prefer to avoid the 'bear bit' atmosphere of such shows?

Yeah, I'd do panel shows if I was offered - there's some good ones on TV. I think it's certainly something to try your hand at - if you try it and enjoy it, great. If you don't enjoy it, at least you know it's not for you.

Nice one. Thanks Roisin. Do think of us little people when you're jetting off to the Australian sunshine!

I won't - I'll forget everyone! Ha ha.