Ria Lina

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Friday 10th December 2021

It's a funny old season for stand-ups, this, as Christmas parties make regular clubnights an absolute minefield. Thankfully there are good-cause gigs too though, to keep everyone sane.

Moving venues this year is Alistair Barrie's now traditional benefit gala, raising money for the Hertfordshire Breast Unit Appeal. Its regular home, Hertford Theatre, is having a major refurb so they're taking shows up the road, to the rather nice Southern Maltings. Joining MC Al B on the 22nd are Andrew Maxwell, Simon Evans, Scott Bennett and this week's guest, the increasingly sought-after Ria Lina.

So, is there extra kinship among comics at this time of year, particularly? "One of the things I love about comedy is the camaraderie," says Lina. "In comedy everyone is unique, in fact, the more unique the better, and living in a world where that is valued and appreciated is amazing.

"Is there more of that at Christmas? Well, there is definitely a certain amount of extra commiserating we do at this time of year because a lot of the work is for drunker-than-usual clientele, and that can be hard, but that also leads to a healthy amount of one-upmanship so I suppose it all balances itself out [insert maniacal laughter emoticon here]."

One added bonus: Southern Maltings is also being transformed into the mythical Lunavik for Half a String's show, Under the Frozen Moon which looks stone-cold lovely. Meanwhile - from lunar to Lina - where else can we catch Ria's recent stuff?

"My debut on Live At The Apollo just came out so watch that!" she says. "You can also catch up with my Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week appearances on BBC iPlayer now. I am putting together a brand-new show and will be working out material at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February."

And one more thing. "Can I recommend masks? If anything because it's frigging freezing and your face deserves a better hug than a scratchy scarf... oh and 'cause they are now a legal requirement in a lot of places. And 'cause, pandemic still raging, ya know?"

We certainly should. Now let's head up to the frozen north.

First gig?

My first gig was at uni and I was the only woman on the bill. Who knew how accurate that induction would be to my future career?! We were up in remote St Andrews and had to make our own fun, so the room was packed with other students ready to laugh - but not too hard, because it was in a wine bar and we didn't want to get kicked out for being raucous.

How grown-up we felt. I remember my set included a joke about how women pick stalls to use in a multi-stall bathroom by rejecting each one, one by one, for various reasons, before finally using the last one and leaving it in a terrible state. What are we like?

Favourite show, ever?

How can I not say Live At The Apollo? It has to be Live At The Apollo and not just because it was the Live At The Apollo but because it was Live At The mother-fricking-Apollo. Facing outwards, it was a gig, a big gig, but a gig: anyone who has done tour support will recognise the feeling from playing larger theatre venues.

But coming onstage from the back, under the Live At The Apollo sign, the smoke, the music, the hype... and when you're actually doing your set and turn your head slightly and see the sign and the lights from the corner of your eye - there's no comparison. At least not so far in my career! Knock-on-the-Apollo-stage-cause-it's-made-of-wood.

Worst gig?

Hmm... I think we all have those gigs where, no matter how full or empty, big or small, near or far, for some reason, you just ended up going through the motions and there was no love, no life behind the eyes.

I hate those the most, where I didn't feel like I did my job, or that I was even good at my job (anymore). There's no one specific incident I would detail here, but I think every comic knows what I mean - it's like obligatory marital sex. As they say, your relationship is only as strong as your last orgasm.

The upside to those gigs is they spur you on to write new material which can bring new life to the whole shebang.

Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?

It's hard to name just one person. I think everyone influences you one way or another - whether positively or negatively. I certainly make decisions about my safety, my health, my mental health, my career based on the aggregate of my experiences. I genuinely believe every comic has at least one good joke in them and the same goes for influence; even if they've influenced me to stay the fuck away from them in future.

It's hard to name just one person but not impossible: Whoopi Goldberg in her early to mid-career. I absolutely adored her growing up. And she did everything. She did comedy, she acted, she sang and she played romantic leads with men of different races! WAY ahead of her time and she is a hero to me for blazing that trail for women in performing arts.

And who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?

Ha! Good question. I'd be an idiot to answer. I think the most disagreeable thing I've come across in this business isn't a particular person, it's ideas (and thus anybody who perpetuated them).

The idea that "well, we've always done it that way" or "we already have a type 'X' on the bill so we don't/can't book another type 'X'" or "if people do one-liners, music, or props they can't possibly be booked just to talk about things" or "your background isn't in fashion right now, so we're booking someone newer/browner/voguer".

I once had a meeting with a producer at the BBC who genuinely asked me "if I put you on TV, who would watch you?" meaning, who would identify with me and become my audience. Which is very tribal thinking, and very blinkered, he was thinking only of my ethnicity but ignoring so many other aspects of what I bring to the table.

Luckily, we are moving away from all those ideas in comedy (finally), but we mustn't make the same mistakes of treating those who don't quite fit into our definition of 'diversity' the same way they treated us, or else we haven't made any progress at all, we've merely swung the pendulum in the other direction.

How were your lockdowns, generally?

Personally, I loved lockdown. I remember thinking as we headed into it at the beginning of March 2020 and gigs were cancelling and pubs were forced to close, that this was huge, bigger than all of us. And because of that, I wasn't worried too much about work or the industry, because I knew that the government would have to do something to help; they couldn't just let huge sections of the population just drown in a global crisis.

And, because there wasn't anything I could do but weather the storm, I decided to take as much personal time for myself and with the family as I could. Up till then, I had travelled almost every weekend one way or another for the previous 10 years.

I had been on trips for as long as four weeks at a time, which is tough on the kids; when they were at home, I was at work and when they had holidays, it was my busiest time. So the forced time at home was a godsend for us as a family to be able to spend it together, have nights in, watching and actually finishing boxsets. Bliss!

And creatively?

Creatively, I think I had the same panic everyone else did at the beginning of the first lockdown which was: what do I do that can build me a huge audience and make me famous now that I'm at home with all this time on my hands??! Do I start a podcast or vlog or Twitch or Instagram Live?

And then it was all so overwhelming, people who already did those things were ahead of the game and in the end, I decided to just relax and focus on self and family. And I'm glad I did. Even now that we're open again, I miss the time and space lockdown afforded.

Any reviews, heckles or post-gig reactions stick in the mind?

Every time I do a live appearance on the news or radio to talk about current affairs, there's a little voice in my head that constantly says "Twitter will have a field day with that". And it has yet to disappoint.

I think if you want to see the best heckles/reactions I can inspire, take a look at my Twitter mentions after one of those shows. Bring popcorn, I can inspire some amazing comments from people who 'do their own research' enough to find me online, but not enough to check my facts before they argue with me, but I don't blame them, where's the fun in that?!

How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?

I think like most people that are self-employed and in the arts: onwards and upwards! There is a constant drive from within to work, work, work and evolve, evolve, evolve. I am loving where I'm at right now and what I'm doing, but I would love to do more. I'm definitely not done yet.

Ria Lina appears at 'Alistair Barrie and Friends' on 22nd December at Southern Maltings in Ware, Herts. Info & Tickets