Tania Edwards
Published: Friday 11th October 2019
Flipping heck it's only Friday again, which in these parts means a trip down Memory Lane, a journey up Remembering-Stuff Road, and First Gig, Worst Gig.
Tripping with us this week is Tania Edwards, the talented TV writer and stand-up who won the Amused Moose Comedy Award at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, previously claimed by such diverse luminaries as Tony Law, Marcel Lucont, Celia Pacquola and Richard Gadd, so her career could go off in all sorts of interesting directions.
Right now, though - or on the 22nd, anyway - that direction is London's Bloomsbury Theatre, where she'll be performing at Laugh Till it Hurts, a fundraiser for Macmillan Cancer Support. Also on the bill are the likes of Matt Forde, Ahir Shah and Lloyd Langford, while John Fothergill will do the compering. So is there a particular slot she prefers? Headlining? Sloping off early?
"I like to close," she says. "I like to open. I want the middle spots too. At Wembley, ideally. I'll take them all and I'm available for encores."
But where did it all begin?
First gig?
It was in a pub basement. I'd been sweating about my set for months but left writing it to the very last minute. As I took the mic I knew I'd found my vocation - like a surgeon, but I could openly drink at work. It was obvious I was going to be an overnight success... which takes ten years, doesn't it? So I'm running late again.
Favourite show, ever?
It's always the last one that went well, so yesterday's. Hopefully surpassed by tomorrow's.
Worst gig?
It can always go wrong. That's the point. It's where the energy comes from. When you're new and you die on stage it's agony for everyone. When you know what you're doing and you die on stage the agony is all yours. The audience just thinks you're shit. That's the goal. Sympathy is for beginners.
Although if you want to feel sorry for me I gigged to absolute silence at Watford Jongleurs in 2013. A woman opened a packet of crisps and the sound ripped through the funereal atmosphere like a firecracker. She said sorry. I said sorry. Still makes me shudder.
Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?
Scott Capurro. He showed me how far you can go in a club, and why you should go further. He is outrageous.
And who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?
Everyone seems disagreeable at the beginning because no one wants to book you. Later everyone seems agreeable. They want to book you and pay you.
Is there one routine/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?
If a great joke doesn't land there's always a reason - they didn't hear it, didn't understand it, didn't care about it because they're on a hen do. You've just got to work out what the audience is doing wrong.
Do you have any good travel tips, for gigging comics?
Don't have kids.
Are there particular reviews, heckles or post-gig reactions that stick in the mind?
My now husband buying me a pint.
How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?
Hideously dissatisfied. Ask me again when I've played Wembley.
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