Jo Caulfield writes a memoir about her late sister
- Jo Caulfield has written her first book, a memoir about her relationship with her late sister Annie
- Annie wrote for Lenny Henry, Rik Mayall and Josie Lawrence among others and "was a very cool older sister" says Caulfield
- The comic is "threatening" to write a book about being a working stand-up and says of her 2020 Royal Variety Performance appearance that she would be "buggered if I'd curtsey to Kate Middleton or Prince William"
Jo Caulfield has written her first book, a memoir about her late sister, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
You Wore It First will be published next summer by Polygon. The book recalls Caulfield's memories of her older sister, Annie, who wrote for Lenny Henry, Rik Mayall, Josie Lawrence and on The Real McCoy, as well as the hit 1990s television drama This Life. Annie died from cancer in 2016.
The title derives from the stand-up "being the younger sister, I was always wearing Annie's old clothes" she told BCG.
"I never minded, it was what people did then because kids clothes were expensive. My mum still has a party dress that we both wore when we were about six. It would be illegal now as it's highly flammable."
She and Annie were exceptionally alike, "in looks and personality.
"It's weird and sometimes unnerving to grieve for someone who you see in your own face" Caulfield explains. "She was five years older than me so she had always been in my life, ahead of me, fighting battles and maybe making my path a little easier than hers' had been. She was a very cool older sister."
Annie, who penned the children's series Grim Tales for Mayall with Anthony Horowitz for ITV and Channel 4, based on the fairytales by The Brothers Grimm, travelled extensively and also wrote several books about the countries she had visited.
She enjoyed a particularly fruitful working relationship with Henry. They "just clicked" said Caulfield. "He was one of the first people to give her a writing job and she worked with him off and on for years. Lenny also acted in several of her radio plays."
The sisters "could make each other laugh till it hurt, the way you laugh as a kid where you can't really explain what you're laughing at" Caulfield recalls. "I can hear her commenting on things even now. I'll often talk with her friends about what her take would be on current situations."
Writing the memoir "didn't lessen the pain. But it was cathartic in that it made me feel close to her again.
"It was fun to relive and write down memories, we had so many hilarious and disastrous adventures together. We often talked about how much we would enjoy being old ladies who don't give a fuck; but sadly I'll have to do that on my own. But she'll be there, urging me on: 'Go on Jo, let's go shoplifting, after we drop by the off-licence for the free wine tasting.'"
Polygon, who re-published The Girl From the Channel Islands by former stand-up and television comedy writer Jenny Lecoat last week, are an independent publisher based in Edinburgh. The city is where Caulfield lives and is currently preparing to perform her new show, Here Comes Trouble, at the Fringe.
"Excited, nervous and unprepared, in equal measures", Caulfield describes the festival as "a wonderful thing when you're in the thick of it but the months leading up to it are nerve racking. Full of self-doubt. Is this funny? Will this work?
"I don't do many previews, five or six at the most. I test out the separate routines in comedy clubs, so I know I have strong jokes as a foundation. It's more getting used to being on stage for an hour and pacing myself. It's like training for a marathon. When do I run out of steam? When do we need me to stop talking and change the pace?
"I like to have two or three routines that aren't honed-down, so there's freedom for them to grow during the festival. I like the excitement of 'where will this routine go tonight? What is the actual point of this routine?' I don't like starting the festival with a show I'm already fed up with, I want to look forward to doing it. I want it to still be a 'live' show."
Returning to The Stand comedy club helps because it's "a fantastic venue" she enthuses.
"A low ceiling, a good sound system, and an audience so close you can touch them. That's the perfect set up for stand-up comedy: a packed room, underground, people drinking, hot, sweaty, it makes it all feel illegal. We are the Subterraneans.
"And the audiences ... Scottish audiences tend to come out with a 'we are going to have a brilliant time tonight, and nothing is going to stop us' attitude. They're already in a good mood before you hit the stage, they've done half of the work for you. Whenever new comics ask me for advice, I always tell them: the audience have come along to have a good time, the audience want to laugh, so don't be scared of them. They're already on your side."
Voted Circuit Comedian of the Year in 2021 in a poll of fellow comics, alongside Ninia Benjamin and Mark Nelson, Caulfield has no truck with false modesty concerning the title.
"To be honest, I just thought 'it's about fucking time!'" she maintains "I'm being serious. No point in me hiding that. I'm good at what I do and should have received it years ago. I just think it's strange that I was given an award in a year when I couldn't actually go out and perform live. It's like they gave me an award for not doing comedy."
She made her Royal Variety Performance debut the year before, an atypical gig at the best of times but doubly so during peak-Covid, when audiences weren't allowed in theatres.
"They had monitors on the seats, like a giant Zoom call!" she recalls. "I was massively relieved I didn't have to stand in line and tug my forelock to any Royals. I respect Queenie as an old lady but I'm buggered if I'd curtsey to Kate Middleton or Prince William.
"As for material, I just did my normal stuff without saying: 'Fuck'. But my main memory was watching Gary Barlow and thinking 'why do the organisers think a man who had avoided paying his taxes would be a good fit for a Royal Variety Performance?'"
However, you won't see her on GB News anytime soon, after she was sounded out about appearing on the channel.
"I said 'No' and gave my reasons" she explains. "To me, it's as bad as Russia Today. You have to ask yourself where is the money really coming from and why has it been set up to perpetrate this nasty 'anti-woke' agenda? Dan Wootton, Nigel Farage, that history bloke who loves his hair and the awful Mark Dolan. I don't want to be associated with these people. They are all about creating division and these ridiculous culture wars that are there to distract us all from noticing how terrible our politicians are. It's also just very shoddy and bad TV.
"I think it made it pretty clear. But two months later another producer sent me another email asking me to be a guest on one of their other shows. I gave him the same reply. The following month, a third producer sent me another email asking me to be a guest on one of their shows.
"No thanks, I want to sleep well at night and be proud of my choices, not be part of the problem just because my ego wants to see myself on TV."
For a long time, Caulfield has had a section of her website entitled Things I've Learned, in which she's collected pithy bits of advice for aspirant comics. And she's now considering compiling these and other thoughts into a guide.
"For the last couple of years I've been threatening to write a book about being a 'working' stand-up comedian" she says. "I've got hundreds of notes scribbled on various bits of paper. If I can pull them all together it could be quite an interesting story. More what it's like to be a comedian and things I've learnt on the circuit. A lot of people have written books about comedy and comedians over the years but I don't think they were actually at the coalface.
"I was already living an unconventional life when I started stand-up, I had no expectations. I'm grateful to be doing something I love."