Hi Zoë. Who are you and what do you do in comedy?
I am Zoë Browne and I am a writer and sometime stand-up.
Tell us about how you first became involved in the comedy world.
Having written for and organised comedy fundraising events for many years, a pretty traumatic personal event led me to enrol in a stand-up course in 2018. It was much cheaper than therapy. Then I started doing stand-up and improv, which is a great training ground for honing jokes, meeting like minded people and collaborating on ideas.
Finding I enjoyed the writing side more, I enrolled on a Sketch writing course with Gemma Arrowsmith, started producing content and working with stage and podcast groups as a contributor, guest writer and script editor. In 2020, I was accepted onto the NFTS Writing and Producing Course with Bill Dare.
Tell us about your comedy favourites.
Probably my first memories of comedy is watching Billy Connolly with a rather raucous aunt at a formative age, and Lucille Ball with my grandparents. The Chocolate Factory sketch is still one of my favourites to this day.
There are so many things I love and it's so difficult to pick!
I always loved sketch shows and definitely Victoria Wood, French & Saunders, Smack The Pony and Mitchell & Webb rate highly.
My favourite sitcom of all time would be Ab Fab, for the horrific and flawed characters. For that reason, I really like Bojack Horseman. I also loved Gimme Gimme Gimme, Girls on Top, and more recently Gameface and Ghosts.
I see a lot of stand-ups and most recent shows I've loved have been by Fern Brady, David O'Doherty, Suzi Ruffell, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Katherine Ryan.
I really like audio comedy too - You'll Do, John Finnemore and The Now Show on Radio 4, Dear Joan And Jericha and John Dredge on podcast.
The comedy industry is competitive. Why should people pick you to work with?
Coffee addict. Default setting - perky cynic. Flexible, accommodating, adaptable.
Really enjoy working to deadlines and dissecting briefs / shows to get the right tone and style. Always happy to receive notes and do rewrites. I will work until I get it right, even if it means killing a comedy baby.
Experience writing for audio, video, stage and podcast. I love learning new things so have painfully taught myself video and audio editing software.
Always punctual, often early, and a bodyclock that veers towards nocturnal - I love writing at night.
Love to collaborate with people and bounce ideas about, hearing what others find funny. Consume a wide range of comedy and believe comedy is super specific to the individual - everyone's taste is different and I am absolutely not a gatekeeper. I love to soak up anecdotes and snippets for later use. People fascinate me. Comedy is great therapy, and at its best, true escapism.
Being a voracious reader and social media addict, there is a lot of random trivia stored in my head from the topical to the bizarre. This also makes me prone to random leftfield thoughts - yesterday's was that I wish the word "echo" was a palindrome.
What's the best advice you've ever been given, read or heard?
Comedy wise, it's got to be "Kill your babies". Knowing when to let something go, even if you love it and always, always listen to notes.
Life wise, probably, "Be your own champion", as in - encourage yourself to do that big, scary, different or difficult thing. Don't self edit, don't talk yourself out of it. Instead try, learn, hone and work at it, rather than never attempt it at all.
Where would you like to be in 10 years' time?
Still writing, always writing. By myself, with people, on projects, in different styles, for different shows.
That said, if ever I had an ideal world scenario, it would be one that had more non-topical sketch shows in it. I love how the relatable observations of people everyone knows are lampooned and exaggerated. A good sketch show really stands the test of time.
I'm very much interested in production, development and collaboration too, so I would jump at the opportunity to explore that side of the comedy world. It would be an incredible way to showcase all the amazing people and writers that I know and love, and to meet new writers and performers.
And to live in London, overlooking the river, but have the climate of southern Italy. I really hate being cold.
If you ever get free time, how do you spend it?
I read a lot, about 2-3 books a week, mostly fiction. I love stepping into someone else's head like that.
I can spend hours mooching around vintage shops and also design and make my own clothes from scratch, from my retro shop haul, often upcycling and deconstructing items.
Love festivals, gigs, live music, stand up, odd leftfield events, eating out. London has a lot to offer and I love exploring. Borough market and Brick Lane are amongst my favourite places.
Spend a lot of time in art galleries and museums and at friend's shows and exhibitions. People watching is a (not so guilty) pleasure.
If you could pick one superpower, what would it be?
So this is my favourite question to ask someone.
I used to think telekinesis would be the best choice - apart from anything else it'd be a great party trick. But the more I think about it, it's got to be teleportation. Missed the last tube? Boom. Don't fancy the stairs? Boom. Stuck with lechy Dave at a party? Boom. Perfect.
Published: Monday 5th October 2020