My Comedy Career: Helen Lederer

Helen Lederer has been involved in comedy creation since the 1970s. We talk to her as she prepares for a new West End production and appears in TV show Pilgrimage: The Road Through the Alps.

Tell us what you do in your job.

I started at a weird post-grad course at drama school... then did a bit of TIE (theatre in education, OMG), then community theatre, then began writing my own material for stand-up comedy gigs in the 80s as part of the alternative comedy scene. I performed in rooms above pubs as well as The Comedy Store. Then a double act, then BBC live radio called In One Ear.

I love writing - particularly my novel, Losing It, which was nominated for the PG Wodehouse comedy award, and my recent memoir, Not That I'm Bitter - where no can judge me while I am doing it.

The misconception is that the job is not adrenaline fuelled, because it is - currently I am about to be in the West End with other actors. I'm fearful, but I know it will be exhilarating.

How did you first get involved in the comedy industry?

I began writing my own monologues for performing at auditions then I got gig through a fellow comedian who ran Pentameter, a theatre club above a pub in Hampstead. Myself and the late Maggie Fox joined up for a double act for 9 moths and we performed there every week. Then I started getting gigs on my own, and it grew from there.

What key skills do you need to be able to do your job well?

You need to be resilient and humble and not take yourself seriously when it goes tits up... as it will.

You need to be able to write rhythmically so it sounds complete and tight when you say the words and be able to think fast and not hate the audience. At all. Ever. In fact, you must love them.

Good to be physically nimble and be able to work with hangover and have good breath control.

What has been your biggest career achievement to date?

I think being invited to be Flossie the maid to Dawn French's cook in Ben Elton's Happy Families. Made me the happiest. Everyone else got their own series from it (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, French & Saunders) except me, but I loved it.

I learned to enjoy every moment and learn my lines. I was happy to be the Moldavian aristocrat in Bottom with Rik Mayall. He told me not to crash his laughs and I didn't. The dress was great also.

And what has been the biggest challenge/disappointment?

I, so far, have never been offered a sitcom that I have written and also acted in - at the same time. I sulked for a while in my 40s but the world wasn't ready, I tell myself. I now believe that if you don't get what you think you want the world doesn't stop, you just do something else...

Talk us through a typical day.

Today I wrote my weekly column for Best magazine that has to be humorous but not offend the readers, which can be interesting - then I did photoshoot for a comedy play I will be in on the West End. I wear a wig. I was anxious, but now feel happy to have met other like-minded souls. It will be scary and fun. Connecting with others who have similar practices as your own is a joy and all too rare. The balance is to have a nice bath with oil that lifts the senses... this never fails to calm me down.

Tell us a trick/secret/resource that you use to make your job quicker/easier.

In order to focus you have to put anything else out of your mind and force yourself to do the job in hand. Achievements of small triumphs is all. Make yourself do the less popular tasks first. The rest is a breeze (ish).

How are you paid?

I'm freelance, so it's stop-start. Some jobs come through an agent, and they take 20 percent at source. Or I invoice a magazine myself and they pay be in clumps - I have to print out the invoices and give them to a bookkeeper to give to an account to give to the government who probably throws them away - like it's in Dickens times...

If you could change one thing about the comedy industry, what would it be?

That more people got a go at the cherry, and the people at the top - be they commissioners, producers or celebrities - encouraged others more than they do. We are all different and it's nice to celebrate the differences as well as the similarities.

What tips would you give for anyone looking to work in your area of the industry?

I'd suggest they work up a set of a good ten minutes that they love and can duck and dive with performance wise in different types of settings. And to read other scripts and comedy novels from the past as well as now. And get a good hypnotist to ram in self-belief.

Luck, self-belief and resilience are all that is needed - and then some...

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