Holly Burn blog
Published: Monday 15th September 2014
Holly Burn talks about pretending to be Jemma, a terrible Bridesmaid...
I went undercover for a new TV comedy series - Bad Bridesmaid. I spent four nights and four days living as someone else. My alias was Jemma Duffy a trainee beautician from Whitely Bay - she was supposedly the groom's long lost cousin - if I didn't get rumbled, the bride would win a honeymoon.
Of course Jemma was designed to be a bit of a handful... I am a comedian. Any opportunity to cause a stir, be inappropriate and get some attention; I'm all over it!
This job was nuts. It was everything I could've dreamt of doing as a kid - it's putting on an outfit and an accent and playing up to people.
The most harrowing part of this whole experience is not 'the funny' - the issue was them buying that I was real. We developed and plotted meticulously detailed backstories, family trees and I learnt lots of pointless bits of info just in case they sought to trip me up.
So the first moment I walked in to meet the girls I had to believable. I got away with it - but I put them on edge when I threw a cushion at one of their heads and when I deliberately added 10 years on to their ages! But they bought it...
Worse came when I slowly ramped it up that evening when we were out for dinner and I got locked in the toilet. But things didn't really get going until the next day when Jemma fully unleashed her monster capabilities. They were tiring of me - but the more they tired of me, the more I dug my heels in and the more I loved it! It was evident when the 20 or so crew - who all were in on it - began sniggering and cameras started shaking.
We were building toward the main event - a dress rehearsal for the wedding where we all put the bridesmaids' dresses on that we'd be wearing for the wedding. Jemma was at the height of her emotional breakdown - so there was potential for anything to happen. Jemma got scissor happy with the dress and, at the end of a very long day, I very nearly got hit.
We were split up - the bridesmaids had snapped and were seething. I was taken off set - the crew shaking silently with laughter. The rush of adrenaline I experienced that night was like no other. It was incredible.
However, unlike when you come off stage, doing something undercover like this means there is no-way you can really get rid of the adrenaline - you can't tell anybody, you can't go and party, you just have to sit there quietly as it churns around inside you for days.
The final night - after a night of clubbing in Essex - we were in the car going back to our hotel. One bridesmaid had been on my case all day, not letting things drop. She was suspicious. Out of the blue she asked me what my mum's name was. I panicked! I learnt all this! But a lot had happened and I hadn't expected this stuff would come up so close to the end. It seemed minutes before I answered her: "Mmmmmyyyy Dad is ... called...... Aaaalan and ... my.... Mum.... is ..... called.... Sue." PHEW!
She was Facebooking the groom to double check and clarify my story. She smelt a rat... but couldn't quite put her finger on it. We pulled it off.
When I revealed my true identity there were tears of disbelief and sadness that Jemma wasn't real. They had all made a friend that weekend and wanted her at the wedding. Jemma has made friends too but she didn't go to the wedding and I doubt she'll ever be a bridesmaid again.
Holly's episode of Bad Bridesmaid is on ITV2 on Thursday 18th September at 9pm.
Find out more about Holly: www.hollyburn.org.uk and @hollyburn