With her new show “Success Story” coming to Australia, beloved British stand-up comedian Sara Pascoe is spilling secrets on topics like career failures, sex, money, infertility, therapist visits and the female body.
Speaking on Women’s Agenda‘s weekly podcast The Crux, Pascoe said fans can expect the first half of the show to feature funny stories from her teenage ambitions, including the times she tried to get on TV, meet famous people and, believe it or not, be insulted by a spice girl.
But there’s also a deeper, more personal level of truth-telling that comes out later on in the show, with Pascoe sharing her journey with infertility to finally “becoming a mum” and the ways in which that’s changed her life.
While many have labelled her brand of comedy “feminist”, Pascoe revealed she’s struggled with the label in the past since it seemed like it was only being given to her because she was a woman speaking on topics of personal experience.
She gave an example saying, “if a man is in a supermarket, he’s doing stand-up comedy, and if I’m in the supermarket telling jokes about a supermarket, that’s feminist– just because I’m a woman doing comedy about a supermarket.”
Pascoe says she used to wonder why her comedy was labelled feminist and laughs that even a comment about “having a bra on”, can be deemed a form of activism.
“Oddly, a woman talking on stage unapologetically was seen as activism even though it didn’t feel like it,” said Pascoe.
Since then, she’s come to embrace the label and values “the importance of women hearing from women and a whole diverse set of opinions and experiences”.
And while being a feminist may be considered part of it, Pascoe’s brand of comedy has always been about transparency.
“Audiences know when they’re being lied to,” she says.
“We’re a very social species, so we pick up on each other’s voices and body language. And audiences will not laugh if they think that you’re lying to them or pretending to be something that you’re not.”
It’s this unabashed honesty that what makes her so incredibly relatable to audiences.
“You can’t really change the kind of comic that you are,” says Pascoe.
“[Comedy style] chooses you, so mine has always been essentially telling secrets– mine and other people’s.”
In addition to spilling secrets and making audiences laugh, Pascoe says her career also allows for good flexibility as a new mother.
“I was able to go back to work for the first time five weeks after my son was born because I can work pretty much as and when I want to,” she says. “Now being on tour, I work at night, so I still get to spend the day with my son and he’s in bed when I’m working.”
To other women looking to pursue comedy, she has a simple message: “give it a go”.
“If you do a couple of gigs and you don’t enjoy it, you never have to do it again. But you might just get a real obsession with it, which is what happened to me.”
Pascoe’s new show will ride off the success of her last live tour, which received critical acclaim and sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe before it started. Australian audiences can get tickets for showings in April and May, on sale now.