“You never feel like you've cracked it”

What we asked Harriet Kemsley, comedian and podcaster

Harriet Kemsley has just finished her first solo tour and a breakout performance in Amazon Prime’s Last One Laughing. We spoke to the Kent comedian about how she got into stand-up, her experiences on LOL, her prolific podcasting, having a Wikipedia page, and lots more.

Let me start by congratulating you for being part of the Daily Mail’s Ideal Woman.
Thank you, yeah, that was a big surprise. I don’t know if congratulations is the right thing.
Did you get told about that, or did you discover it?
I was sent it by a couple of friends with crying face laughing emojis. That's how I found out about it.

Let's start off with the explanation of why we're here. What is your official occupation?
I guess my official occupation is stand-up comedian. That's the thing that I've been doing for 14 years, and that I do most nights. It's also the thing I always see as the day job. It's the thing I can always come back to. Other things crop up that are fun and weird and exciting. But the nice thing is I can always come back to stand-up, and that can be something I can keep working on and trying to get better at. You never feel like you've cracked it. It's painful and great in that way.

How did you start? You're from Canterbury, is there a big stand-up scene in Canterbury?
No, not at all. I didn't know anything about stand-up. I did youth theatre at the Marlowe. I did a few summers of that, and then I did the National Youth Theatre. Then I did bits of acting, and I wanted to go to drama school, but they kept saying, ‘You need to live more of a life, you're not ready.’ I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to get started. I went to university, and when I finished, I didn’t know what I was going to do. My mum and dad were watching Live at the Apollo, and they thought I should do stand-up. I thought that was crazy. I didn't know anything about stand-up. It was the maddest thing I'd ever heard. They were like, ‘Just go and do it. Bizarre things happen to you that are funny, and you should go talk about it.’ So, I did, and I kept it quiet. Kept it a secret for ages because it felt so embarrassing to let people know that I thought I was funny. It just felt so arrogant. But I loved it.

Do you remember that first gig?
Yeah, it was a gig in central London, and I just felt sick the whole day, like completely sick. I went on stage. It just went fine, and I got some laughs. I came off and thought this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was crazy. There's still some comics that I know that were there that night. From that moment, it just became a thing that I did. It was the secret underworld life, where I didn't tell my housemates what I was doing. I sneaked out and would see all these stand-ups that were going between gigs. It was very exciting.

What was the moment when you thought ‘This is my main thing now?’
It took a long time. I kept my day job. I ended up changing a few day jobs, but I would go down one day a week every year for a few years. I think the first time I thought, ‘Oh my God, I actually could maybe do this’ was six months in. I won a couple of comedy competitions, and I was just so happy to be in the final. I was the happiest person you've ever seen. Then, the fact I won, I couldn’t believe it. And I was like, ‘Oh, maybe this is something that I could do.’

Is that a challenge? You have this overnight success, you're winning awards, people saying great things, but that's not the same as actually being able to pay the bills?
Yeah, exactly. It's been 14 years. Just the last two months, things have changed. It's crazy. And yeah, I won these competitions, which was amazing, and it gave me a real boost. The problem was then I'd only been going six months, and I didn't have much material, and I was thrown into these late night club nights, and I just completely bombed. I'd be talking about stuff that was weird and a bit inappropriate maybe for people on a night out, and I just bombed around the country for years, and sometimes it would go great, and sometimes it would go terribly, and it was just so confusing. I just had no idea how to make it consistent. I took years to work out how to package myself. I think I also looked very young, and I was clearly very nervous, and that made people so uncomfortable. If it worked from the beginning, then they'd be like, ‘Oh, we get it, she's funny.’ But if they didn't, they'd be like, ‘What is happening? Why is this young girl on stage? And she looks like she's having a breakdown.’

Part of the modern life of the comedian is the world of the panel show. What was the first one of those you got?
I had just turned 30, and I got an 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. I tried out for it maybe three years in a row. And it had always gone quite well, but I'd never got through. You have like run-throughs where all the comics try out for it. And it's very stressful as everyone is in these run-throughs. People are just trying to get heard, and they're trying to get their slot. They all went well, but I never quite got it. Then, I got this one, and that was a really big step for me.

You said on Hypothetical that you lie to everybody. How much can we trust your answers in this interview?
I think what I mean by that is I am always trying to be polite and nice, and that is slightly exhausting… I'm so sorry, my dog needs to go outside.

(Harriet disappears to take care of the dog. I mean, that’s what she said, and who wouldn’t believe her…)

Hello again. Last One Laughing was a big success. Was there a process of application for that, or are you at a stage now where you were invited to take part?
Yeah, they're the company that makes (8 Out of 10) Cats Does Countdown, Zeppotron, and they've been absolutely amazing to me. Yeah, I was very much the newer person in it, and I'm so grateful to them that they had me in it for sure.

How much of that was prepared? You had your big number, were you given any guidance, or did you have to come up with a surprise?
Yeah, you have a few days. I worked with a couple of comics and just talked through ideas. Then you try and have a few things that you've got in your locker, and you don't end up using half of them. But the divorce letter was something that I brought along that I'd thought about before. Then you've got these things that you can bring out. You also have to try and just relax and enjoy it, and be present in the moment. It's a mix.

What for you was the hardest moment?
It was any of the one-on-one bits. Like those were the bits that I crumbled because to look someone in the eyes is so hard. That's why I went with Nick (Mohammed), I went with Jimmy (Carr), with everybody, because it's just the pressure and it just builds and builds and builds, and there's nothing you can do.
Also, Lou (Sanders) was very hard because Lou is a very close friend of mine, and she catches you off guard. I'd have to sometimes just walk away from her, and I'd be like, ‘Lou, I can't. I can't do it, we'll talk afterwards.’ Then Richard (Ayoade) as well. He was really on the front foot and just seemed unbreakable. I'm really proud that it seemed he was a little bit on the edge with the divorce letter. That was a very proud moment of mine.