What made you get into comedy?
It seems like a scripted setup when I reflect on it now. It was as clear as day to me, even though I can only have been eight or nine. I remember being told to “stop being silly”, as all good, tired family members will say at times to children, and it being a dagger to my heart. For surely that was a key part of life: to laugh and be silly. The next day I was watching Morecambe & Wise and lo and behold there were some grownups being silly. When Eric Morecambe looked down the camera and smiled, I felt he was my friend, and I knew that I had to get inside that television and play.
Can you recall your first gig?
It was in my parents’ sitting room. My sister and I had learned some Victoria Wood sketches and I’d learned some Joyce Grenfell monologues. We hid behind the curtains until my parents and a few friends came in, and then burst out in all our glory. Just your standard Friday night for most teenagers …
Who did you look up to when you began in comedy?
It’s strange to think how few women there were when I was starting out – though that was 25 years ago now. I keep forgetting I’ve just turned 50. French and Saunders and Victoria Wood were the vital heroines to look up to. And then Mel and Sue and Catherine Tate emerged and were around when I started gigging.
Can you recall a gig so bad, it’s now funny?
I remember doing a sketch show that I found funny at the time. There were about 15 people in a 300-seater, and stony silence the entire way through. We didn’t know whether to just stop. I had to go into the audience for a sketch and sit on a man’s lap flirtatiously (I’m cringing thinking about it) and when I did, he just said: “No thanks”, and passed me on to someone else.
Best heckle?
You’re not as tall in real life. You don’t know quite what to do with that.
Any preshow rituals?
A banana and a poo.
There are increasing concerns about performers being priced out of the Edinburgh fringe. What do you recall from your time at the festival?
I first went to the Edinburgh fringe in 1994 and did my last show there in 2005. It was a long road. And it was a huge pressure financially. I temped in offices all year to earn the money to put on a show each August. It felt like the only way to showcase to producers and agents. It was also an amazing way to hone your craft, as every year you were working up material for Edinburgh, but I think the financial burden is way too much when you want to concentrate on the creative side, and acts need much more support on every level. It’s sad when standups and comedy actors are burning out before they even get a break. And although it makes a good story now, sharing a room and indeed a bed in your late 20s with your fellow comedians – we had three in a bed one year – because you can’t afford a flat doesn’t feel like the greatest conditions.
You’re joining Richard Curtis for a Comic Relief event at Just for Laughs London festival. What are your fondest memories of the work you’ve done with Comic Relief?
When you’ve wanted to get into comedy all your life, and watched your favourite comedians do weird and wonderful things for Comic Relief over the years, it’s quite a surreal moment when you find yourself supporting the charity as a comedian. So my fondest memory was my first moment for Comic Relief: playing a stage manager in an Absolutely Fabulous sketch with some Spice Girls. I was having a constant out of body experience.
I have always believed in the importance of laughter, and known since that day aged eight watching Eric Morecambe how healing it can be. So to have a charity that connects a nation through laughter, to remind us there are millions of people for whom joy is far off due to their desperate circumstances but that we can help them, well need I say more? I’m a bit misty-eyed just saying that …
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
The divine Deborah Frances-White once said in a workshop I did with her 500 years ago: “Don’t fear your obvious.” A joke or an idea can seem so obvious to you that you might fear it not worthy. But it’s only obvious to you – so it’s still unique.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
“It’s all very well being a bit funny, but you can’t make a living out of it.” Welcome to drama school in the 90s! Actually it ended up being the best advice, as I wanted to prove them wrong in their view that comedy was a lesser art.
What’s next for you?
Watch out for the book wot I am writing …
• Miranda Hart appears with Richard Curtis, Jonathan Ross and Jo Brand in Comic Relief: The Truth & Everything Except the Truth as part of Just for Laughs London festival at the O2 on 5 March. Red Nose Day returns on 17 March on BBC One.
