Jessica Fostekew on her new show, Mettle

Jessica Fostekew has gone from strength to strength, literally, since the last time we caught up with the comic. Her Edinburgh-nominated show Hench propelled her into the public consciousness, with a string of high profile TV gigs immediately following, as well as success with her own podcast, Hoovering, and co-hosting The Guilty Feminist. More recently, her follow-up hour Wench has just been released online, and new show Mettle is about to start a nationwide tour. A few days before the tour begins, she’s more than ready to get going: “Right now I’m desperate to just crack on with it, release some bits of adrenaline into the universe and not just hold it. I'm giddy, but it is maddening because it’s too exciting.” 

Mettle is framed around an out-of-body experience Fostekew had last New Year’s, reaching a landmark birthday and having left something on a bus. “The bus thing perfectly typified the lunacy of 'the older you get, the more you realise you've got to do and the less time you've got to do it’. The more things you care and feel so passionately about. And actually, the more equipped you are to have a go at acting on them.” At 30, she had a wobble, knowing she wanted to achieve some major life goals (having kids, being in a loving relationship, owning a house). Her wobble at 40 came with some stark self-advice: “You're not allowed the same one 'cos you've got all those things now. This one's just about your face getting baggy!”

The new show is unusual for Fostekew, having not been a Fringe run first, but she’s thrilled if it means there’s more space for chaos and being in the moment. A show fresh from the Fringe is a “lean show that's really well trodden but by that point, it's also pretty written and settled.” Once fellow comic Sara Pascoe had calmed her nerves about it not having the same polish as a Fringe hour (“She went 'Yeah, it won't.' And I was like 'Oh, of course, why put that expectation on it?'”), she leant into embracing the challenge of a looser, less 'muscular' show. “I'm gonna talk about things in this show that might make people annoyed because it scares me to do that. I'm a people-pleaser.” She tells herself to “hold on to that fizziness, that real presence in the material for as long as you can,” harnessing it to her advantage.

Chaos seeps into Fostekew’s day-to-day, as much as her comedy. “Internally, it is non-stop chaos. It's fireworks all the time. Scrambly fireworks. There's these little moments of clarity where you understand 'Oh well I'll do that, then that, then that'... but most of the time it's just [screams] noise inside.” Outwardly, it’s a different story: “I’m really organised, like I am addicted to planning,” admitting to surprising new friends with her life admin skills. “I find it weird that I've ended up in a career where a lot of my work comes in last-minute.”

Yet the anger she threads through her comedy is far from chaotic. “The one bit of my material that I always want to be really controlled is the anger... When you're fizzing with a genuine, hot, real, present anger, that's not actually that pleasant to watch.” Instead, Fostekew says, the best way to get it across is by “telling the story of having those feelings.” From the perspective of her audience, she’s a maelstrom of fury; at once a rallying cry and a tidal wave of catharsis. But it never feels uncomfortable, she now reveals, because she has such a tight grasp on it.

“I grew up in a comedy era where it was very popular to have a sad bit in your show and I love that I have an angry bit. I'm trying to start a trend,” swapping out the now-expected climax that’s nestled itself into hundreds of comedy shows. “I want there to be baby comedians bursting with anger, I want to start a fashion for having an angry bit in your show.” But Fostekew’s keen to not let that emotion define her comedy. “I'm also a naughty lady, silly lady, serious lady, but I'm also an angry lady and I want to find a way to be all of those ladies in my work. It's more about being my authentic self than it is about having ever wanted to be angry on stage.”

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Jessica Fostekew: Mettle, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 5 Mar, and The Stand, Glasgow, 6 Mar, 8pm, £15-£17
Wench is available to stream from 800 Pound Gorilla. She also appears on the latest series of World's Most Dangerous Roads and in an upcoming episode of Travel Man with Joe Lycett