Catherine Bohart on levity, literature and laughs
Catherine Bohart returns to Scotland with her Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated show, Again, With Feelings! We chat to the comic about setting boundaries for her confessional comedy and her literary influences
While friends may have been surprised at the path Catherine Bohart’s taken in life, a natural way with words has placed the comic in a league of her own. “I wasn’t the class clown at all,” she explains, “But I was in the debate team and I was good at arguing a case, I could be sharp with my words – but I was never the one making a joke.”
Known for her confessional style, the comic discusses everything in her act from heartache to overbearing parents. There is intimacy aplenty as the self-confessed over-sharer lets you into her world. Yet behind the veil of the stage, Bohart confesses that it’s an ever present balancing act. “It’s so astute to realise that even though a lot is on stage, it isn’t everything,” admits the Irish standup. Bohart giddily dives into the forensics of her act with childlike glee. “I used to find myself quite angry with someone asking me a really personal question off stage, even though it’s completely my fault as I just lectured them about it for an hour!”
With each tour building on Bohart’s exceptional reputation, the hysterical Trusty Hogs podcast host and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee is quick to acknowledge the journey she’s been on. “I’m finally learning that it’s okay to put in boundaries. Sometimes I realise onstage, that this is an anecdote for the therapy chair, not the stage! On the other hand, nobody wants a show about how lovely your holiday was, everyone knows the real humanity comes from how we deal with hardship. You get to March, when everyone’s eyeing up an Edinburgh show, and secretly a bit of you is hoping something goes wrong, otherwise you don’t have an hour!”
The candour and familiarity Bohart strikes up is an immediate testament to her prowess as a performer. The rapport she conjures out of thin air is the exact skillset that has propelled her to the top of many must-see lists. Her lightning ability to make you feel not just at ease, but on the same level, is her master stroke as a comic. You feel in the know, privy to the latest scoop in a lifelong friend’s ever-changing life.
“I am myself on stage, it’s really me,” confesses Bohart, before conceding, “It’s just not the entire me, people have still paid for a nice night!
“It’s makeup,” she elaborates. “It’s knickers off the radiator, guests are round – the most presentable version I can be. It's Catherine with levity.”
Levity is plentiful throughout her latest tour, Again, With Feelings, as Bohart spends the hour addressing themes of womanhood, her 30s and trying to find a place in it all. With every passing admission, there’s a charm and ease, although the self-effacing comedian puts that down to an accent. “People assume the Irish are fun, yet I’m a little uptight. They assume the Irish are loud and silly, yet I’m a little more studious and reserved. So really, the stereotypes help me, leaning on the Irish turn of phrase always makes me a funnier comic, I don’t know why.”
One thing that’s always sparkled brightly in Bohart’s act is precisely that love for a specific, deliberate turn of phrase. When talking literature, she eagerly exclaims “I love words!”
“As a child, we had two channels on the TV, so every Wednesday became library day, with mum telling us to read anything, saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad reading.’”
As the conversation derails, she mentions her influences ranging from Roddy Doyle to Shakespeare (“I don’t think Shakespeare gets enough credit for how funny he is”), with Bohart paying particular tribute to the inherently campy and theatrical impact Roald Dahl had on her, noting his overtly flamboyant characters and fanciful command of language. “I mean, The Twits?? Hello? It can’t get campier than that! The way he wrote was so tongue-in-cheek, it’s basically drag!”
“I’ve never been able to write comedy with a laptop, it’s about hearing the words and how they land on an audience,” she muses, reflecting “I fixate on the words, after hearing them play out. I’m forensic – completely the type of person running to my girlfriend excitedly reading her a paragraph of my book while screaming ‘how beautiful is this sentence’! The same goes with my comedy, I want it to sound good.”
And sound good it does!
Catherine Bohart: Again, With Feelings, Oran Mor, Glasgow, 22 Mar, 8pm, £16.50 / Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 23 Mar, 7.30pm, £15
@catherinebohart on Instagram / @catherinebohartcomedian on TikTok