Following a Star: Katy Brand interview

Katy Brand chats about religion and space travel as she tours her hit Fringe show, while also writing her next one

Feature by Cara McNamara | 15 May 2017

“It was desperate – we were all scoring our shoes, hacking great chunks out them.”

Performing the Single Ladies dance for Sport Relief 2010 is seared into Katy Brand’s memory.

“The live show had an audience of eight million people, and I’m wearing a black leotard and not much else,” she continues. “However, the main thing was that we’d been given only one chance to rehearse, and the stage floor had been buffed up to such a high shine that we all kept falling over... and I don’t just mean me, once, I mean all of us, continuously. But that was our one and only slot, then... see ya later. Standing behind those sliding doors was the most intense feeling of stage fright I’ve ever had.”

Brand doesn’t strike you as someone who gets cowed. In casual conversation she works through concepts, phrasing and rephrasing with thoughtful quality control. Her current show, I Was a Teenage Christian, is partly so funny due to her rampantly self-assured source material.

“I liked feeling important, significant, that I had something that I needed to do,” she says, “and there’s something about religion that can make you feel invincible. Teenagers have sort of rigid thinking, but they’re starting to get a sense of subtlety, trying to hold onto something black and white, and the hard edges of feeling right – and certain – is appealing.

“I’m not sure whether I ever wholly believed in God. God as some intelligence or force with a consciousness, yes. But did I believe in the virgin birth, heaven and hell? I’d be a bit more ambivalent. I definitely told people they wouldn’t go to heaven if they didn’t believe. I wasn’t always an exemplary Christian, I had doubts; my humour was quite irreverent and I wanted a purpose – and that’s still in me. But I look back and it’s so cringey. Preaching at people from school. It’s not raw, though. It’s sort of hilarious.”

In parallel to the Teenage Christian tour, Brand is also working on her next Fringe show. It too contrasts big questions with earthly limitations. "It’s about becoming an astronaut. I’m absolutely fascinated by space and astronomy, incredibly enthusiastic with virtually zero competence. So I’m thinking about one-way trips – if you could reinvent yourself, would there be multiple versions of you? About fate – what might have been, if I’d been better at maths. A friend said to me, 'If your last show was I Was a Teenage Christian, and this one is I Could've Been an Astronaut, what will the next one be?' I just haven’t figured out who I am yet.”

Brand strikes a smart balance. She invites people to belly-laugh at her, but she's already dissected her stories all ways before putting them back together. This care towards her experiences acts like a protective shield and prevents her becoming a caricature. It’s not an easy trick to pull off.

“A friend once said something really useful to me: that comedy’s like a game of golf,” Brand says. “You don’t play the other players, you play the course.

“I want to tell the truth, but I’d like to tell my own style of truth – examine and analyse and present the findings rather than relive it on stage. I mean, I’ve felt what I’m saying on stage, but to present emotions I’ve not worked through is not my style. I’ve seen it before in comedy and it’s been admirable, and artistically interesting, and it could be the start of something brilliant... but it can be exhausting, and you just want to put your arm round them and say, ‘I think you’re OK.’”


Katy Brand: I Was a Teenage ChristianThe Stand, Glasgow, 21 May; The Lowry, Salford, 25 May; The Dukes, Lancaster, 27 May.
Katy Brand: I Could've Been an Astronaut, Pleasance Courtyard (Above), 2-26 Aug, 6.20pm, £7-13.50.

http://www.mickperrin.com/tours/brand-teenage-christian/