“Everything I’ve been writing about for the last six years has been leading up to this”

On Friday, April 6, the Wardrobe Theatre’s excellent Chuckle Busters comedy sessions welcome the brilliantly sharp and incisive Tiff Stevenson, whom you may know from Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats and the BAFTA-nominated sitcom People Just Do Nothing.

“Some say she oscillates wildly between Sylvia Plath and Beyoncé, like Belva Lockwood fused with your drunken aunt. Tiff says she’s very funny and a right old smarty-pants. She also says she’s very, very, very modest.”

“A must-see star of the 2017 fringe.” ★★★★ Funny Women

We grabbed a few words with Tiff ahead of the show.

It’s been quite a year or so for gender and equality issues. How much of this is feeding into your stand-up?
I feel like everything I’ve been writing about for the last six years has been leading up to this reckoning! Sometimes the topics just become more relevant with time. In my 2012 show I had routines about consent, rape culture and ageism. In 2014 it was about body dysmorphia, suicidal ideation and depression, and reproductive rights. 2015 was identity politics, advertising, equality, Western feminism, gun control and period shaming. 2016 was terrorism, online activism, and the sexualisation of teenage girls. So they end up just being more relevant.

So for you it’s important for comics to be dealing with what’s current?
I think comedians should always be working ahead of the curve or zeitgeist. This time I have routines about harassment that I wrote before all the #metoo stuff happened. It’s a conversation that’s really important. A chunk of the show is also about my current detachment from some left politics – and, as I’m not right-wing, I feel politically adrift. I think a lot of people are experiencing similar political dysphoria.

Do you have fond memories of working on People Just Do Nothing (and will there be more?)?
Yes we are shooting again in May/June, although I have no idea what Tanya will be getting up to this series. She was giddy for Miche at the end of the last series but had her nose put out of joint slightly by Roche, Miche’s ‘best friend’ who also dumped her baby on her for the entire wedding. Up until the wedding I think Tanya was quite unaware of how uncouth Miche’s friends and family were. It will be interesting to see how that plays out as Tanya thinks of herself as being quite classy. Although I do think that Carole could lead her astray…

“Some say she oscillates wildly between Sylvia Plath & Beyoncé”. Two nice colourful extremes there. What are you really like – both on and offstage?
I am a person who lives very much in the extreme. I can be like Sylvia ‘as solitary as a blade of grass’ or super-confident, telling people ‘I don’t think you are ready for this jelly’.
I think we all live in a world where we can project winning, confidence and happiness but be feeling like total crap on the inside. I think whenever you see people post positivity or optimism memes on social media it’s probably inversely proportionate to the happiness they feel inside. I know because I’ve been there. As a performer you are expected to always project success but sometimes you just wanna be real honest. However, I can also see from the outside that it looks like we all live a pretty charmed existence and it’s a tricky beast to manage.

“How to complement women” – are most men getting this wrong? And can you help us get it right?
Ha! I’m not falling for that one ….come see the show . As a general rule, though, if your complement is shouted from the top of a building or out of a moving car, like if the Doppler effect applies to your complement, then it’s probably harassment

Do bleak and worrying times make for richer comic fodder?
Unfortunately yes – but that doesn’t mean I don’t hope for better times.

Tiff Stevenson performs Bombshell at the Wardrobe Theatre on Friday, April 6. For more info, visit thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/tiff-stevenson-bombshell