Comedy / Chloe Petts
Chloe Petts: ‘This is who I am, and you can laugh with me’
Already a familiar face within the UK comedy landscape, and with multiple TV credits including Hypothetical, Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club and The Stand-Up Sketch Show already to her name, Chloe Petts is a fast rising star.
Ahead of her debut Edinburgh Fringe show in August 2022, and off the back of multiple tour dates supporting Ed Gamble, she is now on tour with her first solo show, Transience, coming to Bath and Bristol in May and June respectively.
Along with Chloe Green, Jodie Mitchell, and the double act Shelf – otherwise known as Rachel Watkeys Dowie and Ruby Clyde – Petts is also co-founder of the hugely popular regular mixed bill of queer comedy The LOL Word, that for five years has been characterised for putting on inclusive, accessible nights that platform established, new and up-and-coming queer comics.
is needed now More than ever
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“It’s really lovely to see a theatre full of gays, and everywhere you look you see another bald lesbian, and you think ‘this is great, and as it should be’” notes Petts. “Everyone just feels so happy and included.”
Her own gender identity, she explains, is complicated. “I’m non-conforming, but I wouldn’t say non-binary, so it’s fluid, I guess,” she says. “But she/they pronouns really work for me.”
Petts is a football-loving stand up, describing her style of comedy as ‘cerebral laddishness’. She is anecdotal and friendly, with a high gag rate, while being able to communicate her own identity politics through the prism of her specific experience as a masculine woman who is often misread as male.
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From the outset, the power of stand up to control the terms on which you’re being viewed, was, for Petts, a huge part of its appeal. “Often if I walk into a room full of strangers, it can be quite exposing, and I can feel quite vulnerable,” she admits.
“But what I love the most is going to a rural town or somewhere a bit different, and sharing your experiences with a wide range of people that might not necessarily have met someone who is gender non-conforming.
They realise there is nothing to be scared of, and that the power is in being able to laugh not at it, but with it”.
As her Fringe debut approaches, while the industry buzz cannot have escaped her, Petts is sanguine about it all.
“I try to be proud of it, grateful for it, and because I love football so much, linking my life to football metaphors really helps me,” she laughs.
“You’ve got to be a big game player and try to deal with the pressure, enjoy the pressure, and thrive off the pressure. So I do feel worried at times, but I also feel happy, and completely supported by the people that are saying nice things about me.”
Chloe Petts: Transience is at The Rondo Theatre, Bath on May 14 and The Wardrobe Theatre on June 4. Tickets for both shows are available at www.chloepetts.wixsite.com.
Main photo: Avalon UK
Read more: Ed Gamble: Locked in the Wardrobe
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