Interview: Harriet Kemsley

Comedian Harriet Kemsley headlines Bristol’s flourishing all-female night What the Frock! on Thursday, March 24.
A previous Bath Comedy Festival New Act winner, Kemsley drew the following praise from our predecessors at Venue magazine: “Her engagingly faux-naïve take on London life is much cleverer than it seems on the surface, and plays with middle-class fears with unerring skill.”
Last year, meanwhile, Kemsley and her partner – fellow comic Bobby Mair – turned their bumpy relationship into material for their respective Edinburgh Fringe shows.

Do you still live in the (your word) ‘lively’ borough of Hackney?
Alas no, the ‘lively’ borough is now less lively and more just plain pricey so I’ve been pushed out – not by knife crime, but by organic coffee shops. I’m now down south in Crystal Palace which has a park full of dinosaur statues, so I couldn’t be happier.

What’s on your mind, and in your set, at the moment?
I’m writing a new show for Edinburgh Festival this year called Good Girl, which I’ve just started previewing. It’s about trying to live up to society’s expectations. And by ‘society’s’, I mean my Mum’s. So that’s feeding into the set as I try and work out what works and what just leaves people confused.

Early in your career you appeared something of an ingénue, wide-eyed among the bustle of London life. Is that still you, or are you more streetwise now?
Ha. I don’t think I’ll ever fully fit in, but I suppose I have got a bit more streetwise. I’ve developed a terrifying stare when I walk down scary roads so people don’t mess with me. Although I think it’s only terrifying because I look so deranged when I do it.

How would your describe your stand-up style? 
I’m always being described as ‘weird’ or ‘quirky’. I suppose my thinking is a little unusual but it’s always nice when people laugh as you think, ‘phew, I’m not the only one who sees life this way’. My comedy is also a bit dark – which often isn’t what people expect, as I look like an overgrown baby.

You’re an actress as well as a stand-up. How do the two strands compare for you?
I love doing both. The stand-up’s the main thing but the acting’s fun to do when it comes up and is always a bit random. Last year I played a military wife and a zookeeper being chased by a tiger.

You’ve made a feature film called, splendidly, Bonobo. Wossatallabout?
It’s great! It’s available on iTunes and has all sorts of brilliant people in it like Josie Lawrence, Tessa Peake-Jones and James Norton [recently on our screens as Andrei Bolkonsky in War and Peace]. It’s about a group of people who decide to live like bonobo monkeys, a species famous for resolving conflict through sex. As you can imagine, it all gets a little complicated…

Harriet Kemsley headlines What the Frock! at Bristol Improv Theatre, Clifton on Thursday, March 24. For more info, visit www.whatthefrockcomedy.co.uk