Memory Lane with Kerry Godliman and Jen Brister - S04 E24: Desiree Burch

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

"New York is like the abusive boyfriend with a big dick... " What an absolute blast to have the one and only Desiree on talking about growing up in the United States, her journey into comedy, going to Yale and living in New York (see above). Desiree is on tour in the autumn and also doing her show up in Edinburgh during August. - She's fantastic and well worth a watch... if you can get a ticket. PLUS... Kerry and Jen chat about Kerry filming her brilliant new show. JEN & KERRY STAND-UP TOURS Kerry's 2025 tour is on sale now - https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/kerry-godliman-tickets/artist/1866728 Jen's 2025 tour is on sale now - https://www.jenbrister.co.uk/tour/ PHOTOS PHOTO 1: Me aged 5 or 6 PHOTO 2: Kid Quiz PHOTO 3: Just Add water PHOTO 4: New York Scene PHOTO 5: An American in the UK PICS & MORE - https://www.instagram.com/memory_lane_podcast/ A Dot Dot Dot Production produced by Joel Porter Hosted by Jen Brister & Kerry Godliman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hello and welcome to Memory Lane. I'm Jen Bristair and I'm Kerry Godleman. Each week we'll be taking a trip down Memory Lane with our very special guest as they bring in four photos from their lives to talk about.

To check out the photos we'd be having a natter with them about, they're on the episode image and you can also see them a little bit more clearly on our Instagram page. So have a little look at Memory Lane podcast. Come on, we can all be nosy together. Should I tell you what I'm doing today? Ask me what I'm doing today. Kerry, what are you doing today? I'm filming my stand-up special. Oh my fucking God, are you? Yes. Oh my God, that was such a turn...

Jesus Christ, what a quick turnaround. I know. Literally, you just said to me, I felt like a few weeks ago, I'm thinking you were recording a special. A quick turnaround. On the other hand, 20 years. I mean, it's insane that you haven't recorded a special.

It's insane. Oh my God, Kerry, that's so exciting. Are you doing two shows in a night? No, I'm doing one show. Okay, this doesn't matter. That's great. Great, great, great. I did two warm-ups last week. I did one at Maths Club, and I did one in Crawley Horth.

So I've warmed it up. You're going to smash it. I hope so. I just, Flo just said, don't think about it. She's like, just do the show. Because I listened back to a couple of like, you know, when you listen back to some tour ones, and they're really tonally different. Tour shows really change, don't they?

Oh, my God. I look back at a recording that I did of, my last show The Optimist, which I thought tonally was quite light. And then I listened back to this episode. It was refilmed at Brighton. And I was so angry.

I was so angry. I was like angry and delivering all the stuff angrily. And I was like, oh, and another thing. Yeah. And I thought to myself, God, it really just depend on what a day I've had. Yeah. Or how nervous you are.

That's what I find. If I'm nervous, I get more aggressive and sweary. I mean, when I'm relaxed. If I'm relaxed, I'm not. this was at the comedian. I think what had happened was I was angry with myself for writing a show

where I had to talk about my dead mum at the end of every night and I was like, oh God, I'm going to have to do it again tonight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I was, I think I almost can remember

being backstage going, I can't fucking believe I've got to do this again. And I sort of, it sort of bled into the show. And, you know, it's one of those things as comedians. You've got to, like,

I always have to remind myself that people have pain and you are there to distract them from the fury but also yeah always goes back to what we were talking about earlier

I find anger hilarious always have but I just don't know tonally which one to capture for this filming thing because both work they're just different yeah I think always capture the joy that would be my

And also, because your jokes are really punchy, when it comes with a little bit of, you know, something a little lighter, it kind of, the jokes float a little bit higher. Yeah. We're all get a little bit of them. Also, what things work on camera are different to in the room, aren't they? It's a different vibe. I think camera, you're going to be surprised.

I always find that everything I do on camera, a lot of the jokes are just my face. Yeah, and slow down. Just go slower. go slower and and and you can punctuate you can have you can punctuate a joke with a top or a tag with a with a with something your face with something your face is doing yeah yeah I'm gonna enjoy it I'm gonna enjoy it Frank's gonna come he's gonna make a little video

backstage of what's the point oh great he's gonna make a little what's the point why are you doing it live why why are you doing it live why are you filming it what's the point no one's gonna watch it great that's what you want for me son there's a little bit of backup and some support And what better way to support your mum than to create an existential crisis before she walks on stage?

Yeah. Why? What's the point of any of this? What's the point of any of this? Who's going to watch? Why do you have, who is your audience? Are you sure you have one? Are they really there?

Do they really care? Yeah. Thanks, Frank. Yeah. Frank's got it. He's got it lit. He's got the character of a 15 year old teenager, really down.

He's really nailed that. Yeah. And you have the character of an agro mom sort of slightly perplexed by and bewildered by technology down absolutely to a tea. Cheers, mate. So there's, it has been about two years since I've seen you, which is insane. Which is silly. I thought it was going to see at Glastonbury because you were at Claston.

Yeah, yeah, I was supposed to be at Glastow. No, I got violently ill like three days before. Yeah. Yeah, I was a vomit fountain. So I was like, well, this wasn't meant to be this time. Because you were in a classmaster. Yes. I was like, I can't take this to a campsite.

It was, yeah, I think it was like Wednesday that week and I was like, this is... This isn't going to a drop toilet anywhere. No, how was it, though? I mean, it's crazy because, first of all, my boyfriend and I are a big Bob villain band, so we definitely would have been there. But also, like, the dream after you've done Taskmaster and lost is to ever be able to do it again. So that was the exciting part about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it was fun.

I was like, oh, maybe Des just kind of swooped into the, did her gig and fucked off again because I was like, why haven't I not seen it? Yeah, no, no, no. I mean, I definitely would have like been bopping around. So what have you been up to? What's going on? Is this the broadest question in the universe? What is going on?

I mean, I basically, I am about to tour so I've been having. Yeah, I've just been sort of rocking in a corner being like, can I do the thing that I do for a living again? And what if they all judge me, which is literally the job description. You know, but what do we not move forward with these anxiety? I don't. It's just like, move forward. Reset. Move forward.

Yeah. I guess if we actually move beyond them, we'd have to, like, evolve to bigger and better things. And it's easier to have minor fears that you get to work out in a play pen than actually going out there and dealing with, like, you know, growing as a human being. Yes. We all grew properly as humans. We wouldn't be doing this for a little.

It's true. It's true. I mean, what happens the other disappears. Do you ever wonder, like, you know, sometimes when people leave comedy, like, there's a billion reasons, most of them fantastic, to like. you know but like do you ever think someone just sitting on their therapist couch like you know what like i actually forgive my parents and seen and then it's just like no i won't be showing up to anything anymore i'm actually great content yeah carazzo yeah i think i'm to stick to accounts i'm i'm good i don't know

i think at some point uh around like 42 43 with like my whole cohort co cohort of friends like all of us all the people looked at everyone else thinking like oh my god you've got it figured out what the hell And it's like nobody has it figured out. Nobody knows what the hell they're doing. And it's like we kind of just reset to being 14. You get to a point where you can just go, I'm just going to do this. And then if it doesn't work out, I'll do something else. Yeah. Yeah. There's no gig that's the be all and end all of anything anymore. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Which is important to remember when you completely shit the bed on one. Yeah. Yeah. Which you're never, you're never like that far away. I love that thing when we were on the gig. And Harriet was like, you were never but like two seconds away from completely. and unhumiliation. Humiliation.

You know, when you do this job, like, even when you've been doing it for ages and you think you're great, it's just like, you walk into the room and they're like, no, and you're like, maybe, and they're like, still no. And you're like, okay, bye. Yeah. I mean, I did a gig recently. It was like, it wasn't a proper gig. I guess it was a corporate event, but it was just, like, people.

Huh? Humbling. Oh, yeah. I mean, isn't that what the zeros are for? So that, like, they're like, can we get you on two knees, though? Like, can we get you on the floor with your head and your hands? Oh, we pay. I do this and it's like, here's your cash.

I don't, yeah. You know, it's kind of like, at some point you go like, I'd feel better if I just stripped. Do you know what I mean? I'd least I feel more empowered if I just stripped. Yeah, if I took my clothes off. Which is the first picture to go to? I guess the little, the one in the, yeah, that little girl one. Just because it's the earliest one, I think I still have.

Holy moly. She's a cute. Right. She's a cutie. I was like she's friggin adorable. When was I her? What happened? I see you. I see you there.

I see you in this. Right. How old are you here? I wish I could tell you. This looks like, I'm trying to guess because it's... Six or seven? Yeah, I would say probably like six, six or seven. I mean, you have kids, so you know better than I.

Whenever I see other people's kids, I'm like, what is he for? They're like, he's 10. Like, I don't know. I'm like, okay, so he's walking and talk. talking and talking, but like what? So yeah, I would say six, six, seven is probably about right. Well, you're a cutie pie. And where is this photo taken? Can you remember? So this is in the kitchen of the house I grew up in, which is in Southern California. I grew up in a town called Diamond Bar, which is sort of a suburb of L.A., which is now a very posh suburb. But at the time,

it like didn't have a street light. My parents left Los Angeles when I was like six months old because they were like, someone got shot around the corner. We need to move. And it was interesting. I was talking to my brother. I just saw him recently. He's like, yeah, we would have been screwed if we'd stay there. Like, I mean, it was the crack epidemic. We were like in South Central. Like, they, you know, there was this whole story of me at six months old getting lost in a packing box, like where they were packing and they couldn't find me. And I was like, boo at some point, like hours later or whatever. But like, you know, so it was that I didn't realize until much later how much my life was contingent on like certain things. You know, that move. It allowed me to go to the low. high school, which was good enough that I could take the kinds of like advanced placement classes I would need to like go to a really good university and like get out of where I grew up because it's very, it's like I love where I'm from in general. Like I love California. I love the sort of ethos in it. I love the land itself. It's beautiful. But it can be really, you know, two dimensional in a lot of ways. Like especially in the 80s, everything was just sort of like,

you know, you're either in Hollywood or you're trying to look like that or you're an actor or you're a writer or you're a whatever. And that's not like that didn't influence me, obviously. But I know, I was like a fat black kid like in a white suburb. So there was nothing that felt or looked like I belong there. Like from a very young age, probably that young.

I was just like looking around with two braids in my hair like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. Really? Yeah. From that guy. My mom and dad were from L.A. My mom grew up in L.A. My dad's from Texas.

Right. I had moved over. But yeah. And are they still in, are they? Yeah. So they're still in California. Yeah. Yeah.

So like everyone else in my family is still generally around that area. I was the one who went 3,000 miles away to university and then like another probably 3,000 miles away to here. You know what I mean? Like I just kept. If I keep running, I'll wind up back. Because that's the way the earth isn't flat guys in case you're listening and you think that. I'm so sorry. I know you guys have a lot of flat earth or contingent.

Oh, we do. They don't know, they buy a lot of merch. They really know. Don't antagonize our flat earth. I'm so sorry. Everyone's beliefs are their own. So you had that feeling from young that you just weren't, you didn't, you weren't in the right place. Like the only thing that I was known for in my family was being the smart one who worked really hard on school stuff.

Like, even when I was talking to my little brother, he was like, you worked like so hard. And I was like, yeah, because I was desperate for any other. identity that wasn't the fat problem middle kid. So when I figured out that I was smart and I got positive praise for that, I just blew everything into doing that like so hard so I could be like, hey, look at me. I'm winning an award or I've done a good thing. And, you know, when you're the third of four kids, everyone's just sort of like, okay, well, you didn't like explode or combust or light anything on fire or get arrested. So next. You know what I mean? There's like a- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You feel like you get lost. Yeah, any more than two kids, like there's a middle one that's kind of like, hello, and they're just like, yeah, whatever. It feels like your whole existence feels like your Meg on family guy. You know, where we're just like, what? Like you again? You're like, what? So, yeah, I think I was kind of, I mean, I'm here as a 46-year-old woman still being like,

look at me from that age, essentially, when I was doing the same thing. Yeah. We all are. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.CA. It's the matchat or the three ensemble Ciceroa Cephora of the FACET that I just niche that they energize o'clock. Mm, it's the ensemble. The format standard and mini-regruped, what are open?

And the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre-a-doned. And I know that I'd love these summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most beautiful ensemble. The Cubsonsomew of Cephora. Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, way, Cifora Collection, and other part of Ville.

Procurre you see formats, mini, regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on C4A.com or in the hospital. Visitors come to say hello, and when visiting hours are over, they leave. But family, family does whatever it takes to stay. At Ronald McDonald's, we believe families shouldn't have to fight alone. So we make sure they have everything they need

with a community of support, warm meals, and a place to rest. Because when a child is sick, family stays. And Ronald McDonald House stays with them. What's this picture? I'm intrigued by this one. I just think this is so funny. This is sort of a TV show? Is this like a TV show?

Yes. So there was this show called Kid Quiz. And it was like hosted by a guy who was like a newscaster. Yes. Yes, that's me in the background. And I think next to me is my friend Charlotte. Yeah. So that was our middle school.

So Chaparral Middle School is where I went to middle school. So wait, middle school would be. 6-7-8, year 6-7-8. So I would have been 12, 13, 14 around that time. That's probably like 12, I'm guessing. 12 or 13. Yeah, because that's, yeah, that's right. Now that I live here and I grew up there,

everything gets fuzzy. And I'm like, when do we do what? Okay, anyway. So yes. But it was this sort of like, you know, extracurricular nerd thing to do where you could go on this, like, you know, fight some other middle school on this quiz show that's like basically just like, are you smart?

Do you know how to, we're going to do a math one? now. So I just think it's hilarious that that still exists. And it was on TV? Yes, it was on TV, but it was, yeah, it was on like Saturday morning at some point. So it's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, national TV. No, like local TV. Right, right. Yeah. This would have like a local news. See, we don't really have an equivalent of that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I suppose we've got local news. Yes, exactly. Like, but if there was like, you know, your national station would also broadcast local stuff during certain times of days. So this wouldn't have been like everyone in America watched this kid. But everyone in California.

But yeah. I mean, everyone in California has it on their channel. I don't think anyone's watching. Right, right. Okay. You know, I mean, maybe they did, but it's just, I just, I remember coming across it. It was, I mean, it was cool to kind of, this is sort of when I started getting filtered into, like, the advanced placement classes and stuff. So it's like, a lot of these kids would have been in my classes from middle school through high school, you know, where we're all like, oh, but we're in the advanced placement literature.

So we read a lot more books. you know. But if a kid like you, there's brainy, quizzing is fun because you get to show off. Yeah, I guess. I mean, look, I was an alternate. I was I was number six in case somebody got neurovirus on the day. I was the one who was going to step in, you know what I mean? Because I'm not great. I'm not great in the, you know, like when the pressure's on, I'm like, uh, uh, uh. But, but, um, it was, yeah.

Have you done celebrity most to mind yet? What's that? Have you done celebrity most to mind yet? Oh, yeah. I totally shot the bed on it. Oh, no way. Yes, I totally did. Because I, like, Like literally, I mean, it's always like filmed at seven in the morning, but like I completely was just having a full blown menopausal like, what the fuck? Like I couldn't think of words or names. I'm terrified of doing it. And I was literally like, I know this. And, you know, they always encourage you to not pass to like say something.

So I'm saying stuff I know is wrong. I'm like, what is the name of the fuck? Fuck! You know, and it's 90 seconds. And by the time all the answers flood in there like the time's up. So yeah. Yeah. It was funny because I had watched an episode.

where like another comic that we all know was on and I was watching and I was like looking at her face looking like fucking pissed off and I was like that's going to be me in two weeks when I go into the show because I can tell already like there's certain shows that just like I don't know I mean and I don't think it's like oh and the spotlight is on and because when you're in the studio it feels different yeah I just think that like all the things that I was sure they were going to ask about that I had right at the ready nobody cared about and like stuff that I knew that I was like wait a second what is that I was just like I was just like like, I can't, you know, when you're, when you're flustered, when you can't think of a thing, and all you can think about is how come you can't think of the thing? Yeah. And you're just like, what is happening to my brain? Well, that's when you feel like your brain is literally a computer and who's in charge of it. Yeah. So you're like, oh my God, I might be AI.

Can we reboot it? Yeah. It's really horrible. Somewhere in a room, there's a cat walking across like a keyboard that just made the little balloon come up and you're like, what happened? But yeah, that's. But these kind of early, because I did a TV. show as a kid about that age.

Yeah. And it's just interesting because when you go on to have a life where you are on telly now and then and you get to do some TV shows or whatever and you go, oh, I remember being that kid and being so awed by that world by the studio and met the presenters Kim Goody. Oh, it's Kim Golly. Who is Kim Goody? I don't know. Just a woman off the telly. Do I mean?

And I was a kid and we all had to pretend we played Skittles and it was just this tea time show. And I remember when they came to our school and they selected. elected the kids and it's just a very vivid memory. And that feeling of being like, I'm on this side of the cameras and like that's what's happening. And here's the lights and here's the whole business of it. And to be on that side and then to go on to do it as a grown up. Yeah. And you're like, there's this weird.

All these other people are like rocket scientists, I'm sure at this point. And one stand up comedian. Yeah. I mean, it's not a university challenge. But in your own world, it's a massive deal for a kid to go on a TV show. Yeah. Yeah. No, it means a lot.

There are some big group ones here. Yeah, which is the one that we'll go to? So is it this one? Yes. Okay, so this is a lovely one. This is a uni-maids. Yes, this is, this is, this is, um, yes. So this is, uh, this would have been my senior year, I think, because like some of these crew were new to the improv group, Just Adwater that I was in.

Just Adwater. What a great name. Love it. That's a comedy review. Right. But I mean, this classic. Come on, right? And so, yeah, I mean, it was just one of those, like, you know, there are several different, like, sort of group shots from when I was part of ensembles. And, like, you know, I studied

theater while I was there. And this was the sort of like after hours, like extracurricular sort of like, hey, we're going to do improv shows. And they were like, everybody sort of, if you were some kind of artist, like, you know, audition for like an improv group or an acapela singing group or like a, you know, everybody had their sort of like after school kind of thing. And the thing is like, you know, most of the, even though I was a theater studies major, you know, like, yeah, you take classes and you learn about theater history and this and that and the other. But like most of what I did was doing plays after, you know, like after class. Like while I was there, I did something like 22 plays, which is a lot of stuff to do during four years. The equivalent here would be footlights.

So people go to Cambridge and do a degree, but their heart is in the footlights, isn't it? Yeah. And it's all the extracurricular stuff that they're kind of. Yeah. Invested in. Yeah. So like while some, while just Adwater does not have the same legacy as the footlights. No, but you know what I mean?

It's like. Yeah. You're in those. Those other. Those hollowed. Yes. Yeah. So it's like that it, that is part of the education, whether it's improv or whether it's, you know, doing different.

Like, I think my junior year was the first time I played the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. And I think I went up playing that role like three more times throughout my theater career. Like it was one of those recurring things. It's like, oh, yeah, I already know this part. I'll go get my mop cap. Yep. I don't get a bucket Yeah pretty much

I don't like that's in Pretty much Pretty much Um So yeah And I just It's a part of my life The sort of

You know There's several Once I moved to New York I did a lot of device theater There might be another picture in there A different company So you jumped to moving to New York So yeah

Yeah sorry I will jump back Um back to being at Yale But like it's weird Because it is such a Like some of my closest friends that I have in my life are still from that time,

which, you know, if university works out well, that's the way it often happens. That's what you want. Because, yeah, that's when you meet your old friends and that's when you're spending the most time, like you're like, you know, studying, living, like going through milestones of adulting together. And then most of those people, and I followed them,

you know, I had no plans after university. I guess I just was like, well, once I finish school, someone's going to hand me a diploma in a career, right? Oh, it's a horrible feeling when you realize that's not going to happen. not happening. You approach your graduation and you're like, oh, there isn't. Oh, there isn't anything. There's nothing.

There isn't anything to move on to, which is why so many people that I know were like, and now I go to law school. Because it's like, well, yeah, I mean, the amount of people that were theater studies majors in my year, I mean, and I think this probably happens typically, who then were like, I'm going to be a lawyer, is astounding. Oh, my God, that's quite a leap. I mean, but I think if you're at Yale, you can already sort of handle the academic pressure of that.

And also you get to go to another school and you go like, oh, it's time to get real. I'm not going to be an actor, but I can litigate. You know, I can read and interpret text. Yeah, I can retain a lot of information. And I can hold myself in a public. Yes. And I'm obviously at Yale. So that means that I already know people who are going to go off and do these things.

Oh, it's funny. Boring as shit. It is. And all of those people get to their 30s and they're like, I hate my life choices. This is terrible. But when you're leaving school, everybody's decided that they're going to get real, right? You know, about like what their future is, which means getting a real job. And thinking about kids immediately.

Yeah. Well, and also they're about to go get a lot more debt. But at least once you're a lawyer, you have the capacity of eventually paying that off. Yeah. Is it comparable? Yeah. And I just was kind of like, I don't have any other backup plan. Like, this is the only thing I've ever loved.

And so I'm just going to do it. The theater was always with a view to be a performer or a practitioner of theater. What about writing? Yeah. Yeah, I just, yeah, I wasn't thinking ahead very much, but I knew that I knew what I felt. But it's interesting that you're from a background, that kind of educative experience, because that always does slightly fascinate me because in a way my background is that it was like a different, I don't, I'm not, I wasn't highly academically.

So to go from those kind of expectations and then to keep going, like you said, a lot of your mates did go, okay, I'll go and do law. Yeah. But you kept going. Yeah. And what came next? So then you went to New York. So then I moved to New York and kind of like you were saying, Jen, the whole thing of, you know, it is difficult to go and be an actor in New York unless you're going to do musical theater and be the triple thread who's dancing and singing and whatever because most of the theater that pays in New York is going to be Broadway and that casts people who are already on films and television typically, right?

You know, if you're seeing a Broadway play, it is rare that you're just seeing like. Because they need them to bring them out of the same. Yeah, they need people who are going to like bankroll. they're like, oh, that's a bankable name. And so you're seeing somebody who's a film actor in, you know, so what, unless you're, you know, being a puppet in the Lion King or something, you know, like where you have that kind of jobbing actor thing, what you are doing is you're doing independent and device theater. So you're kind of, I think if I had like, you know, move to some other regional place, then you can go audition for the touring Neil Simon show or whatever it is. But, you know, when you move to New York as an actor, it's like, okay, well, unless you're doing like the heart. hardcore sort of like, I'm dancing, I'm singing, I'm doing the whole thing. It's like, I was doing the, I'm writing solo performances. Like, by the time I graduated Yale, I had concentrated in, you know, doing one woman shows, like doing, you know, I'm writing and I'm performing a thing. Did you kind of, when was the discovery of like, oh, I can, I can do what I'm doing, but if I

put jokes in or laugh beats, I'm a stand-up? Well, the thing is, like, I had done stand-up, like, I mean, senior year, my improv troupe put on like a stand-up show. And I think that was probably the first time I was just like, oh, I did stand up. And I knew that I wanted to do something that was like standup because I would watch, you know, like live at Carolines or whatever on Arts and Entertainment Network and stuff when I was like a teenager. I had seen, you know, I mean, I mean, dear God, I hate to bring him up. But like, I mean, I'd seen Bill Cosby do things on HBO. And I was like, oh, you can just tell stories. Like, I want to do that.

And then I saw Spalding Gray do his like, you. you know, performance art thing behind a desk. And I was like, oh, that's cool because it doesn't always have to be like joke, joke. But I was always funny because funny was like a survival mechanism. Like back from that first picture, when I was that age, I understood that as a fat kid, if I was funny, I could get attention for the things that I wanted.

There was an element of control and the attention that I got because I could take that and I could turn it here. And everyone could be like, oh, she's funny. And I was like, okay, great, I got him. And like, it just, I remember the moment. comes on. It's so amazing how our brains work where we feel like, oh, and I can conduct this and I'm in control of this.

And all of a sudden, it's like whatever the hell is in your head, you have no control over whatsoever. And it's making you like repeat the same circle of the same thought. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. God. Over and over again. And you're like, why can I not make that stop? I can make people feel what I want them to feel and see images that I generated out of thin air.

And I cannot stop this one like, you know, horrible thought just replaying over it. over in my head. Is this a kind of theater group as well, that black and white one? That looked very cinematic. So this, yes, this was like our first. I mean, how like, how theater is this? How Brooklyn are we right now? So this was the very first, this was the, okay, so the New York Neo-Futurists are

a devised theater company and it was sort of a brand. of a style theater that started out in Chicago, and that show's been running for 30 years. The New York New York Futures have been around for like 20 plus years. I just did their 20th year gala event last year. And we were all the founding members of this company, but it's basically non-elusory theater.

So it feels when people see it. So we don't play any characters. We don't suspend anyone's disbelief. We do short-form theater, so it kind of feels like sketch, But it's not necessarily comedy. It's all sort of based on headlines and what's going on in our lives and what's happening in the city. It's very much like a living newspaper type of thing.

And the way the show is constructed, it's done like all the plays are performed at random. The audience gets a menu and they order by number. And so they just like 14 and then we do whatever that play is, you know. And every week we roll a die. We take two to 12 plays out and we write two to 12 new plays for the next week. And so it's this kind of constantly evolved. like here's what's happening in the world, in the city, in our lives, like we're presenting these small scenes about whatever the hell's going on. But it's, it's, um, like, it's really,

always playing yourself? Yeah. So it's, you know, that yeah. So, um, you know, like there might be a, a thing in the newspaper what's going on with, uh, I don't know, at that time, it would have been like, you know, Bush in office or whatever. And, and, uh, I'm trying to think of a single play that we done. But like, it's, um, and there's so many. There's like thousands of, this point. But, you know, someone might take something that's in a newspaper article and use the language and reconstruct a piece that's a little bit more abstract, or they might do a commentary on, you know, like their kid who's, who is autistic and is going through something in school that like they're trying to work out and they found a form that it's like it sounds way more

complicated when you watch it. You're kind of like, oh, that's really fun. Oh, that's really like touching in a surprising way. But, you know, it's very sort of poor theater in terms of like, you know, here's two chairs and a table. And we're using cutting this onion as a metaphor for, you know, telling a story about blah, blah, blah. It's like the way that it works or that it's experience is that everyone is in the room, like not pretending like there's a fourth wall and we can't talk and we can't interact. It's like, oh, I can come out and touch you. We can talk. We can say, like what do you think about what's happening in the city with the mayor right now?

Yeah, yeah. It's like a forum. A bit, yeah, but it's less sort of like it doesn't feel like, you know, like something Brecht would do or like, like, I'm going to stand up and declare a thing because we always try to make it artful. It feels like a marriage between improv therapy.

It feels really improv. Well, you know, yeah, and it feels that way. And people are like, but it's like we did write these plays. Well, I'll tell you what it also kind of feels like is a lot like task. master because it is task-based theater where a lot of times you're like, if I need to be exhausted so I can express the fact that this thing is exhausting me, I'm going to give myself an impossible task and then try to achieve it. And in so doing, like express the effort that you're putting into something. So you find

a task that's an analogy for, you know, you feeling exhausted by, you know, your landlord or by the fact that like your partner will never clean up after himself or do the dishes and it's ruining your relationship actually underneath everything. And so when I wound up years later doing something like Taskmaster, it felt so like my device theater days because it was just purely like, you know, attempt to do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, like that's the task. And it's very now.

Yeah, it's very now. We find ourselves here today. Yeah. This is the person I am today. It's kind of opposite to stand up. Yes. Because stand up, you're kind of doing the same. You're doing for a piece.

Yeah. And you're like last week, you're like two years ago. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. But yes, you're like, some days on Taskmaster, you'd be like, I'm fucked or I'm feeling cocky or it's snowing or it's hot or blah, and you just go with what there is. Yes. And if while you were doing that, you were also doing like a monologue about like trying to stay, trying to tow the line between something while you're trying to stay upright on this bicycle, then suddenly those words take on a different meaning because of what we see you trying to do. Yeah, yeah. And we then feel a certain like, oh, I actually never thought about this thing in my life. life like that. But having this juxtapose with that created a third thing that I would never

have expected. One of the shows that I did that wound up sort of having echoes and other things I did was called The Soup Show. There were three of us who were neo-futurists, all women. And we all basically were just like, we built a hot tub on stage. We got into it naked and we're like, hey, the idea is that we're putting all of our feminist thoughts experiences in our bodies into the soup. And at the end, we're going to serve it to everybody. Nobody drank it. Don't worry But that was that was sort of what got us into it. But then it became this weird, this like really amazing sort of feminist piece about like, you know, here are different experiences, whether it's about like, you know, engaging with being inside of these bodies, whether it's about, you know, dramatic things that happen being inside of a woman's body. Really wonderful, you know, like everybody had their own stories.

And I'm not getting into various specifics, but like everybody was coming from a different. point of view of like their own sexuality, their own relationship with their bodies, all this other stuff. It was like really well received when we did it in New York. And then somebody else who was a much more famous playwright saw it and then like made a different sort of naked feminist piece that was more of a movement piece. Okay. You know, and I was like, it was kind of like, okay. But, you know, that's what happens in art. Somebody sees something. And they're like, well, I'm going to make my version and do a lot better with it. But then I wound up getting cast in that like three years later, from having done this thing.

And I was like, well, I may as well make all the money I can out of this endeavor since I have made the original that it's based on. So, like, I really miss these days in my life. I mean, who doesn't miss, like, their 20s? But I think that I just grew. I mean, like, the time where I was experimenting the most, where I grew so much as an artist, like, there's this, you know, the apocryphal stories of, like, one of my audition pieces.

after the final workshop was talking about like our obsession with sort of cleanliness and like everything being sanitized. And the whole thing was like, I, oh my God, I can't believe I'm sharing this story. I had inserted a very softened lemon into my vagina, which I then gave birth to on stage to talk about how clean we actually want everything to be. I mean, absolutely everything that, you know, the cleaning power of lemon is unsurpassed. and everyone's like, wait, you're the one who put a lemon in her vagina, right? I was like, you know what? At some point in your 20s, you just got to do that. You got to stick a citrus fruit.

You know, it's like you do a bunch of naked theater. Everybody's jirating. You've got all kinds of, and sometimes you just stick a lemon in your boo-ha. No, that was important. I understand enough not to give myself, you know, a massive yeast infection. But it was, it was well-softened so that the birthing process could be. you know, achieved. That is a real commitment to experimental theater.

I mean, Des, that is quite something. I don't know that I'd ever do that again. You wouldn't do it again? No, I don't know. I mean, yeah, that was the kind of conclusion I thought you might. I mean, you know, yes. Hopefully, yeah, no one's like, I have $1 million. Because depending on where I am, I take it.

The beat that I'm curious about is coming to the UK. Yeah. So where the standard and then when you came here? So the I would say, so the first time I came over to do Edinburgh was the, because I moved in 2015, but my first Edinburgh was 2009. Why did you move here? For a dude. For a dude.

For a dude. I met in Edinburgh. Yes. So, yeah, because otherwise I don't think that I would have had the sort of confidence in terms of like having a place to land. Like, I mean, starting over is starting over. And it was hard, despite. the fact that I had a place to land, which was at this person's house, you know, and like with

some security of being like, okay, well, at least I have like a primary relationship and like figuring out what to do. But I think that, you know, when we were starting to fall for each other, you know, he was like, look, if we're serious about this, I either need to move there or you need to move here because like, ultimately the long distance thing is going to peter out. And he's like, you know, I think you do a lot better here. And I was like, you're right. I think so. And I from my experience of having coming over for fringes and how much more the arts is a part of the conversation here and also like the respect for comedy, you know,

because it's like I was doing stand-up spots to sort of support when I came over with a solo show, which was called 52-man pickup, which is all of like, so this is device theater. I put everyone I'd ever had sex with on a back of a deck of cards. Every card was a different story. They were ranked and ordered. I shuffled the cards and then I dealt them out playing card games,

games with the audience and sort of, you know, like getting a little bit of a tit for tat with the audience conversation, but also kind of exploring the self-discovery that people go through when they sort of become sexual beings, you know? Because I, you know, my whole story was like, I was, I waited until very late and then I had an explosive ho face. Which is great. I recommend it to everybody who's young. I'm like, why are you freaking out? Please. Please just be fucking people. You need memories. Like, it's not, this is the time in your life where you need to know who you are and you're going to. figure it out by interacting with some people and being like, not that. So yeah, and I'd been touring that like around the States and I brought it over to Edinburgh in 2009 and then I brought it back in 2011 because it was that sort of interactive thing because it was kind of fun because I had already worked as a dominatrix as at one point when I was in my early 20s when I was doing theater with those kids. I was also, you know, obviously that didn't pay. So I had to, you know, something else. But like I was

kind of a way of of braiding all the experiences of my life together and being like this is me in a body that was that I had all kinds of shame and weird feelings about getting a chance to discover it in this totally different way if I always think of New York is like just such an exciting city to be it is it is truly exciting it is my metaphor has always been that it's the abusive boyfriend with the big dick who kind of ruins you for everybody else and he's hard to fucking toxic as shit but like such a great lay And like, you're just like, this is the most exciting thing that I could possibly be involved in. But now I'm in my 30s and this is no kind of life.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Right. Like at some point, you're just like, I can't keep doing this to myself, you know? And so whenever I go back, it's nice to see my friends who are still there. That group is waning because a lot of people have families and whatever and they move to other places because they're like, this is unless you're rich, it's too hard. It's too hard, you know. There's only one picture left and it might tie in with this question because it's about being an American in the UK.

Yeah. So. Yeah, but it is like a, it's a completely different, you know, you're coming in with a ready-made kind of outside a persona straight out the gate. Yeah. You know. And how do you feel about being an American in the UK and not being an American in America? America. I mean, it's like there are really wonderful things and then really difficult things.

Because I overheard you say to Joel, that's the last time you think you took a picture in America where you were happy to be. I was in a minute. Yeah, because that was when that was the night Obama got elected. That was 2008 election night. It was great to be in New York for that. Like literally people had hopped up on buses and were moonwalking on them. No one's wearing those hats anymore that you were going to. No.

And I just happened. I was like, come on. We're going to go out and celebrate. And it was great. And we all were like, oh my God. Hope. We won. Like let's never think about the future.

But like everybody, the amount of pure unadulterated like joy that, you know, like nobody had felt proud to be an American for a long time, at least nobody in New York, you know, like, everyone's like, and obviously it's like when you're in London, it's like, are you a London or are you British? Because it always feels different because it's like international cities have that vibe. Like, you know, people in New York are New Yorkers more than they are Americans, you know, other places would differ, right? Being an American here has been really, it's been really good for me as an American to not be in America since 2014. I mean, to go back to your question, it's been really helpful. Your timing is impeccable.

Yeah, because everyone's like, how did you do? And I was just like, dude, I was just following my life and career. I was just joining the comedy circuit. Yes. I mean, it was a jumping off a fascist juggerna. Pretty much, right? And like, literally not having to watch his shit-eating face every single day on every single screen. Right.

Just puking, like garbage down your throat into your ears. Every time you're in America, you're in an airport, you're in a bar. He's there. There's a screen on. And it's his face. Yeah. And it's his voice. And, like, when I first move over here and then.

And then it was his first term. And people were like, you know, my friends in York are like, what do you love about the UK so much? And I'm like not having to see this shit eater every single. Like it's like I'm when I, we see Trump, we're watching the human centipede. Everyone in America lives in the human centipede where their mouth is sewn to his butthole and they're eating it all the time. It's bad enough watching the human centipede, but I don't have to live in it. Yeah, you don't want to be in it. Yeah.

You don't have your mouth sewn to anyone else's asshole. But like, that's the, I was like, that's the best metaphor. Because I'm like, you guys are just have to swallow shit every single day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. With no, no end in sight. Everyone's going to be coming here. Yeah, well, that's what I, I just like, watch out. The Americans are coming back, you guys.

They're coming back. So many. They're all, I keep reading articles. Rosie Donald's move to Ireland. Ellen DeGeneres. Elender is in the Coltswold. Yes. Oh, yes.

Stay there. I mean, where else? Where should go with all that money. But like, yeah, I feel. and I feel like I'm going to be one of those immigrants that's like the new ones aren't like us back in my day. I used to keep my voice down.

But every time I hear more Americans, I'm like, keep it quiet. We're not that loud here. You're blown up my spot. All right? I've got to answer for all of you. Tell us about Edinburgh and then tell us about your tool. Okay, so my show is called The Golden Rath.

It is about being a middle-aged woman and being angry about all of it. but particularly the perimenopause corridor of insanity. But I will be in Edinburgh from the 28th of July, so soon, until the 10th of August. And then I'll be touring from the autumn. So, for instance, if you're in London, I got a show at Lester Square Theater on Bonfire Night, come out. But all the rest of the tickets and the show dates are up on my website, which is Desireeburch.com. That's B-U-R-C-H, not like the tree, dot com.

So please come and see me. It's a really good time and I would love to see you there too. Great, Des. Go and get yourself as a ticket. Desrae, you're a delight. Thanks for letting you just talk five ever. This is such a joy. Bringing great pictures.

Love it. Thank you. I'm Max Rushden. I'm David O'Daradie. And we'd like to invite you to listen to our new podcast. What Did You Do Yesterday? It's a show that asks guests the big question. Quite literally, what did you do yesterday?

That's it. That is it. it. Max, I'm still not sure. Where do we put the stress? Is it what did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? You know what I mean?

What did you do yesterday? I'm really down playing it. Like, what did you do yesterday? Like, I'm just a guy just asking a question. But do you think I should go bigger? What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? Every single word this time I'm going to try and make it like it is the killer word.

What did you do? Yesterday. I think that's too much, isn't it? That's over the top. What did you do yesterday? Available wherever you get your podcasts every Sunday.