Sean & Soph Catchup Podcast - Urzila Carlson Joins The Show...

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

Comedian Urzila Carlson swings by to talk netflix specials being ruined by other comedians, and her comedy origin story

This is a podcast from Rover. It is The Edge Nights. Please welcome to the studio, internationally renowned comedian, although we'll claim her as our own. Ursula Carlson, welcome back. Thank you. Well, I mean, I am yours. Yes, you are. Yeah.

Yeah. You've got a Netflix special, though, which I feel like puts you on a different rank of comedians to every other New Zealand comic. He plays it like the classic comedy club on the weekend. To be fair, I've got two. Go on. I'm so sorry. Yeah, I know. It's like, you know, just luck of the draw ever books you, you know.

I'm just lucky I got booked by Netflix. Yeah. Or you can get Scotty at the classic. That's true. But we were just talking off here, and you might not want to talk about this on a microphone. But we were just chatting about, I was saying that I did enjoy your Netflix special, your most recent one. And you said that you might not be doing one for a while because Netflix have kind of cut back a lot of the comedy stuff. Yeah, because, I mean, look at the last two that came out that was like massive, Dave Chappelle and Rickie Javis,

both punching down on the transgender community, which, you know, is not cool. And I know a lot of people go, oh, it's a PC gone mad. Well, it's not really. I kind of enjoy the PC gone mad thing, if you want to call it that, because you're not supposed to punch down on minorities.

So do you ever have that moment when you're writing a comedy set where you need to look at a joke and go, oh, maybe this one will be seen as offensive, or do you not really even think like that community? No, because I think my head doesn't work like that. Yeah. You know, a lot of people go, what if you say something on stage?

I go, I don't think so because that stuff doesn't live in my head. So I can't imagine it coming out of my mouth, you know? Yeah, and you tend to make, like, you know, I suppose derogatory humour towards yourself, which people can't be upset at because you're not. Yeah, and like it is self, you know, like I sort of turn it on myself rather than my audience

because I feel, number one, people in the audience come to see a show, not be the show. Number two, I'm telling stories about stuff that has happened to me because I'm a storyteller, so it's either stuff that has happened to me or stuff that I've seen happen or stuff that I can imagine happening to me. So I, you know, like all of that stuff, it doesn't involve other people and I try not to bring anyone in that'll hurt people. And also, I feel people go see comedy because they've had a guts full of their life and they just want a little hour holiday from their life. So if you then go in that little holiday and punch down on their lives, that's not. not cool. Yeah. So I try not to do that. I try not to, and it's not even a, you know, a conscious

thing where I go, okay, try not to offend people who have been, you know, assaulted or try not to offend people who just don't knock on minorities or people who have suffered, you know, then you're fine. There's so much you can joke about. It's a very fair point. Can we talk quickly about, because I heard this story secondhand, I wanted to hear it from you, about how you got into comedy. Is it true that you were like working in an office and you were so funny that they put you on an open mic note? Yeah, so I used to work for Ogilvie as a designer, as a like a retoucher, a photo retoucher and like I'm just looking at that photo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then one, because we'd work in these pods, right?

So like even here, there's a few desks pushed together. And then one of the copyrighters, Leon, he used to say to me, you have to go to stand up, you're really funny. So he was a English guy. and he just loved stand-up and he used to go all the time when he lived in London and I go no thanks like at that point

I'd never even been to a stand-up comedy show or anything but we would just crack each other up so much during the day that is like you have to go you have to go and then I moved over to a different agency and he was in charge because he's my work husband so he was in charge of the gift so he got me a little

Italian coffee press thing and a fake contract to go to an open mic night at the classic right which is the only dedicated comedy club in New Zealand. So I'm like, fine. I had a few beers. It was Friday. So I signed this contract, but he had already booked my spot, and he had booked seats for 70 of them from the agency, right? So more than half of the agency came to watch the show. So this was on the Friday, the Monday, did the open mic. I just sort of sat and wrote down some stuff that I thought would

be funny. It was on St. Patrick's Day. I was supposed to be a five-minute spot. I only wrote four minutes because I thought I'd leave them a minute to laugh, which is really arrogant. I don't even do that now. And then... A minute, one fifth of the show is laughter. That's amazing. Yeah, I know, I know. What a flex.

You're like, this would be good. Trust me. It was very Donald Trumpy. And then, yeah, I just went, did it. It was the most petrifying thing I've ever done in my life. And then afterwards we had like, you know, a few hundred beers. And then went home and I got a call the next day to say that I'm through to the next round of Raw Quest where they look for new talent.

And I said to Scott, oh, no thanks. I'm not interested in comedy. You give that to someone else. I'm already nailing life in this advertising situation. And he goes, you're very funny. He says, I go, mate, I knew 70 people in that audience. That's where everyone was laughing. He goes, I was in the audience.

I was laughing and I don't know you. He goes, you should come back and try it again. And because I don't believe in living with regret. I said, all right, I'll go back. So went back next Monday. I didn't even tell Leon I was going back. Went back, did it again, and then I was hooked. Really?

Yeah. How long did it take between then and not obviously where you are now, but when you were doing TV spots in New Zealand for Comedy Gala? About a year, 18 months? Wow. Yeah. I think as far as comedy goes, that's pretty quick. I've talked to a lot of comedians who are like,

if I look back at my first set, it sucks. and then it took five years before I was even alright. You seem to have the most natural comedic ability. I think, you know what? It's sort of a combination of right time, right place and seeing the, you know, being able to recognize the opportunities and then seizing it. But also, and this is a key thing, which I, I credited a lot of my career to this one thing, is being the most sober in the room.

I don't always think I'm the best comic for the job, but I'm definitely the most sober one there. So I think if producers go to say festivals, because I do a lot of festivals, I immediately started working overseas because I thought that's what everyone was going to do. I thought that's how it worked. You start doing festivals. So I immediately went overseas. And then everyone's just off their chops all the time. And I don't really drink. So I think a lot of time when a producer goes, we need someone else for a lineup, they'll pick me even if I'm not the better one for it, but I'm the most sober.

We'll save at least $100 on her bar tab. Exactly. That she won't end up using. Yeah. Oh, that's such an interesting story. I'm so happy for your success as well. Thank you. And we're representing New Zealand on the world stage.

You make us all very proud. But you are back here to do, as you said earlier, you do live here, but you've got a tour happening in New Zealand this October. So many tickets have sold. You've added two new shows, which is very exciting. Yeah, yeah, lucky. Going to Auckland and my hometown of Tohonga, which is exciting. I'm sure a lot of people will go and see you. Oh, my mum lives there now.

I'll go say hi to your family. Does she? Oh, let's get the families together. We'll do Sunday roast. Well, I'm going there this weekend. And do you want to drive with me? Yeah, I'll carpool. Put some money in for gas.

Please do. Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 26th at 1pm. So make sure you get some tickets. They will sell out to see Ursula Carlson. Thank you so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. Thank you.