That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Kerry Godliman

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

On this week's episode of the podcast, Gaby is joined by Comedian & Actor Kerry Godliman. They sit down to talk about everything from Glastonbury Festival to her extended stand up tour 'BOSH' which runs through til November. Kerry is so relaxed and openly talks about the dynamics between being a 'serious' actor to a 'funny' one. They of course talk about After Life, Trigger Point and Whitstable Pearl. Kerry is bundles of fun and a joy to listen to.Tickets for Kerry's extended tour 'BOSH' are available over at https://kerrygodliman.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabby Roslin Podcast Hello and welcome to That Gabby Roslin podcast, part of the A-Cast Creator Network. This week, I'm joined by the brilliant and very funny Kerry Godleman, famous for both her stand-up and her acting. She took time out of her busy schedule while she's touring Bosch, which is running till November the 10th, to talk to me about everything. I absolutely loved her in Whitstable Pearl, but she can still watch on Acorn TV. TV via Amazon Prime, also adult material on Channel 4 and trigger point. And the good news is that's coming back for season two. And of course, we chatted all about Afterlife and Ricky Javees. And she told me how people react to her in the street. She is a complete joy to be around and she

has proper funny bones. Don't forget, you can keep up to date by following and subscribing, please, to the podcast where a new episode is released every Monday. Leave us a on the Apple Podcasts app and whilst you're there why not leave us a review we love to hear your thoughts now on with a show oh

Kerry Godleman honestly you have proper funny bones you're one of those people that I've over-indulged in you over the past couple of days oh that always freaks me out when people say that because you're like oh I hope I'm The family have sat and watched your live at the Apollo.

I mean, everything. Proper, funny bows. But here's something I want to ask you. Okay. When I was doing my research and I was listening and I was reading interviews, oh my God, can they not, how fast do people mention the person I'm not going to mention? Okay, I'm not going to mention him until the end. Okay.

Because, well, it's like, hello, Kerry. it's when people say to me Oh Gabby nice to meet you Did you ever Shag Chris Evans Go hello Hello It's a funny thing isn't it Because you're often associated

With one specific thing And I've done lots of different things You've done loads So we're talking about you But it's lovely to Were you saying about the comedy thing Because I am often associated with making people cry So it's kind of nice to be reminded

That it was the other thing that I did before Oh no it's a funny thing You, but, so you've made me laugh for a very long time. Oh, that's, and I've, it's sort of sitting opposite you. I feel like I know you so well because your, your stand-up is very personal. Yeah. And it's always as if you're just talking to your best friend. That's what I've always tried to nail exactly that, is that I find, if I get creatively stuck, or I think,

oh, I'm supposed to be this or one should be that. I just remind myself that all I need to capture is that I'm just talking to a friend. that's how I can make it work for me and I can imagine my closest friends and trying to make them laugh and then I can access something that we can get in the way of our own creativity quite often

and if I'm trying to sort of free it up that's how I free it up I go how would I make her laugh my mate so did you always do that were you like that as a child? Yeah comedy was always sort of something I loved yeah and I did like making people laugh

and sometimes that's not always appropriate and as you grow up you sort of realise you don't have to constantly try and make people laugh. It's a weird thing, isn't it, humour? Because it can also sometimes be irritating if people... It's a sort of superpower when it works, but actually it can be a burden when it's inappropriate. You know, that kind of like,

oh, maybe some situations one shouldn't always go after the gag. So what are the situations you shouldn't? Because I'm the worst, you know, a beautiful, lovely friend of mine when she died, before she died, she said, I know you're going to get the giggles at my funeral. wrong. Oh, that's funny. And I did. I did. Well, yeah, well, that's a very specific situation, isn't it? Because often, you know,

like when funerals and people have talked about that kind of situation, but I mean, like, it just plagued you through school, like every report was class clown, blah, blah, you know, and then work, like, proper jobs, or I could only describe as proper jobs that weren't these kind of jobs

that I ended up making sort of performance my job. But when I had job jobs or, you know, office jobs or whatever, and it's like people just don't want you to sit there dicking about all day, you know, or do, I think the thing about comedy is often you're trying, you're sort of might be the one saying, oh, look, the king's got no trousers on. And in some situations, that's just not appropriate. They're like, the king's got trousers on. Can you just, can you just meet your targets? Yeah. And go along with, you know, the facade of

normality or whatever. And if you're constantly subverting it, he's irritating. Do you know, it's so funny, because I mean, I had, I'm obviously never done stand up, never would. Honestly, I would, would poo myself that's it well i did for the best part of the first sort of five to seven years yeah there would be frequent episode not literal but there's um stage fright is not something anyone swerves but and often people say i think i couldn't do it or i'd be too scared to do it or whatever and you go well i was scared but i just did it anyway i didn't let it stop me so you're not are you not a fearful person yeah no i am a fearful person but you don't let it stop me no oh that's that's just that is a Being scared is okay.

Yeah. Just be scared and still do it. But I mean, I always, when I was little, my whole thing was about making people laugh. Always at school. It's such a lovely thing. Just to make people laugh. It's a lovely thing to be able to do.

But my report said the same thing. It was just, could you stop? And then sometimes there are moments in your life when you're like, I want to be taken seriously. And there's nothing more absurd than a clown screaming, take me seriously. But making a living. Okay, so not just a job, but a living.

out of being funny that's quite a leap of faith to be the person that goes to push you over that edge and all of your friends all the lovely comedians Rob Beckett who I love him and known him since he was

well he still is quite but making that okay saying right I know I can make people laugh I'm now going to step out there and get paid to make people laugh that's quite a well the jump for me was

staggered with other little mini decisions. So there were things that eased that sort of that jump. So take me through those. Well, acting and drama school. So I always did drama. So performance was always something I did. And because I didn't really know how you became a comic,

I sort of became an actor because that was a more legitimate thing. And I went to youth theatre and then I went to drama school. And then when I left drama school, I did get a bit of work, but not loads. And it is a bit of a tough job. And then you have to find other ways of paying the rent. So you're kind of sort of piecemealing bits. of work together and I used to do this thing called forum theatre which is like a kind of training it's kind of like corporate acting work if you know what I mean you're like role play and stuff

like that and it's when you go into various work contexts and sort of train people or facilitate training programs in anything from bullying in the workplace to diversity recruitment and all these different areas of employment law or blah blah blah and it was always um you do bits of drama so you'd have characters and stuff but you'd come out through. the fourth wall and you talk to the delegates they were officially called, but in my head it was always the audience and talk to them directly. So I kind of bridged that thing between acting and character and talking directly to the audience. And I was quite comfortable with it and I found humour quite useful because obviously these situations are a bit dry. So obviously humour kind of loosens

them up. So I was kind of getting closer to the sensation and physicality of stand-up. So I was sort of thinking, you know, I know it's the daytime and these people are all sober, but if it was dark and they'd had a few drinks, that's stand-up comedy. So it came from you, your own head. Well, I was comfortable with standing on stage, talking directly, as myself, to an audience. I'd been doing a lot of it. And I kind of just, I think for a lot of people, just the physicality of doing that is alien to them. But it wasn't alien to me. I was doing it every day for a job. So I didn't, I wasn't nervous about standing on stage with a microphone and talking directly to an audience. So all of those drama students, I mean so many friends of mine, after leaving drama

college, they did the same. Yeah, that's exactly the same as you. And they actually loved it. Yeah, I loved it. Because it was performing. Yeah, it was performing, you're doing something useful, you're making a connection, which is all the things you love about acting in drama anyway. You're taking characters and circumstances and situations and you're sort of experimenting with

you know hypothetical situations you're like well if we demonstrate this sort of behaviour what sort of impact does that hold on that you know you're kind of playing around with situations which is what plays are so that it's funny because I think I think of you as a comedian even though I suppose I first saw you acting but in my head because I'm a super fan of your comedy that I don't I to me you're one in the same well they merged our after the unmentionable we're not mentioning him we're not saying he shall not be it did they those two worlds came much closer together after i'd worked with uh that person mr g so i um i then found that my my acting career obviously elevated and took off also

my stand-up profile went up a bit around the same time it all kind of moved up a gear around the same time but i had been doing both for a long time and i and acting wise I'd had a bit on the bill and I'd done a bog roll ad and I'd just been kicking around for a long time turning up on the odd thing like a part on Miranda and you know nice

Yeah like some occasionally people still come up to me because they've been watching old Miranda you know reruns and they're like I saw you all robbing so it just they all bobbed along for a long time and then it all just sort of stepped up So when it stepped up for the unmentionable

was that No it's making it seem as of his care I know But and when he listened He'll be like, oh, what, would you say my name? No, we're not saying your name. But when it did step up, the fame thing is strange, isn't it? Because suddenly you went from, like you say, parts in Miranda, parts in all sorts.

I would talk about trigger points and all sorts. You were in Wittstable Pearl. Yes, yeah. Love that. So you were doing all of those other things. But suddenly it leapt up a gear. Yeah. And then so you're, I presume, you're standing.

Stand-up went to a different level. Absolutely, because also around that time, I started doing way more panel shows. Like, I'd always been a bit... Taskmaster. Taskmasters, the lovely fun one. But I'd always been really scared of doing things like Mott the Week or... For a long time, I sort of... I wasn't quite brave enough to do that.

It's interesting you saying about nerves. I wasn't as nervous about stand-up as I was about doing panel shows. I'm not surprised. Yeah. The whole lad mentality. Yes, which I don't think... Exactly. I don't think it's the case anymore. And by the time I came around to doing it, I wasn't even the only woman on the show anymore. So I think a lot changed in the world of panel. But I was nervous of that. But when I finally, when things lined up for it to be more possible, I was more confident about it. And so that kind of comedy elevation also boosted up because of live at the Apollo, not the week. These other things, Taskmaster, these other things coming up in tandem with the acting stuff sort of picking up. So it's always being. quite nice because it's felt like I've got two

jobs. The seesaw that's absolutely balanced in the middle. Yes, yes. And now it feels a bit like they are sort of interconnected. Okay, so let's pick on for one of them. Let's do live at the Apollo. There's a routine you do. I'm not going to quote your routine back to you. But as

a family, we love it, which is the one about choosing names. Oh God. You know, it's so funny that because it really, I was talking about names only this weekend. It's a compelling topic, isn't it? Oh, but it is But it's so funny And you're lying about chastity

I don't, it makes us all As a family It just makes us all life Such an old fashioned notion isn't it And your son So did you really call your son Frank? Yeah He's called Frank and it didn't occur to me

It had double meaning I thought that was just the end gang He is one of the most frank people I think I've ever met He has lived up to his name So for people who don't know the routine You talk about how you've got to be so careful Yes

You have a baby choosing a name. Yeah, because the name, Grace might be ill-suited to your daughter. That might not fit. She'll just walk into it. She'll be just a glumphing oath, I think, is the phrase that it's crashing into things and being inappropriate. It's properly funny. I love that topic of names and naming. We went to Latitude Festival this year and this comedian who I know, but he didn't know that he was chatting to my son, Frank.

Frank was down the front at the comedy tent and this comic started chatting to him and he said, what's your name? And Frank said, Frank said, where's your mom? And he just went, oh, mom's off elsewhere or whatever and he went, what's your mom's name? And he went, Kerry and he went, oh, that's a name that's not coming back, isn't it?

It really tickled me. I thought, so do you. But it's true. Names go in and out of fashion. Oh, they really do. My eldest daughter, he always says, mom why did you get we gave her a very different name yeah and uh she said why did you do that because people won't forget it she goes oh okay I hated my name growing up as well because my name

means Gabby somebody who talks a lot and I never shot up oh I would have never made that association if you had at school that was in the report she never stops laughing and she never stops talking school reports man they're like early reviews are they like how dare you they were so right they were so right same mine class clown there we go you see they know Teachers, no. So you're live at the Apollos, which I love, and then mock the week, which you were on. And I, oh, it's bad of the BBC to get rid of that.

That's just a person. Yeah, it does seem a shame. It does seem a shame, especially because the show had evolved quite a lot from its early days. I mean, that early reputation of it being very competitive and male and blah, blah, blah. I think that was certainly true, but it really moved on. There's a whole big petition going on. Is there? Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that. People don't want it to end. But let's talk about Taskmaster. You knew that's where I was, I was, I was moving on. That's my absolutely favourite. Gosh, what a great show. Yeah, it is a great show. I can't believe I want it.

When it comes up, I always feel compelled to point out I won by one point. It wasn't like that. No, forget that. You won it. I won it. Was it the best one to do? Because Alex, I love it. Yeah, Alex's brain is a wonderful place.

It's just what goes on in there and the stuff he comes up with is extraordinary really, isn't it? But he can come up with those tasks. It's so creative and playful. He is very, very clever and so lovely. Such a nice guy. But it's funny that, so the unmentionable one and taskmaster is, so the unmentionable one is first. And there was a couple of interviews with the unmentionable man where it's as if you didn't, you weren't even in the, I was getting so frustrated. I'm going, she's there.

She's sitting. Stop talking to the unmentionable and talk to her. But also, then the next thing is taskmaster. Yeah. It's like, hello, I have had a, I have a whole life. Yes, a whole other career. Yeah, a load of work. Yeah.

So when you go for audition. now. Or maybe you don't need to. Oh, 100% need to. Oh, you still? Well, it's self-tapes now since possibly the lockdown. I think now the going in for auditions is sort of pretty much... Okay, so self-tape. Yeah, self-taping. I was showing my age there.

No, no, it's a really recent development. I was talking about it only yesterday with another actor. Actually, that's clearly like kids' open evenings. They're all online now. They're not going back. I do quite like that. I do quite like it, but sometimes I'm like, I really want to talk to you directly. And that funny

a five-minute window that you get. Yeah, you get that. But self-tapes do seem to be the thing now and I very much do go up. You still have to do them. So when you do them, is there a different, do you think there's a different expectation now? Yes and no. So some type of, some work that I think I can sense

that they've come and ask for me and then other stuff. Like I went up for something the other day that was like, I don't doubt that I was one of many hundreds that were going up for that part in that film. And, you know, it was a crapshot. And I don't think me being an afterlife, made any difference whatsoever you said it shush oh don't mention it's very hard to

not mention it in the context of my CV but well we can't go there but maybe not yet but but but it's funny because I was just wondering about how people perceive you so and I think perception I wonder if it happens when you're going up for for work because I know because I've been doing it so long now 35 years that people perceive me as whatever but I think the perception of you has changed because of now the different things that people see you do from the stand up from the unmentionable

to trigger point that people now their perception of you has changed which is lovely because it does mean you get more choices that's the very lovely thing because when you're one thing you're only up for one thing like when I first left college I was a young drama graduate I didn't do

comedy then and possibly having a slightly more working class accent rather than an RP accent it just meant that I went up for lots of the same kind of parts on lots of the same kind of shows and all you ever really want is just options isn't it and choices and be able to do lots of different types of things and as I've found as I've had more options I get to play way more interesting parts so now like I'll play an MP or a barrister in adult material or a data analyst in Triggerpoint or a private detective in Wistible Pearl and it's like I didn't get those sort of choices when I first left college. It was like nurses and five lines as a nurse in casualty or I mean it's just

lovely having all these different options now. Trigger points coming back isn't it? It is yeah. Have you started filming? No, all I know is we're going to be doing it next spring so I assume they're just writing it. And that did fantastically well. Yeah. Now do you think that again then twisted the way people see you? I think so. The way it sort of put the unmentioned slightly. I just think once you pop up in a few different things it just means that people go

oh she was in that and now she's in that that's all it is it's just a lovely you know it when you've watched people's career suddenly go bomp

and they go you just spot them in different things and that means you think of them in a different way so how do your family see it now

are you to your kids to Frank you're just mum? Totally yeah kids yeah they're funny are they aware yeah they're aware

but my daughter's like into acting and drama and stuff like that. Also, she's a teenager, so she's too cool for school. She doesn't sort of react particularly. I think it's odd for them. I think the whole thing is a bit odd for them. It is. Yeah, I think it must be a bit strange.

And would you embrace her saying that she wants to do it? I think we were already there. Were you at, you at NYT? No, I didn't. I just did local youth theater. But she does want to do it. And I do have mixed feelings about it. You do?

Yeah. I mean, on the one hand, I sort of think, oh, God, you know, there's lots of upset and rejection and heartache and all those things. But I think it's silly to stop them because that is what she wants to do. And it gave me a lovely life. I met my husband through, we did a play together. You know, it's given me the life I've got. So it would be absurd to sort of stop her from trying.

On a very basic level, you just want them to be happy. And if it makes them happy, then they have to go for it. So your husband, so how is he about? He's been brilliant. So he is. I couldn't do it if he hadn't supported me. I mean, I was starting out as a comic when he and I met. And he came to a really early gig and he said, you need to do that.

You should do that. Like, there's something there. Because early gigs are just pretty much awful. It's like public therapy. I can't imagine that you ever were. Well, they're kind of odd things because you're just looking for a sort of kernel of something that works that you can build on. And he just recognized that there was a future. He was like, it's clearly something you should be doing.

And for a few years, you know, I was free to do whatever I wanted. But once we started a family, it does then become quite challenging. And I think even when I started, there was still much, far fewer women doing it. Now it's way better, like we were just saying about panel shows. But there was still a situation where upon I'd go to a gig and other people would go, who's looking after the kids. And you're like, they're dad. You know, so those sort of questions. They never ask men how they juggle.

I hate that expression. No, exactly. How do you do it? But the truth of that is that I probably couldn't have done it without him, you know, and his sort of unwavering support, really. And do you try things out on him? Subliminally, not in a kind of sit there, listen to me. I might do that awful thing that comics sometimes do,

which is they sort of drop ideas into an exchange and see if it makes him laugh. I still love making him laugh. So it is kind of, sometimes it falls short because I'll make him laugh and try it on stage and it will crash and it will be like, oh, it made Ben laugh. So how does it feel if somebody, if it does crash, if somebody doesn't laugh at that thing? It's horrible.

Yeah, but you just move on. Yeah, of course, it's mortifying, but you just move on. You style it out, become very good at styling things out. I can't imagine anybody not laughing. So your tour then, obviously because of coronavirus and everything, that everything for stand-up, that was all put on hold. It was all put on. So how, the tour now, you're doing stuff again, aren't you?

Yeah. So I finally got all those dates in and we did them. And they went really well and I really enjoyed it. And when it came to an end, finally I sort of played the last of the... I mean, there was one that was like right at the end of the end because when I was supposed to do it, I got COVID. So I had to cancel that one and put that one right back. So I finally did the last of all of the dates that had been previously in pre-pandemic.

And I wasn't ready to stop doing that show. So I sort of asked my agent if we could just put a... another block in which is what we're doing for this autumn and I'm I'm really glad because I still really like that show and it has had a funny journey when you write something pre-pandot then you tweak it to sort of like the emergence of us all out of those lockdowns now I think that's starting to feel a bit like it's sort of we're distancing ourselves from that kind of yeah so now I can sort of tweak it again to fit so when you finish that so other comics I always ask this but when you put one to bed and you you then start building

It's a horrible transition. I hate, it's the worst part of it. Because when you've done a whole hour and you've got it really nice and slick, you just can't imagine ever being able to do it again. But don't novelists feel like that? When they write a book and they can't imagine writing another way. I mean, it does feel like I can't imagine doing it all again

and going back to the foothills and being shit again. And just starting from the beginning with ideas and going, is this funny? Is this funny? Do you think this is funny? But you just have to. I suppose. You will, wouldn't you? You're not going to stop.

Yeah, I don't know. I assume not. No. Well, no. But I don't have a plan. I've never had a grand plan. It's all been, you know, I don't plan anything really much more than five or six months ahead. Really?

You've never done them? No. But I suppose now having done it for as long as I've done it, there's a pattern that I can see with retrospect and go, oh yeah, you do do a new hour every few years. So you probably will keep that up. So, right. Because back in the day I'd do Edinburgh. So it would be Edinburgh that would mark those transitions. but now I don't really do it ever anymore

so it has to be self I was going to say inflicted but that sounds slightly more yeah but it is actually it is self-inflit so at some point I and my agent will go

shall we start maybe working on a new show wow and she's brilliant and she'll be the one that go let's put some new material nights in let's work towards a new tour and she will give me

that kind of nudge and confidence to just come on to build it up but you've got trigger point and you've got other stuff as well that sort of will take up that time, but you might, I presume, you're always bubbling away. Yeah, itchy feet. Yeah, there's always a sort of little voice

at the back. It used to be a notebook, but now it's the smartphone and you just put the odd thing in. And once you've got enough of them, you go, I can get a routine at that. I see, I love that. Yeah. That is the creative side of it. That's why I quite like Twitter. I've never kind of thrown it in on, like I have love-hate relationship as we all do with social

media, but actually the side of it that I quite like is jokes, that you can try a joke out on Twitter, or not even a joke, but just an observation, and sort of get a sense of whether it's got resonance or a bit of a, like, connection. If people respond to it in an interesting way, you go, oh, there's a routine there. There's something I can do with that. What makes you laugh? Oh, God, loads of things make me laugh. Like what? Well, other comics and my friends and family life. So which comics? Who makes you know? Oh, God, loads of I mean, that's the part of my job I love the most is that I can watch comedy or

all the time. Like I just said when it was Latitude this summer and spent most of the time in the comedy tent because my kids wanted to. Oh, how lovely. And just really enjoyed

just watching stand-up. Just really enjoying stand-up. And you have this amazing community. Yeah, I do like that side of it. And you're all very supportive of one another. Yeah. And it doesn't feel competitive at all. And that's very rare

when you get a bunch of performers together. you're sometimes, you know, we've seen those elbows. You and I've seen people with those elbows who do that and they sort of go, no, I want it, I want that. But with the comedy community, you feel that you all support one another. That has been my experience, definitely. I mean, I think you're right about the old elbows out.

And I've, you know, we've all witnessed a bit of that now and then. But in the main, I do genuinely feel like it's a very supportive community, without a doubt. Okay, so we have to, let's mention the unmentionable, because if I often walk past him in the park and I might just stick my tongue out and go you know what we didn't talk about you okay so let's talk about afterlife it was a phenomenon

I presume you didn't think you had no idea how it was going to end up being so huge throughout the world the world no and because I'd done Derek already I'd already worked with Ricky on another project so it felt like a nice continuation of a relationship just a follow on from the past last one I wasn't 100% sure.

When he first mentioned it, it was like quite at that stage, still early days, so it was quite vague. And he was like this thing. Do you want to play my dead wife? And I didn't quite know what that meant. That's playing my dead wife.

Yeah, do you want to make my dead wife? But obviously now, I realise, you know, the size of it. But that couldn't have been known at the beginning by anyone, including him, is just blown up. I think it was just so nice to see something that made everybody think. and actually comedy comedy can really do that see I've left it

that's it we've done it we've talked about afterwards good comedy should do that like it yes and now we're living I think things change and evolve and the Americans have always been really good at those kind of hybrid comedy drama

things they've always put drama and we always used to do comedy and it's comedy and it's half an hour and it's six episodes of half an hour and you've got to have a high gag rate and it's not sad and there's nothing else going on And now I don't think we're in that place anymore.

And most good comedies now have got a narrative and a drama and things like Fleabag or I May Destroy You, that's like extreme drama next to proper high comedy with jokes, you know. But it never, the thing about afterlife and actually, and the other ones you just mentioned, you never feel guilty about having that laugh. And I think that is a really, that's a very, very fine line that those comedies that make you think, the stand-ups, those, you know, that people do. that you do that make you think that but don't make you feel guilty for for laughing at something that's heartbreaking yeah and that's such a fine line and it's such it's a beautiful it's a

beautiful fine line yeah well it's humanity isn't it you're just sort of distilling lots of people say though that actually going back to where we started about you shouldn't make jokes about x and y and these days i do feel it it's possibly tougher. I loathed it in the day when people felt it was free reign to be racist and anti-Semitic and homophobic and all of that. I loathed that. I don't find humor in that at all.

But I feel that you have to be more careful now over little things, things that might make you laugh but you know you can't take it out there. Other comics have said you do have to sometimes self-check. Yeah. And it is a, I mean, it does seem to be an ongoing transition, cultural transition at the moment. But no one who's been cancelled as such, I don't know. I don't witness that many people being cancelled that haven't done or said something that, you know, isn't okay. Yeah. You know, it's like if you, who's going to accidentally be racist or accidentally be misogynist? It's like, I don't know. No, sorry, I don't mean those. It's a really difficult subject. I think there are other subjects that people, it's like people, obviously, after the death of the queen, there was a lot of people saying, this you don't make fun of. Of course you don't make fun of it, but how do you cope with that when you're a comedian?

Something that the world is in mourning for, how do you cope with these things as a comedian? It's a very fine line. But satire has always had a function in the world of comedy. and people subverting what's okay and what's not okay. And like I just said, saying, you know, literally the thing that shouldn't be said is sort of the job of the jester, you know, in the court. It is difficult to find that what's okay and what's not okay. And everyone's moral compass at the moment seems to be in very different places.

But it's not a comic's job or a comedian's job to seek to offend. It's just to say, I mean, always think it's I don't I think the territory that I sort of use for my comedy is emotions and feelings and hypocrisies and these sort of thing you're sort of slightly poking a stick at our our underbelly and our sort of vulnerable side or whatever and that hypocrisy is funny I find it funny and we have so many hypocrisies in our social norms you know that we're learning on a very steep slope at the moment that we're all culpable of hypocrisy and we have conflicting opinions and we can whole two truths. And this culture war is forcing us into these sort of polarities that are

they're not part of who we are. You know, we can, I can be a Republican or not, I don't massively agree with the royal family as a concept or the monarchy, but I feel sad that the queen died. Yeah. And I can have those two truths in my, you know, canon and I can do that and talk about that and express that. And that can be funny. I can find humor in it. That's why you have, I'm going back to how I started that you have funny bones. I think you're one of those people that is a rare, you have a rare thing that you can walk down the street. And I, this is a weird thing to say.

Okay, please take this in the right way, that I know that if I was to see you walking down the street, I would laugh, not because of the way you would. Well, that's not because at the moment when I walk down the street, people want to hold me and go, she's alive. They cry around me. So I'm like, oh, I have a lot of that, yeah. It was really weird at Glastonbury Festival,

because I suppose that's a high concentration of humans in one location. So my friend that I was with and my brother just found it hilarious that so many people would come up to me and go, oh, it's you. And just, yeah, it was really odd. It was really bizarre. So people can't tell the difference between. Well, they just suddenly, I suppose the nature of that character and the way that that story is told is that I sort of, you know,

I'm shown in videos and retrospectively, blah, blah, blah. There's something visceral about when they see me, because they've cried with that show and it's just a visceral reaction and they're like, oh, it's you! You're a hug, oh, can I give you a hug? It's a strange thing. But maybe also because you're Kerry Godleman stand-up

so we know you by name. When you're an actress, you're those characters but in that, they know you because of your stand-up but they know you because of that character. I'm just trying to... I know it's funny. I just... You walk those, but you walk both of those.

line. I'm only realizing that more so recently, yeah, that it's kind of, because often if people stop me, I always assume it's afterlife and then more often than I predict, it's taskmaster. People will be like, task master, and they love it. So it's not always. So it's afterlife first, taskmaster second. Yeah, and then occasionally all kinds of things, like save me or trigger point or other bits and pieces that I've done over the last few years. And that's lovely, that's really nice when it's not why I think. I love the idea of one more, too. See, I would just laugh. That's not really rude looking at something going But you do make me laugh

That's my job And also you've been watching I to stand up lately Yeah but no but I did before when you were on So it wasn't just for this I have always I think when I interviewed you on the radio And it was whenever it was And I think it was about trigger point

But I and I just Honestly I put down the phone And I was giggling to myself thinking You make me laugh Well, what really worries me sometimes, and I shouldn't let it, is that if that, is when I'm doing a show like Trigger Point or Adult Material, which was like, you know, heavy... Adult material was superb.

And my character, what I love about that character, don't worry. But that's what I mean is you panic and go, oh, I hope I don't evoke sort of that sort of response when I'm playing. No, no, no, no. No, but that is an interesting dilemma for a comedian to be able to be cast in serious drama. So I'm really glad that I have been able to get cast. in some serious drama and not tipped over into oh now she just does that she can't do that because you just laugh you know although I did a thing called Treadstone which was like this

American American you've got your head you've got your head in your hands why because I do I think I think I pushed because I had played an American character and I'm not 100% sure my accent was like rocks on it and occasionally sometimes people will find me on Twitter and go you turned up in that thing and I just was like what she doing in that because it was a tiny bit incongruous with my casting and my persona. I'm so sorry, I haven't seen it. Well, no, I'm really glad you haven't. Because I've got a slight feeling that it would make you laugh.

And it shouldn't. Oh, really? Well, what was the character? Well, she was a kind of spooky kind of double-agent-e. Oh, it's hard to explain, but it's just interesting that in that particular bit of casting, I just thought, oh, I might be pushing people's disbeliefing. Right, okay, you do know what we're all going to do now. Yeah, go and have a look.

Go and have a look and go, oh yeah, maybe she's right. Just like, what? That doesn't fit somehow. But then, you know. I love that. And I love, carry on doing what you do. Carry on doing everything across the board and congratulations on all of it. And what's to come because there's so much to come.

I hope you feel that. Do you feel that? Well, it is, like I was saying earlier, it's a nice position to sort of finally feel like there might be some choice it. Like that you can go, oh, shall I do that? Oh, how wonderful. And so much of this profession, you know, is quite challenging. It is quite hard. And sometimes you don't have the privilege of choices.

You just take the work and do what you have to do. So it's nice to kind of go, oh, I can choose things. And that's lovely. Thank you so much for being on this. Oh, thank you for asking me. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. And coming up next week, the delightful Emily Sunday. She talks about her life, her career, and working with the incredible Nile Rogers.

That Gabby Roslyn podcast is proudly presented to you by Cameo Productions with music by Beth Macari. If you wouldn't mind, could you give us a like, a follow, a subscribe, and please leave a review? We read them all and love to see what you've got to say. See you next week. Yes!