Comedy Girl Showcase
They came. They learned. They conquered the mic. My stand-up teacher, Dawn Whitwell, has organized a showcase for some of her female graduates at the Comedy Bar this Friday. I’m very flattered to be on the show: Dawn is promoting it as the best of her recent students. It’s fabulous to be on a bill with a lot of good friends and comics that I really love. Here’s the line-up: Amber Harper-Young Becky Bays Candace Lovett Daniela Saioni Georgea Brooks-Hancock Karen Mitton Lianne...
Read MoreBoob apron – who needs it?
I don’t normally add videos that I haven’t either been in or had something to do with, but this piss-take on the Cami-Secret is one of the best things I’ve seen in ages. As someone who hasn’t been lacking in front ballast since about the age of 11, I appreciate a good cleavage and have provided countless men (and lesbifriends) with a great view. It hasn’t hurt my acting career either, and has earned me a long line of roles as prostitutes and comedy maids (see...
Read MoreNew stand-up set online
My summertime set is now online! Last week I was very lucky to be on the first edition of the Glam! Cabaret. It was an incredibly well-organized night of variety acts (thanks again to Topher McFarlane and The Sketchers for producing the show), had a live feed and was filmed with three cameras! This is the closest I’m going to get to a showcase this snazzy for some time. Enjoy it! Click on the image above to go to my Stand Up page – it’s the first video...
Read MoreA blast from the past….
Facebook is a wonderful thing. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of us who have emigrated or who have friends and family scattered across the world it is a wonderful tool for staying in touch and reconnecting. Drama school feels like a long way in the past – it’s been fifteen years since I graduated from the Bristol Old Vic and I have many fond memories of my time there. So I was delighted when I found my old musical theatre teacher, Neil Rhoden,...
Read MoreThe Sad and Cautionary Tale of SmackHeaded Peter
Mother Cheapside certainly wasn’t my most glamorous role. But it was one of the most fun. A clairvoyant who gets her messages through old black and white tellys, Mother Cheapside meets the title character of The Sad and Cautionary Tale of SmackHeaded Peter when he is only six months old. She predicts his rise to tyranny and is ultimately his last victim in this extraordinary play by Simon Glass. Set on the concrete hell-hole that is Thamesmead in London, England, the play explores the...
Read MoreAnother good review of SmackHeaded Peter
We’ve had another good review of SmackHeaded Peter! Hot on the heels of yesterday’s rave review from Kevin Reid of The Visitorium, here’s Jon Kaplan’s mini-review of the show in NOW Magazine. I’m so happy it includes a great shout-out for Bryan who is stunning as the lead character, SmackHeaded Peter: Simon Glass’s audacious and striking script is the story of a Christlike figure from a low-class London estate who tries to save the world through easily...
Read MoreGreat first review of SmackHeaded Peter
Here’s some fabulous early press for SmackHeaded Peter from Kevin Reid of The Visitorium. “A big ensemble piece telling a bombastic, fantastical and sleazy epic of a drug-drenched messiah’s attempt to create a paradise in the concrete slums of Thamesmead. Weaving mysticism, paranoia, and a greek-style chorus together with great performances to ask the question, if all else has failed, why not give smack a try? A downright brilliant stroke of modern myth, Glass must have...
Read MoreRandom Conversations with Andre Arruda
Andre Arruda is three and a half feet tall. And a comic. He has trouble getting up and down the stairs at Yuk Yuk’s. So fellow comics carry him to the washroom. And lo – a series of short films was born. “Random Conversations While Taking Andre to the Washroom” has featured many of Toronto’s up and coming comics. I was very pleased when Andre asked me to be in one of the shorts. It was all pretty much improvised after we’d established the basic premise. And...
Read MoreMarilla who?
I am a British-born actress and stand-up comic who does lots of voice work (for commercials, cartoons and corporate clients) and sometimes, when I'm very lucky, tv and film. When I was in England I did mostly theatre. Now I'm in Canada I spend the majority of the time writing and performing stand-up. When I'm not making episodes of Talking Bollocks, that is. And that's me for you.