YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK IN CULTURE
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Caro Meets Comedy Interview
Ellie Taylor: Elliementary
By Caro Moses | Published on Wednesday 13 May 2015
You might be more familiar with Ellie Taylor’s TV appearances than her stand up, but she’s won a lot of acclaim in recent years for her live sets, and next week brings her Edfest-tested comedy hour ‘Elliementary’ to the Soho Theatre as part of a country-wide tour.
I sent a few questions over to the ‘Snog Marry Avoid’ presenter, to find out more about the show, and how TV compares to being on the road.
CM: Tell us about ‘Elliementary’ – does the show have a theme? What kind of things do you talk about? How would you characterise your style of comedy?
ET: It’s a narrative based loosely around the last few years of my life because I’m too self obsessed to look anywhere else for inspiration. It’s very light hearted and silly and hopefully leaves the audience with a spring in their step. Uplifting. That’s a good word.
CM: How did the show get its name? Are you a Sherlock fan?
ET: I just love a pun and getting to wear a moustache in promotional materials. As far as I know, no one’s come expecting an hour’s worth of Benedict Cumberbatch jokes and left feeling cheated.
CM: You took this show to Edinburgh last summer, didn’t you? How did that go?
ET: I did. It was great fun and I packed my room out everyday which is the joy of the free fringe, flouting fire regulations all over the shop. I even bought a few cushions for people who ended up sitting on the floor. From a charity shop obviously- I’m not made of money.
CM: You’re a familiar face to many because of your TV appearances. How does stand up compare to doing the kind of TV work you’ve done?
ET: The money is better in TV and there are people who bring you Maltesers and say you have nice hair. But stand up, when it goes well, is the best feeling in the world. You feel like you’re a hero. And heroes don’t need Maltesers.
CM: In a way, you appear to be doing things a bit backwards; most people do stand up then go off and do telly. What made you turn to live performance after achieving success on the small screen?
ET: Aha, you’re wrong my friend. I did stand up way before any TV stuff. Everything I’ve done on TV has come from me doing stand up.
CM: Have you always wanted to do stand up? Is there anyone / anything that influences your comedy?
ET: No, I haven’t always wanted to do stand up. To be honest, I didn’t know much about stand up before I started. I have however always wanted to show off, and stand up is obviously a great way of doing that. You can book a gig, write some jokes, and then go up and tell them to an audience. There are very obvious hoops to jump through, so in that way it’s much easier to get into than, say, straight acting.
CM: How is touring? Do you find it tiring, or energising?
ET: All of those things. It’s interesting going to parts of the country I’ve never been to before. Plus I now know a lot more about Travelodges than I did before.
CM: What else are you up to at the moment…? Filming anything…?
ET: Yes, I’ve got a few exciting bits coming up in the next few months and a sitcom I filmed for Comedy Central called ‘Brotherhood’ airs in June, so that’ll be fun.
CM: What’s coming up in the future? Are you working on a new stand up show?
I’m always writing new material so yes, I’m sure there’ll be another show with an equally awful pun-based title soon. ‘Petroleum Ellie’? No? Ok.
Ellie Taylor is on at Soho Theatre from 19-21 May, see this page here for more info and tickets.
LINKS: www.sohotheatre.com | www.ellietaylorcomedy.com | twitter.com/elliejanetaylor
