“It is a great feeling to be in Oxford because it was a place I called home,” said the comedian Rachel Parris tell us as she sits down for a chat about her new show attitude.
After all, it all started here, with the merger Oxford Imps after she left Saint Hilda‘s. “I didn’t even know what improvisation was until then, apart from seeing ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’, but a friend put my name down for the Oxford Imps auditions without telling me.
“I went there and noticed that everyone else was very nervous and tense, but I found it really funny this time and knew I had found my thing and my people because we got along immediately. Until then, I didn’t know I could be funny,” she recalls.
And the rest is history. The BAFTA-nominated comedian is best known for The Mash Report And Late-Night-Mash – A song for the night (over 100 million views), is also one of the founding members of the award-winning improvisation group Austentative.
So what is it about improvisation that she loves so much? “I found it really liberating and I still find it that way today because nothing can go wrong – you can do anything – so I knew it was for me, but when I was at Oxford I didn’t know I could make a career out of it. I was living in Headington on Shark Road and trying to start a music career. I was a cocktail waitress and worked at Blackwells Music…”
But then Rachel and three others from Oxford Imps founded in 2011 Austentativegrew and began with a monthly show in London which was transferred to the West End, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4, on tour and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
“I still think improvisation is one of the best forms of performance there is,” says Rachel, “but my solo show attitude is much more satirical stand-up and also includes the songs that I have carefully put together. Because I need different voices in the show, I mix the songs with stand-up and some politics.”
Their biggest tour of all time, Racehl took a break in the summer, but attitude again at Oxford Playhouse To Wednesday, September 11.
So what can we expect? “It’s pretty much half and half. I’m still much more comfortable at the piano than doing stand-up and I love writing songs. Singing with humor is something very essential.”
“Some songs just come to you, like the one about not knowing how to greet someone – a kiss or two, a hug or a handshake – I wrote that in just two hours. But others take longer.
“For example, I knew I wanted to write a song about being a woman and being 40, and seven drafts went in the trash before I got it right. So it’s like an angry folk song where I’m standing on stage singing alone,” laughs Rachel, “but it took months.”
“But actually it’s the politics that are more problematic because the general election happened during the tour break. So I have to rewrite a lot of material, which is a bit worrying because you don’t know how it will be received.”
Married to a fellow comedian Marcus Brigstocke with whom she hosts the hilarious husband and wife podcast #HowWasItForYouThe couple takes turns going on tour and makes sure that one of them is always at home with their son.
So is there any competition when it comes to comedy? “No, but we know when something works for one of us and we talk about it a lot on our podcast. Otherwise, our household is pretty chaotic and lacks routine, so on tour we’re pretty organized as we can be,” explains Rachel.
As for the title attitudeRachel says: “People always come up to me and say I don’t look like a comedian, like I’m not acting the part, like I should be more clownish or messy, and that got me thinking about whether you can still be a stand-up comedian and be confident. Besides, I just like the word…”
Rachel Parris’ Poise comes to the Oxford Playhouse on September 11. Book here: https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/rachel-parris-poise
