22 • The Sunday Times Magazineaudience, knowing how it would provoke him. “It was
a real risk, he was such a brat.”
She was not just trying to empower herself through
her comedy. “I’m a big sister. I am very aware that I’ve
always had people looking up to me, and I don’t want
them to do things that I have done. So I would say, this
is how you should deal with that, and you should never
expect any less, and I would say that for myself and also
for them.” She did eventually leave him.I
mention the irony of her finding empowerment
in the knockabout world of stand-up, often
considered a male-dominated and macho arena,
but Ryan says most people in the industry are
“really wonderful, kind and generous”. She
enjoys the gladiatorial format of panel shows
but has also found a strong community in
stand-up, a safe space from which to operate.
She’s part of a 160-strong WhatsApp group for
female comedians, some of whom she has never
met in real life. They share stories, positive and
negative, promoters who are actively looking
for female acts, people to avoid. “I don’t know if it’s
because we are a gang of misfits thrown together, but
we are all so united,” she says.
Part of the pleasure of the new Amazon show, which
features a changing roster of comedians orchestrated
by Ryan, is that we see as much of them in the dressing
room as we do on stage. Many of the people in it, such
as Sara Pascoe, she has known for years. In the first
episode we see the friends chatting before going into
make-up, Pascoe explaining how she’d been contacted
via social media to say that a man Pascoe had appeared
with in a (different) comedy show was that woman’srapist. “That was shocking,” Ryan says. “And then what
do you do with that information? That has never
happened to me, but there have been jobs that I have
considered not taking because there is someone on it
who is potentially predatory, and then I am, like, so what
are we to do? Just take ourselves out of the industry? That
is not a protest anyone cares about. Or do I take the job
to feed my children because I didn’t rape anyone? In
the end you just have to weigh up all those opportunities
and think what is going to make a difference.”
Rape is not a word Ryan uses in her stand-up any
more, “because I’ve learnt that it can be very triggering
if I spring that word on someone, it can made them
feel bad, and I don’t want to make anyone feel bad ...
I hope that I would evolve as a comic and continue to
evolve as a comic. The way I articulated myself ten
years ago will be different from how I articulate myself
ten years from now.”
But she does not modify her comedy for any fear
of being cancelled, and is wary of what she sees as
an “ominous” cultural swing towards a puritanical
homogeneity. “People don’t seem to understand context
or nuance any more. They don’t know the difference
between hate speech and a joke,” she says. “It reveals a
level of stupidity that frightens me in all areas of life.” She
feels this was exemplified by the spectacle of Will Smith
striking Chris Rock at the Oscars. “It’s a very powerful
metaphor for what’s happening. It confuses me because
I always feel like it is very clear what is meant to be fun
and what is meant to be hurtful.” In Ryan’s opinion
Rock was just doing his job. “Since the beginning of
time that section is a celebrity-roast monologue.”
Ryan is a big fan of “roasting”, whereby comedians
deliver often brutal put-downs. She has co-presented
Comedy Central’s Roast Battle with Jimmy Carr, and
in Backstage with Katherine Ryan she introduces each
new comic with a mini-roast. She loves receiving as
much as delivering, and insists that nothing anyone
says about her could offend her. “I love how hurtful
it is, the cleverness, the dexterity. It is a real honour
that someone researched you enough to talk about
your life. I don’t know if it’s a bit BDSM, but I find
it exciting and I also find it very soothing to have a
sense of humour about yourself.” A large part of her
own comedy is self-satire, toying with the notions that
people have about her. “I make jokes about the plastic
surgery and the glamour ... I’ll take what I know people
are saying, like, ‘Oh, she’s high maintenance,’ but I’ll
say it on stage because that is what they expect.”
Her new stand-up tour is about how she has moved
from self-avowed and proud single mom, adamantlyON STAGE SHE WOULD
JOKE ABOUT HER
TOXIC RELATIONSHIP.
“IT WAS A WAY OF
MINIMISING WHAT
WAS HAPPENING”
In feather-trimmed
pyjamas in The
Duchess, with her
on-screen daughter,
Olive (Katy Byrne).
Below: with co-host
Jimmy Carr on the
game show Your
Face or Mine?, 2002LOW-RES