24th July 2008
JANEY GODLEY'S SCHOOL OF TOUGH COMEDY
by Abigail Saltmarsh
Scottish comedian Janey Godley fell in love with Norwich many years ago on a boating holiday. Now the award-winning performer returns to the city to bring her unique brand of humour to the Playhouse. “Norwich is such a beautiful, ancient market city. I like to draw and paint, and it is a wonderful place to do that,” she said. “I fell in love with the place the very first time I visited and now can't wait to be back.” Having said that, Godley, who is on her way to the Edinburgh Fringe is unlikely to have time to get her easel out on this trip. She will be performing one show only, on Friday, before continuing her pre-festival tour in Scotland. “This show is called Live and Unleashed and contains both old and new material, plus stories that are improvised on the night,” she said. “My shows are anecdotal, good Celtic story-telling all based on the truth. I draw from my own life, which people sometimes find a bit uncomfortable. But even subjects like murder, death and terrorism can be funny if told in the right way.” Godley first took to stand-up in 1994 after working behind a bar. She enjoyed telling her stories and found she had an urge to try something new. “I was nervous to start with but then I thought: 'If I can run a bar in the East End of Glasgow I can doing anything,'” she said. |
“Now I don't get stage fright at all - I can't wait to get out there. The only thing that worries me is whether I'll have enough time to cram everything in.” In 2005, Godley's autobiography, Handstands in the Dark, was published in the UK and Ireland and became a best-seller. It told the story of her tough pre-showbiz life, her sexual abuse as a child between the ages of five and 13, the murder of her mother, Glasgow's heroin “plague” of the 1980s and her troubled marriage amid a world of gangsters. Her life as a stand-up took off at the same time and saw her scoop numerous awards. This year so far she has already won the annual Fringe Report Award as Best Performer on the London theatre fringe and Best After Dinner Speaker, in the Edinburgh WAG of the Year. In April, she was placed number three in Time Out's list of Top Ten comedians. After the Fringe, she plans to carry on with both her comedy and her writing - and is keen to perhaps put her work before an even bigger audience. “I'd like to star in a film as the wife of George Clooney,” she said. “I don't see why he shouldn't be with a woman who is the same age as him for once - and what's wrong with a good Scottish woman with a bit of attitude!” |