Sarah Millican--The Queen of Comedy

by Tina Campanella

  The ever-changing group thus has a rich tradition of comedy performances to draw from, giving wave after wave of new university students the chance to learn about the techniques and skills needed in both stand-up and improvisational comedy.

  Cambridge University has an even more prestigious history of fine comedy. Founded in 1883, the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club – commonly referred to simply as the Footlights – has been run by university students ever since.

  The club has established a tradition of performing at the Fringe festival, and for decades has dominated the British world of comedy – spawning groups such as Monty Python and The Goodies. Their 1981 revue heralded the arrival of Fry and Laurie, and won the inaugural Perrier Award at the Fringe. A large number of its former members have gone on to win BAFTAS, Oscars and countless other awards, and have enjoyed long and successful careers in the entertainment and media industry.

  Today, Footlights is seen as an unofficial finishing school for many of Britain’s most well-known comics and entertainers, and cast members have included Morwenna Banks, Clive Anderson, David Baddiel, Alexander Armstrong and David Armand.

  Following in the footsteps of such impressive comedy credentials must have seemed nigh on impossible for Sarah, the daughter of a miner from South Shields, who only started performing in her late twenties. But then again, impossible was a word that her father had told her didn’t exist.

  At the awards party, Sarah mingled with the other nominees and waited for the winners to be announced. She even got starstruck, when she bumped into Clive James. As she told The Huffington Post in November 2012, ‘I was so nervous, I just jabbered and he had no idea who I was.’

  She was busy munching a carton of noodles when she heard her name announced over the loud speaker: because she had won the Best Newcomer Award.

  Astonished, she went on stage to collect it. Her noodles were left to go cold as she was whisked away to be interviewed by a steady stream of journalists. ‘I’ll use the prize money to pay off my car loan,’ she told them in a haze of happiness.

  It had been a whirlwind month in Edinburgh. From the initial disappointment of her first show, success had snowballed for the once shy schoolgirl. She had well and truly blossomed into a startlingly funny comic. But even at this seemingly high point in her career, greater things were yet to come…

  CHAPTER 9

  Lights, Camera, Action!

  Sarah’s first experience of the world of television came the night she won the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008.

  Suddenly everyone wanted to see and speak to Sarah and every journalist and presenter wanted to be the first to interview her. But it was multi-talented media personality Lauren Laverne who managed to get the first television interview with the award-winning comic.

  At the time Laverne was presenting The Culture Show, BBC2’s arts magazine programme, which focuses on the best of the week’s arts and culture news. It had been on air for four years, and had weathered some early criticism to establish itself as one of the longest-running arts magazine shows in the history of BBC television. The interview was an exciting prospect and would bring Millican to the attention of a whole new audience.

  Sarah looked demure as she shared a sofa with Laverne, wearing a flowery shirt and a green cardigan. She was beaming as the presenter introduced her as the winner of the .if newcomer award, and her fresh complexion was rosy with happiness.

  She didn’t seem nervous at all, which was remarkable considering it was her first TV appearance. It may have helped that Lauren is from Sunderland, a mere five miles away from Sarah’s native South Shields. But whatever the reason, the pair quickly fell into an easy conversational patter.

  ‘How did it feel at the envelope-opening moment?’ asked Lauren. ‘I felt really sick,’ Sarah laughed. ‘Clive James announced the winner and I had a friend with us to make sure they did say my name. Because I have this fear – what if they’ve said somebody else’s name and I get up and somebody’s going to pull me back?’

  Lauren chuckled and asked whether Sarah had made any attempt to thank her ex-husband when she accepted her award, but she shook her head. ‘I made a point of not thanking him,’ she said, before telling Laverne her story. ‘I had never thought of doing stand-up till I got divorced,’ she explained. ‘I’m not sure it’s what everyone would do when they got divorced, but it was certainly something I fancied doing. And I think it’s about the questions you ask yourself when you split up from somebody, and I think everybody’s split up with somebody, so everyone can identify with it.’

  Lauren agreed, and even said that for a lot of comedians their bad times must end up as great fodder for their shows. She pointed out that she had recently interviewed the grand dame of comedy, Joan Rivers, who had told her that she simply wasn’t funny when she was happy.

  ‘Maybe it’s all going to go, now I have an award,’ Sarah said. ‘But I still think I’m funny when I’m happy. Funny things happen in a new relationship because it’s quite scary being in a new relationship after you’ve been with the same bloke for seven years.’

  Lauren asked about Sarah’s preoccupation with sex – was it something she talked about quite a lot in general? To the viewers at home – those who hadn’t seen Sarah perform – it must have seemed an odd question: what would this gentle-looking, softly spoken young woman have to say on the matter?

  ‘Well, you’re supposed to talk about what you know,’ Sarah said delicately. ‘I don’t know if that means I know a lot about it, or I’m just really inquisitive. I just write about what makes me laugh, and you know, certain things are a little bit wrong in the bedroom.’

  Sarah giggled a little, before Lauren returned to talking about the award she had just won. ‘It’s been amazing,’ Sarah gushed, her face an open book. In her smile it was clear to see she had been having the time of her life, and was overwhelmed by the response to her show. ‘All I’ve got to go on is what I find funny, and it started off really well and I got reviewers in straight away. I got really good reviews, so that helped sell out the rest of the run, so it’s been ridiculous.’

  It was a heart-warming interview, which showed Sarah to be full of television potential. It wouldn’t be long before the calls to guest on a multitude of TV shows would come rolling in.

  After the Fringe, Sarah packed up her things in the little Marchmont flat that had been her home for the previous month, and went back to Manchester. She gave herself a well-deserved holiday, flying off to a quiet sunny spot just outside of popular tourist destination Benidorm, in Spain. Sarah didn’t have a definite plan when she returned, but in the meantime she went straight back to gigging. She spent any spare time she had formulating her next show, which she planned to take to the Fringe the following year.

  In September, Sarah began devising brand new content and steering clear of any new jokes about her divorce. That time in her life had served her well, but she had mined the sad experience as much as she could, and wanted to show growth in her next show.

  She didn’t, however, want to tackle a subject that she knew nothing about, so she decided on a variation on her last theme – the differences between men and women…

  It would be an ambitious subject to tackle. Generally perceived as one of the hardest areas to do well at in stand-up, many have tried and failed to step outside of the realm of clichés and sexism, and into genuinely funny territory. The fact is, no matter which point you start from, you’re always in danger of alienating half your audience.

  But Sarah was unperturbed and thought, ‘let’s get it sorted once and for all…’ She came up with a plan that she thought would help her approach the subject fairly – she began sending out hundreds of questionnaires, asking men and women to answer questions about their perception of their sex. She was careful to make it a representative study, reaching out to both people that she knew, and people she didn’t.

  When the completed questionnaires began coming back in, Sarah studi
ed them carefully and began to base her show around the answers. It was a goldmine of material, all she had to do was figure out the best way to use it.

  The 2009 Fringe was a long way off, but by late autumn, Sarah was well on her way to formulating her new hour-long show. It may have seemed to those around her that she was starting a little early, but Sarah had always liked to be prepared.

  She was teetering on the brink of fame, but deep down she hadn’t changed at all – she would always be the studious girl who started her homework early, worked diligently to overcome every challenge she faced, and was always fully prepared for exams. ‘I hate it when a comedian says, “that show, oh, I just wrote that on the train, it took me a few hours”,’ Sarah told one Leicestershire reporter. ‘People do that so they look cool, because it takes me nine months!’

  But whilst wading through her new joke ideas in early October, Sarah was interrupted by a very exciting invitation: 8 Out of 10 Cats wanted her to do a guest spot on one of their episodes. It was a huge indication of her burgeoning fame. The Channel 4 show only features the cream of comedy talent, and if they wanted Sarah they must have been very impressed with what they had seen of her.

  At the time that Sarah was invited to make her first appearance, the show was already in its seventh season. A panel show in format, it is based on statistics and opinion polls mainly carried out by the company Harris Poll. Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the show features two teams, each consisting of a regular team captain and two celebrity guests.

  Dour comic Sean Lock has been a team captain since the show’s inception, and over the years a wealth of comedy talent has graced its stage including Johnny Vegas, Stephen Mangan, Jason Manford, Simon Amstell and David Walliams. It was a chance for Millican to enter the mainstream and she was hungry for the opportunity.

  Arriving at the BBC Television Centre, where the show is recorded, she was pleased to discover who her fellow guests would be. Joining Sarah for episode six of the series were Salford comic Jason Manford, singer Peter Andre, Inbetweeners star Greg Davies and Cold Feet actor John Thomson.

  On the show, the teams chatted about the recent Tory party conference, Ant and Dec nearly getting blown up in Afghanistan, and the film E.T. Sarah joined in the panel discussions, offering up nuggets of her dry wit for the audience. When Jimmy Carr gently ribbed her about her hometown she took it all in good spirits. Talking about their recent trip to Afghanistan, Jimmy said: ‘Ant and Dec were appalled by the violence, poverty and mistreatment of women. So they left Newcastle and went to Afghanistan.’

  The audience laughed at the gag, and Sarah, dressed in a pretty black top, hung her head in pretend shame. Jason Manford pretended to comfort her by gently placing a hand on her arm.

  Two days later Sarah was still in London – but this time it wasn’t to appear in front of a small television audience. Instead she would be performing at the hallowed Royal Albert Hall…

  A vast concert hall situated in Kensington, West London, the Royal Albert Hall is nearly 150 years old. Since it was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871, it has played host to the world’s leading artists and performers and is now one of the UK’s most treasured buildings. Each year it hosts more than 350 events, including classical concerts, rock and pop performances, ballets and operas, charity performances, award ceremonies and banquets.

  One of these events was the Secret Policeman’s Ball, and it was as part of this amazing yearly occasion that Sarah would be appearing on stage.

  It was a huge deal. Five and a half thousand guests would be packed into the famous venue, including members of the Royal Family and a host of other famous and influential people. It was by far the biggest audience Sarah had ever performed to. She was used to a few hundred folk in the crowd – how would she cope with such a vast sea of faces staring at her?

  A televised benefit gala, staged primarily to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International, the Ball was first held in the mid-seventies where it initially took the form of a series of comedy galas featuring famous British comics.

  Comedy legend John Cleese had been approached by Amnesty International and agreed to round up a few friends to perform a series of three gigs for charity. His ‘friends’ included his Monty Python co-stars, The Goodies, and a number of other brilliant Oxbridge comedians. Tickets were only available through Private Eye and sold out within four days.

  The event evolved into a yearly extravaganza, featuring not only comedians but also live music and other entertainment. It starred the very best of the British performing world. Joining Sarah on stage in 2008 were Frank Skinner, Alan Carr, Graham Norton, Sean Lock, Mitchell and Webb, Shappi Khorsandi, Russell Howard, Katy Brand, Tim Minchin, Meera Syal, Sharon Horgan, Gok Wan and TV’s best-loved impressionist Jon Culshaw. Indie band Razorlight provided the music, while Canadian comic Russell Peters appeared via videolink.

  It was an epic, star-studded event and Sarah must have felt honoured to be included along with such well-respected entertainers. But it was a mark of how far she had come in the short four years since she first performed at Newcastle’s The Dog and Parrot.

  Pictures taken backstage at the event show Sarah clearly enjoying herself. Wearing a huge grin, she larked about with fellow comic and kindred spirit Shappi Khorsandi, who like Sarah has also cited Jo Brand as a major influence on her work.

  It was a long night. The three-hour event was filmed for a 95-minute television special to be broadcast the following day. A unique ‘cinecast’ was also broadcast – where the event was shown live in 35 cinemas in major British cities, four cities in Australia and one in Canada.

  The Cineplex cinema chain made the film available on 50 of its 1,317 screens and ticket sales were high. It was major exposure for Sarah and the subsequent reviews were great.

  The Guardian said that the audience couldn’t have been unhappy about the line-up, and wrote: ‘Nor did many of the junior performers let this vast televised occasion down. Mitchell and Webb’s self-doubting Nazis were much improved by the subtraction of canned laughter, while Sarah Millican’s tales of sex and domesticity got the laughs they deserved.’

  UK comedy website Chortle was equally impressed with Sarah’s performance. ‘Sarah Millican was the epitome of cool on this night. She may have been largely unknown, but her tetchy and pragmatic observations on sex and relationships will have won her plenty of new fans and she loaded the short set with an enviable number of rock solid punchlines.’

  Understandably, the following day Sarah’s name was all over the Internet. But interestingly, it was on Tim Minchin’s official fan site Angry Feet where she was praised most highly. Minchin’s most die-hard fans had travelled from all over the UK to either go to the Royal Albert Hall or get tickets to one of the live cinecasts – and hadn’t been disappointed with his performance. But on his forum they discussed Sarah’s performance in detail, raving about the new girl in comedy town. ‘Sarah Millican ruled, go the north,’ wrote one Minchin fan. ‘I really liked Sarah Millican; think I’ll book for her solo show after seeing her tonight,’ said another.

  Sarah’s appeal was widening and her name was becoming more and more well-known. On that night – 4th October 2008 – she had taken one more step towards becoming Britain’s new darling of the north.

  Sarah had enjoyed the star-studded event immensely. But she knew she had to continue working on her next show, so she returned to Manchester, enthused by her recent run of success. There she began gigging again in earnest, often accompanied by her boyfriend.

  In November she and Gary travelled to Nottingham, to play at The Grove Pub in Lenton. It was the kind of venue she had been used to before her big break in Edinburgh, and Sarah felt right at home in the cosy pub.

  The gig was part of the popular local Funhouse Comedy Club nights, which always drew large crowds to its venues. But with Sarah headlining, the audience that night was packed with people hoping to experience her award-winning brand of comedy. Local club promoter Spiky Mike was excited
about her presence in the line-up. ‘This could be the last chance to catch her before she moves up to theatres,’ he told The Nottingham Evening Post, excitedly.

  He had no idea how right he was. Despite now spending most of her time back in the pubs of the north east, it wasn’t long before Sarah was back in London. News satire programme, Have I Got News For You, had got in touch, asking Sarah to appear on one of their forthcoming episodes.

  Often cited as the first comedy panel show to dominate ratings, its first series aired in 1990 and it has been a staple of British comedy ever since. Many of the highest flyers in the comedy, acting and political world have guested on the show, including Bill Bailey, Janet Street-Porter, Jo Brand, Ken Livingstone and even Germaine Greer.

  It was a huge accolade to be part of the BBC show, and Sarah didn’t disappoint. Not only did she guest on the main show, but she also starred in an extra feature. The programme had just begun a special series of ‘webisodes’, designed for, as David Mitchell put it, ‘people who can’t be bothered to turn their televisions on’. It was called The Inevitable Internet Spin Off, and was broadcast online between 2007 and 2009 – encompassing series 33 through to 38.

  On 5 December 2008, the British public was treated to Sarah’s debut on the show. Presented by Mitchell, Sarah was on Ian Hislop’s team, while comedy writer Andy Hamilton joined Paul Merton. Sarah had gone down to the London Studios, former home of London Weekend Television, the day before, in order to film the episode. She laughed along as Mitchell struggled with his opening lines, before getting her first chance to speak.

  In her typically revealing style, she immediately started telling the audience about her train journey – and more specifically what she ate on it. ‘I came down on the train today and had soup, and a smoothie,’ she told them earnestly as they cheered her presence. Her face changed to one of concern. ‘That’s a lot of liquid,’ she added. ‘I feel a little bit sick – just so you know.’