I love Jennifer Saunders. If it hadn’t been for her tweeting about BBC 'Stand Up If You Dare' then I wouldn’t have found myself on Sunday 10 March, unable to sleep, considering all the options I could take if I blanked on stage the following evening. I was a stand up comedy virgin and from that one tweet I decided to sacrifice myself for Comic Relief, popping my comedy cherry for charity.
Stand up was on my list of things to do before I turned the big (please whisper this) 3-0. So from that tweet it snowballed. I emailed a BBC South rep, and from then on there was no turning back. Next thing I knew had a phone call from BBC Oxford and found myself on the radio chatting with Phil Gayle, my faux confidence taking over and self-deprecating humour at the ready.
As soon as I had put myself forward to do the event, writing my set started coming together and was mercifully completed in a few days. I kept it simple and true to life- hey, all those years of anguish and never being kissed because the boys thought being ginger was catching had to eventually pay off!
I am fortunate that I live with a theatre director who with an objective eye helped me hone what I had written. Filming myself performing my set with my makeshift microphone fashioned from a can of hairspray was a great way of observing my bad habits – and there were a lot. I bobbed like a buoy in the sea during a severe South Easterly wind. My hands moved about so much I looked like a juggling mime artist.
I was happy when the day finally came to go to the training day at a hotel in glamorous Basingstoke. We had two comedy mentors Jan Jacks and Mervyn Stutter, who guided us through our sets to polish them and give us performance tips – varying levels of elbow grease needed.
After the training there was a nervous wait to see if I’d made the final cut – and I did! On finding out I had a place at the final, I set up my Comic Relief sponsorship page. I could not believe how generous people were with their donations. I wasn’t climbing Kili, water ski-ing down the Amazon or running the equator, all of those crazy, athletic things that people do. But people did recognise it was a test of bravery in its own right- luckily it meant that I could continue eating cake and my main exercise would remain dancing in my room to Beyonce.
Then throw in a few more slots with my now new BBF (news to him) Phil Gayle on BBC Oxford. I should probably add that it wasn’t just for my wonderful banter and dulcet tones that I became the Stand Up If You Dare face/voice of BBC Oxford, no it was more to do with the fact that no one else from Oxford put themselves forward!
One thing I hadn’t thought about before the day was hair prep. Yep – hair prep. When doing a whole set talking about your hair people are going to pay it attention and it needed to be big, practically (hopefully) limelight stealing. With three new hair products, new hairbrush and a picture of Cheryl Cole in US X Factor for inspiration, an hour or so later the bouffant was done.
And then the night came.
Another comedy virgin and I were involved in a live chat on BBC South before the show, which exactly what was needed to help calm the stress levels! The room was a mix of nerves vs. confidence; I fell into the nerves camp and decided a wee G&T would help settle me.
I also spent a lot of the time before talking to the wall; no, the nerves had not sent me that crazy, I was just repeating my set over and over. Then the team announced it was my turn. The performance was a blur. I was on stage and it just well, happened. I got laughs, I somehow managed to pace myself and not just vomit the words. Leaving the stage I sighed with quite literally comic relief and metaphorically lit a cigarette.
So I blame Jennifer Saunders for putting me in that position, and I also blame her for a new addiction, as the buzz I got from doing it was amazing. Let’s hope there isn’t a Comic Relief VT in years to come that shows a ginger woman huddled over with a voiceover: ‘Maisy never quite got over her comedy come-down from March 2013. If only she’d managed to keep doing it she would’ve been OK, so now we need your money to help her!’
Maisy Ash currently works as a Community Engagement Officer at an Oxford theatre and is also currently completing an MA in Writing for Children. She is originally from the North but has aquired a Southern accent from years down South and is proud of her ginger heritage.
Pictured: Maisy Ash performing at the Comic Relief 'Stand Up if You Dare' final
Watch Maisy's set!
