In a funny interview with the Observer Magazine 2008 Funny Women Awards winner Katherine Ryan joked that: “I do want to get pregnant again, just so I can breastfeed on Mock the Week. That’s my goal. How I’d love someone to shame me about breastfeeding. I feel so sorry for him already.”
As well as threatening to bait her Mock the Week co-workers with breastfeeding, Katherine talked about life on the road, as her new tour Kathbum kicks off in Newcastle on Thursday 14th April. “I have a really different touring life to most comedians because I go home every night to do the school run in the morning. So I’m not in hotels or living it up. I also don’t drink very much. Sometimes I meet people, and if it’s a fan’s birthday, or I’ve spoken to them a bit on Twitter, I’ll say, ‘Come and meet me backstage in the interval, have a chat, get a photo.’ And they’re all excited: ‘Yeah, we’ll come backstage!’ And when they eventually get there they realise it’s a small dressing room with grapes. And I’m [Ryan’s voice flat-lines]: ‘Would you like a banana?’”
In true Katherine style, she also talked about ageing: “What else am I supposed to do – die?” As well as discussing why she thinks the BBC’s ban on all male panel shows will help women in comedy: “All of us form an unconscious bias. So if you’re in hospital and your brain sees female nurses everywhere, as progressive as you are, neurologically your brain thinks that all nurses are female. So I think that, while it feels like tokenism, having at least one woman carves out a different unconscious bias for viewers.”
With some great shows and TV appearances under her belt Katherine is enjoying her well deserved comedy success: “For many years I was the unwelcome surprise on a mixed bill, and now people come to see me on purpose – which is all I ever wanted.”
You can read Katherine’s interview in full here.
