A finalist in the 2023 Grand Final of the Funny Women Stage Awards, held at the Bloomsbury Theatre and hosted by Jo Brand, Charlie Vero-Martin is from Edinburgh and lives in London. Specialising in character comedy, she also teaches improv and has a ‘penchant for puppets’. Included in The Telegraph’s Top 70 Jokes of the Fringe and the Best 56 Comedy Shows of the Fringe, Charlie’s hilarious sketches are absurd, silly and meticulously crafted. She tells us about the fun of playing characters, working with wonderful supportive women and her next plans.
How did you get into stand-up?
I’m not even sure if I’d call myself a stand-up! Although I’m glad character comedy is becoming a lot more accepted. I started by doing improv and sketch comedy at uni then slowly started to break out on my own, but I was always most comfortable playing characters. My degree was in Modern History and Italian so my first character was Dante and then I continued playing my surreal versions of historical figures. Recently, though, I started branching out into other characters, which is how I came to be Persephone Gemstone at Funny Women this year. I occasionally do stand-up as myself but I tend to have a lot more fun when I’m somebody or something else.
What was it like being a finalist in the 2023 Funny Women Awards?
It was lovely. Such a glamorous dressing room of wonderful women! It was great to see some old friends and meet some new ones that I’ve already started collaborating with.
Why is Funny Women important to you?
Unfortunately there is still so much prejudice about what women in comedy are and do. What I loved about this year’s final is that we were all so different. There was music, dancing, characters, storytellers; jokes about politics, sexuality, sharks; some performing in heels, others in bare feet and at least two performing in a second language. There is no such thing as “women’s comedy” or a “type of woman” who does comedy and I think the final was a great showcase of that.
Tell us about your comedy style.
Playful, fun and a bit surreal. I love being characters or puppets that often come across as very silly but I know they have a bit of a dark heart.
What have you been working on and what are you planning next?
This year I took my solo sketch comedy show, Picnic, to the Edinburgh Fringe. It was a big fun show full of puppets, characters, joy and anarchy. I just performed it at the Pleasance Theatre where it was filmed for Next Up Comedy and next year I’ll be performing it at Soho Theatre on Valentine’s Day!
Who are your favourite Funny Women?
I grew up watching French and Saunders and Victoria Wood so I adore everyone in those worlds. I’ve always been inspired by actors like Michelle Gomez, Kathy Burke, Catherine O’Hara (the Mighty Wind cast in general), Kristen Schaal and writer/performers like Tina Fey and Julia Davis. I could go on forever!
What do you love about stand up?
When it’s just you, writing for yourself and getting out on stage, you have so much freedom and power to express big ideas and emotions that you don’t often get. And the best part is when people in the audience connect with that too.
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Images by Steve Ullathorne
