The Loneliness of the Long Distance Comedian

Stand up comedy is incredibly lonely, so I’m focusing on hosting in 2025. Last week I spent 11 hours on trains (and platforms) to spend a grand total of 30 minutes performing to the sum total of about 60 people. And I’m tired. 

There has been an interesting conversation going on in comedy forums recently about the value of staying for the full show and I completely agree – you meet other comics, you learn from them, and you take lessons from the room. Unfortunately since moving to Sheffield and relying solely on trains, I am frequently scraping in just in time (thanks to delays and cancellations, my main income is DelayRepay) and I’ve learned that gambling on the last train home can leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere meaning my coat is sometimes going on as I leave the stage.

In the winter it is particularly gruelling, and without the green room energy to inspire you and fuel your love for it, it’s lonely. It’s lonely whether you win or lose, as no matter what happens you’re spirited away onto a train home with harsh overhead lights, clutching your station sandwiches and hoping there’s a trolley. 

As the year comes to a close and I’m thinking of what I want 2025 to look like, on review, the thing that has brought me most joy is the time I’ve spent with comedian colleagues doing my panel show ‘Comedy Arcade’ a competitive storytelling game. After a few years of trying to balance it with a solo show, this year it was the only thing I took to Edinburgh Fringe – and it was huge fun for me and became a bit of a sanctuary for the panelists; even in a small audience room the most exhausted comedians came to life through the cathartic camaraderie of being together in the same boat. 

Panel shows (the non-televised pre-written kind) allow real space for storytelling that you don’t get in a single mic stand up situation – whilst my show has a vaguely panto competitive element, there is huge collaboration in the best ones, and the conversations between stories are often more entertaining as the stories told themselves. Audience members in the room have the power to influence the show, and it has the feel of one big, noisy pub table. It is a privilege to host the show and be the facilitator of unique moments that will never be repeated again with people that wouldn’t typically meet.

What happens when Jess Phillips MP sits down with cabaret star Ada Campe, The Chase’s Jenny Ryan, Bec Hill and Leslie Ewing-Burgesse? A file I will never release, but a no holds bar audience with a possible future PM that remains off the record forever. How did Jess Phillips end up on the panel in the first place? She asked for Edinburgh recommendations on Twitter, I cheekily recommended she come on my show and SHE ACTUALLY DID, just a woman supporting another woman’s independent creative venture. 

We’ve had rock stars, actors, stand ups and telly legends who have never met before mocking and encouraging each other like old friends by the end, with the audience going away knowing a little bit more about everyone. And all I have to do is keep the show on the rails by rolling my bingo ball and interjecting every now and again. As Steve Bennett noted in his review “Leyton hasn’t a great deal to do in this show to keep things on track, but a good host knows when to shut up and let others do the talking.”

On a good show I don’t say a lot, but every single time I feel like I have been to one of the best dinner parties of my life. And for me that is the joy of comedy; connection, spontaneous moments and people elbowing each other going ‘That’s you” or shouting out their own things to join the conversation. Every show brings its own series of ‘in jokes’ and a proper sense, even on the recorded ones, that you really had to be there. 

With this being the milestone year I hit 40, it felt like time to focus on doing more of what I want and that is being on stage with people I love and admire, giving platforms to new talents and showing new sides of the established ones. 2025 is going to be a year of conversation for me, rather than a one-way broadcast. It was a New Year’s Resolution that got me into comedy (booking the Funny Women Stand Up to Stand Out course actually) and it’s this one that will keep me in it for the future. 

The Comedy Arcade Live Show will be touring the UK, taking in London, Sheffield, Cardiff, Leicester, Glasgow and Lancaster and starting with Museum of Comedy, at 7.00pm on Friday 22nd November with all star panel of Seeta Wrightson, Sally Hodgkiss, Leslie Ewing-Burgesse, Danny Scott and Will Duggan. You can be in the audience in the room or at home via the magic of Nextup’s streaming platform.

For more details and booking link click here.