Josie Long webchat – as it happened
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http://www.theguardian.com/stage/live/2015/jan/23/josie-long-webchat-cara-josephine Version 0 of 1. 2.14pm GMT14:14 This is it! Thanks all for your questions, and thanks very much to Josie! We’re wrapping up for today. Thank you loads for asking me things, I can't believe how quickly it's gone. Sorry if i didn't answer your question about why my charity won't be right wing enough for you. I hope I said something of remote interest to you and I hope you have a lovely week ahead!Josie x 2.13pm GMT14:13 jjopling asks: Any further plans for further films (short or long)? I really enjoyed Romance and Adventure and your Q&A at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh ... Thank you! I am writing a screenplay for a feature film at the moment, it's been in development for about 18 months and I've just finished the 4th draft of it. We have cool producers and we are hoping to shoot it up in Glasgow this summer. It's with the same director as the short films and sort of continuing similar characters and themes. It's a sort of sad comedy about an earnest woman (played by me!) whose life falls apart, about all of her friendships and relationships and political dreams. Hopefully it will really happen and it won't be bad! Updated at 3.05pm GMT 2.10pm GMT14:10 MrJarch asks: Hi Josie, Dairy Milk or Galaxy? Don’t say neither. I think probably Dairy Milk. Does that mean something terrible about my personality? The best dairy milk is australian dairy milk imho, it's so sour, delicious!I was obviously, devastated about the creme egg recipe change. Updated at 3.05pm GMT 2.02pm GMT14:02 Boroboy1979 asks: Hello Josie. I have followed your comedy for years and love your work, however I hold almost diametrically opposed views to you on almost everything and last time I came to your show it made me think how much of a bell end you would think I am if we ever met. Shall I just not bother in future? ha! I am amazed that you can tolerate my stuff. If it works for you then I am happy to have you, and I'm sorry that we will never agree. How funny that you still like it, I would say you are some kind of rare masochist but you're very welcome! Updated at 3.05pm GMT 2.00pm GMT14:00 "I'd raise my grandma from the dead. I'd love to have her back for a little bit" David Taylor asks: If you had the power to raise anyone from the dead (I’m presuming that you don’t) who would you raise and why? Yeah, I would love to have my grandma back just for a little bit. She really looked after me and we had a lovely relationship, writing to each other and sharing books and music. I really miss her voice and her way of speaking- she could be very stern and brusque but was very funny and animated. I miss her flat and her possessions and how they were laid out. I miss being able to see all of her pictures and cards on the walls, her desk and things like that! Updated at 3.06pm GMT 1.59pm GMT13:59 JayBhatti asks: How much do you detest Orpington? On a scale of 1 to Petts Wood. it's weird because growing up I really hated it, I was desperate to get to "real london"- i thought it was grotty and boring and smug and all of these things. Now I am getting a bit older I am trying to make my peace with it. I really loved my school, and the charity shops are out of this world, especially in Petts Wood. It's a funny place to me, because I always saw it as not near enough to london to be exciting and not far enough away to be pretty, and very conservative. But I think a lot of my feelings about it were related to my upbringing and just general desperation to get to be a writer and a performer. Also there used to be a second hand bookshop there and the guy who ran it gave me books for free. And you could get a round of toast for 20p at Poppins cafe in my day. Now I am just thinking nostalgically about Orpington: the walnuts leisure centre! The library! It's not a bad place! Updated at 3.06pm GMT 1.56pm GMT13:56 Jakob Eriksen asks: Thank you for releasing Romance and Adventure online. Is there any chance that you might upload any of your other shows? And I seem to remember that you were writing a book. How is that going? Oh, and will you record more episodes of Utter Shambles? I don't need to answer about Utter Shambles because kagcool has done it for me. I'm releasing my shows from 2010 and 2011, which are both about politics, via Lost Map Records, and they should be out really soon. I'm also hoping to release my latest show at some point, too. I'm really hoping to have a book out soon. Updated at 3.06pm GMT 1.53pm GMT13:53 bennigee10 asks: Do you still eat apples whole?!?!? Yes and I am proud to do so. I have no shame here. Updated at 3.06pm GMT 1.49pm GMT13:49 "My favourite MP? I have a few. I really like Dennis Skinner, John McDonnell and Caroline Lucas" anred asks: Who is your favourite MP? Josie’s reply: Ooo. I have a few. I really like Dennis Skinner, of course. He’s principled, he’s proud and he’s really sarcastic and funny. I like John McDonnell, because he isn’t afraid to vote with integrity and supports a lot of important causes – I always see him on Twitter backing things I approve of and I see him at protests too. And obviously, Caroline Lucas – who is fantastic. And Tom Watson too – he is a power house, who has done some of the most important and difficult work, with Leveson and with this abuse scandal, he’s an asset to the country (if that doesn’t sound ridiculous!). There’s loads of others that I really like as well. I would say I don’t believe any MP is without fault, but I’m definitely not cynical about them. Updated at 1.55pm GMT 1.48pm GMT13:48 DandelionandMurdoch asks: Where would be a good place to hide my keys? Why are you hiding them? What are they the keys to? I don't want to help you because this sound suspicious. Updated at 3.06pm GMT 1.47pm GMT13:47 Joe Trimby asks: I recently attended a comedy night and the main act bombed. However, the supporting performers were loudly laughing at almost every gag, it seemed disingenuous. Their arse licking felt like part of a comedy hierachy. Is this common on the comedy circuit? It probably wasn't disingenuous. Quite often, at really bad gigs, there's a sense of complete camaraderie amongst the comics. Sometimes, it can make the experience of dying on your arse more bearable. Also, comics tend to love comedy. I really think on the whole the circuit is a supportive place - not always, but most of the time. Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.40pm GMT13:40 nigelbryan says: Hi Josie, just thought I’d say “hello” “Hello” Hi Nigel! Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.40pm GMT13:40 "I love karaoke. Nothing Compares 2 U is my go to" Danielle Knights asks: Josie, I love you x Can we go do karaoke together sometime? There’s a Ma Kelly’s just waiting for us to rip it up!! Sure. I love karaoke. Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor is my go to. And I do crying and everything. Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.33pm GMT13:33 "I dream of getting to talk about Joanna Newsom all the time" HaveOneOnMe3 asks: Hi, Josie. You recently tweeted that life, at the moment, was just one long waiting game for Joanna Newsom’s next album. Can you talk a little about Newsom? Basically, I dream of getting to talk about Joanna Newsom all the time. I think she's phenomenally talented. When I think of people around my age who I think are really culturally significant and the closest that I would get to being a genius i think of her. Her music is so VAST and expansive, and her lyrics are so intelligent that I never get bored of them. Her vocabulary and the way she uses folkloric stuff just floors me. I think as a poet she's not acknowledged enough, let alone as a musician. As you can tell, I just completely love her, and I love the fact that she makes this strange esoteric, long music completely in her own fashion! Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.33pm GMT13:33 noscorebore asks: Do people ever get you confused with Janice Long? Josie’s reply: No, but all the time with Josie Lawrence, the improviser and actor. Which is hard, because she’s much better than me and I feel like if I died suddenly everyone would be like “Oh no that woman off of Whose Line Is It Anyway is dead!” I once got introduced onstage on one of my own tour shows as Josie Lawrence. The theatre was booked in my name, I was on all the tour posters. I was like, “how the hell did you get this wrong?!” I had to go onstage and apologise. Hopefully the audience weren’t too disappointed. Updated at 1.43pm GMT 1.27pm GMT13:27 LuoYuXuan asks: Would you like to do a comedy show in Osaka this year? Tom Yes, please God. Yes, yes. 1000 times yes. Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.26pm GMT13:26 "I'd like to see more education and democratic reform: we need proportional representation" madeleinegs asks: Do you think the lack of political thought and activity in young people is due more to apathy or the absence of education around the topic? I’m a huge fan of your comedy and general voracity for life! Please come back and do a gig in peckham soon! Josie’s reply: I don’t think there is a lack of political thought and activity among young people – look at the Scottish referendum. A whole generation (that’s a bit of a wanky thing to say, sorry) of 16 to 18 year olds so passionately engaged. Young people we work with at Arts Emergency are very political. But I’d like to see more education and obviously democratic reform – proportional representation (anything other than first past the post). Updated at 1.45pm GMT 1.26pm GMT13:26 BigChap asks: Would you do page 3 if it mean’t it would never been done again? Is this Rupert Murdoch? Is this a serious offer? Updated at 3.07pm GMT 1.25pm GMT13:25 ID2278305 asks: I think you are fantastic! I was wondering what is your opinion on benefit sanctions? The Department of Work and Pensions claim that it is used as a “last resort”. Thank you. I would say my opinion on benefit sanctions is they are inhumane, and help no one. I also think they have been used far more than as a last resort and that is terrible. Updated at 3.08pm GMT 1.25pm GMT13:25 kagcool asks: How would you encourage young people who want to become more political but are too young to vote and live nowhere near London (in my case Plymouth)? I want to do more, but feel a bit useless! Josie’s reply: Hi, thanks loads for your question. I’m excited that you want to do more and I will try my best to think of ways to give you good advice ... I would say there are two good places to start: First thing, are there specific things and issues that you care most about? Secondly, what is going on locally near to you that you feel passionate about or can get involved with? With regards to the first one, my friend Neil Griffiths (with whom I set up Arts Emergency) when he was a teenager with his friend Jay he set up an activist group called No Sweat to raise money to be able to send over to give to sweatshop workers who were organising for better conditions. If you have an issue that you are really passionate about, it’s possible to start up your own activist group, or find and join one and you can really do positive things. The second part - there may well be places in Plymouth that are threatened by government cuts, for example, and you could help to try and fight to save them. You are anything but useless! Updated at 2.09pm GMT 1.22pm GMT13:22 MickFin asks: Frankie Boyle - is he: A. The King of comedy B. The Emperor of comedy C. Scotland’s Jesus Hahaha - I don't care Updated at 3.09pm GMT 1.21pm GMT13:21 "I do feel bad sometimes not to be talking about politics every day" AtticusGatsby asks: In your show Romance and Adventure, you joked that you viewed your job as a comedian to be like “a lay-preacher for socialism”, but in the reviews for your new show, we’ve heard that you have “turned inward”. Does this mean you have changed your mind about what you view your job to be? Is the new show completely apolitical? P.S. I’m a huge fan of yours. Keep up the fantastic work! I think it's more about the fact that as a writer sometimes you really, really feel you want to write about a certain thing. I definitely haven't any less of a commitment to politics and I do still write political stuff and perform it, and I do still feel the same sense of passion I think. But I wanted to write this show as well - because I felt like I didn't have anything new to say onstage about what the government was doing and how I felt about politics, but I did feel like I'd had loads of emotional experiences that I wanted to talk about. And it's not apolitical because nothing is. But I do feel bad sometimes not to be talking about politics every day...it feels like when you have a platform, you have a responsibility to use it to try and counteract some of the things you think are terrible. Updated at 3.09pm GMT 1.20pm GMT13:20 salmonchild asks: Did you get an invite to the Quaker Poster Guy’s wedding? I didn't...but he did contact me on Twitter and we chatted a little bit. And he offered to give me his heart. And I thought that was a come on - well ,OK not a come on but a romantic thing to say - and so I said, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend". And he was like, "No, I literally mean my heart. I've had a heart transplant and I actually have my old heart that you can use in your show." And I thought that it was simultaneously fantastic and completely impossible to fit into a comedy show without it being super weird. Updated at 3.09pm GMT 1.17pm GMT13:17 MickFin asks: Something has changed in the last twenty years. There are a ton of women comedians on the scene now. I find some of them crackingly funny. I hate to say it but I used to think that women have a different sense of humour than men. Not so sure anymore. What do you think has changed? You have changed. You have become more of an enlightened human being. Congratulations. Updated at 3.09pm GMT 1.16pm GMT13:16 kagcool asks: Have you got a support act on your new tour? If so, who? Josie’s reply: That’s easy. I’ve got quite a few and they’re all people I whole-heartedly recommend. The first week is Heidi O’Loughlin, who is a charming comedian from New Zealand. Then I have Tom Allen, who again I can’t recommend highly enough. Then David Trent, then Grace Petrie the folk singer, then Benjamin Partridge the writer and performer ... Johnny Lynch aka the Pictish Trail and Connor O’Toole in Ireland. I wanted to mix it up this year so that I got loads of little legs with different, interesting people. Updated at 2.02pm GMT 1.00pm GMT13:00 We're kicking off! Josie is in the building – here she is with a trophy found in the sports editor’s office ... 10.54am GMT10:54 Post your questions for Josie Long With goofy, galumphing enthusiasm, Josie Long began her career by warring against snark, and highlighting the beauty in everyday life. But then, as recession hit and a coalition government baffled, her targets changed: she railed against the Tories, bankers, paparazzi, and everyone else she saw as eroding the utopia she first imagined. Perhaps taking the Big Society at its word, she’s built up a series of nurturing communities, from her extensive Twitter peers to her charity Arts Emergency, her stand alongside the Occupy movement, and her comedy residency Lost Treasures of the Black Heart. Now with new show Cara Josephine, she turns in on herself, examining her family and her failures in love. The Guardian’s comedy critic Brian Logan loved it at the Edinburgh festival last year, saying: “This is a lovely show about that early-mid-life moment when you start to look harder at what you want from life, and how you’re going to get it.” As she gets ready to take it out on a nationwide tour, she’s joining us to answer your questions in a live webchat at 1pm today. Post yours in the comments below, and she’ll try and get through as many as possible. Updated at 12.26pm GMT |