The Anxieties and Fears of Stand-Up Comedians

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The speaker reflects on the anxiety and fear of potentially failing at any job they undertake. They find solace in the fact that everyone in their line of work shares similar worries. They stress the normality of fearing an unresponsive audience, particularly as a stand-up comedian. They highlight the driving force of fear and adrenaline in their profession, emphasizing the recurring concern of 'dying on stage' as a comedian. The speaker finds stand-up comedy appealing as it allows them to confront their anxiety in a way that doesn't necessarily reflect their true self in social situations.

Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.

This week Katherine chats to Angela Barnes, podcaster, comedian and regular panel guest on Mock The Week (and much more!).

Angela Barnes has zero tolerance for anyone reassuring her that she's pretty - it talks over her lived experience, and does nothing to change her self-perception. Here, she discusses living with Persistent Depressive Disorder, which has made her whole life feel like the drizzly English climate, but which has also made her more able than most to endure the hard-knocks life of a stand-up comedian.

A very cheerful chat which always zeroes in on the important points with lazer focus, picking up on where Angela is in the greater pandemic situation, working with her PDD, building daily frameworks, having a comedy tribe which normalizes certain behaviours and actions, fear of rejection, CBT, entitlement, TV, the perils and - well, perils of social media, and the notion of beauty on a grand scale.

ANGELA LINKS

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We Are History podcast

KATHERINE LINKS

The Wintering Sessions

Katherine's writing class