We were at Dingwalls in Camden for our London leg of the 2019 Funny Women Awards semi-finals and yet again the competition was fierce! While host and 2006 Funny Women Award winner Suzy Bennett entertained the audience the judges decided to put Londoner Laura Smyth through to the final in September.
Funny Women: How does it feel to be through to the 2019 Funny Women Awards final?
Laura Smyth: I am elated to be through to the finals. I can’t really come down from it all. The London semi-final was electric so I can’t even imagine the excitement of the final. I am ridiculously grateful.
FW: Describe your comedy to us
LS: Daft really. The biggest idiotest version of me saying things about stuff. It’s autobiographical and then I take my response to it all to the extreme – my kids, my husband, my mates, myself.
FW: What inspired you to start doing stand up?
LS: I love comedy and watching comedy was a huge part of my childhood, and all my family are funny. I have pretty much imagined doing stand-up my whole adult life (actual routines in my head). At Christmas 300 years of French and Saunders was on and I laughed till I cried and then I just cried because they had spent 300 years (or so) making a life of being funny and I really wished I had done the same thing so I decided to be a bit brave and see if I could be funny with a microphone in my hand.
FW: Who are your favourite funny women?
LS: Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Kathy Burke, Lou Sanders, Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Carmen Butcher, my sisters, my daughters, and my mum.
