Today in our Meet the finalists series we’re talking to Amelia Stubberfield, whose professional manner and confident performance in our Zoom Semi-Finals won them a place in the 2021 Funny Women Awards Grand Final! In our Q&A Amelia talks about how comedy can be used as a method of coping and being a comedy geek…
Funny Women: How did it feel to perform at the Funny Women Awards final?
Amelia Stubberfield: It was a brilliantly warm, supportive, and buzzy experience! The audience, fellow competitors, the ever-excellent host Jayde Adams, and the Funny Women team were all fantastic. It also felt quite emotional to be performing to such a large audience after months of zoom or socially distanced gigs. It reminded me why I love to perform live stand-up and I had such a great time.
FW: How did you get started in comedy?
AS: I trained as an actor so love live performance and had written and devised a lot of original theatre pieces for myself and with others. But I’ve always been a massive comedy geek and had some ideas for comedy material buzzing around my head for a while. So I just started to try out stuff at scratch nights and cabaret events which felt like warm and welcoming environments to experiment, and then took it from there! I also did the Soho Comedy Lab Plus course which I would totally recommend as a space to develop your material.
FW: What inspires your comedy material?
AS: I think my sense of humour was in part borne out of using comedy as a way of coping, so it’s often inspired by my lived experiences of things like queer identity and mental health. What’s really exciting is that when you start performing comedy material about those kinds of things, you realise how universal the feelings are and how empowering it is for audiences to hear things like mental health be spoken about so openly in a light but meaningful way, it’s a way of connecting with people.
FW: What would you say to anyone considering entering the Awards next year?
AS: Absolutely go for it! Trust your voice and perspective on the world, and write material that you think is funny. The experience of performing at any stage of the competition will be invaluable for you whatever the outcome and you get to meet a tonne of awesome people!
FW: And lastly, who are your favourite funny women?
AS: I love Maria Bamford whose take on mental health and the world is beyond genius, she’s really one of a kind and never apologises for it, which I love! Other excellent comics I love include; Kemah Bob, Rosie Jones, Ali Wong, Tig Notaro, Bridget Christie, Desiree Burch, Diane Morgan, and Julia Davis. When I was growing up Julie Walters, French and Saunders, and Victoria Wood were a massive influence on me (if they do an Acorn Antiques reboot on Netflix I am dying to play Mrs. Overall!) Also, Eddie Izzard whose unique brand of comedy was so inspiring to 10 year old queer me living in a tiny village in the pre-internet era! And of course, Kathy Burke will always be up there as an all-round hero and legend.
Photo credit: Steve Ullathorne
