Fern Brady - ‘I make more money in comedy than I ever did from stripping‘

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Sony Music

Society & Culture

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this searingly funny and deeply affecting live conversation, Elizabeth speaks to stand-up comedian, author and Taskmaster favourite Fern Brady about her autism diagnosis, her working-class roots, and the failures that shaped her award-winning memoir Strong Female Character. Fern opens up about late diagnosis, social masking, and stripping to fund her education - all delivered with the brutal honesty and whip-smart humour that’s made her one of the most exciting voices in comedy today. A powerful exploration of identity, feminism, and finding your voice. What stood out for you in this episode? Leave us a comment. ✨ IN THIS EPISODE: 00:00 Intro 01:58 Autism Diagnosis and Masking 04:40 Experiences on Taskmaster 11:40 University Struggles and Stripping 17:33 Challenges of Writing a Memoir 20:03 Reflections on Edinburgh 21:49 Struggles with Mental Health and Misdiagnosis 22:35 University Challenges and Autistic Shutdowns 23:25 Extreme Stress and Physical Symptoms 24:34 Breaking into Comedy and Facing Limitations 26:05 Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs 27:55 Navigating the Comedy Industry 34:02 Rejecting Mainstream Entertainment 37:21 Celebrity Bakeoff Experience 💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER: “Even when people don’t know you’re autistic, they know you’re autistic. They pick up on something different about you.”“Comedy radicalised me as a feminist. And so did working in a strip club.”“I was told I had the wrong energy for QI. I think that was a coded way to say I was too common.”“Autistic people are always learning to speak neurotypical. All we’re asking is for a bit of that in return.” 🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS: Fern’s memoir Strong Female Character is out now! @fernfrombathgate Fern is a the Edinburgh Fringe: fernbrady.co.uk/gigs Elizabeth’s upcoming one-off show at Cadogan Hall on 21 Sep for her new novel One of Us: ⁠https://www.fane.co.uk/elizabeth-day Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/ Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content 📚 WANT MORE? Christine McGuinness on autism, calm and self-acceptance Caitlin Moran on feminism, girls and mental health Miriam Margolyes on difference, defiance and not caring what people think 💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE? Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories Share with someone exploring neurodiversity or recovering their voice 👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth: Instagram: @elizabday TikTok: Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod Website: www.elizabethday.org Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/ Elizabeth and Fern answer YOUR questions live in Edinburgh in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Live Show Engineer: Will Kontargyris Sound Engineer: Matias Torres Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot Executive Producer: Carly Maile How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, wonderful listeners and viewers. Don't forget about my subscriber show failing with friends,
0:05.5	where my brilliant guests get to be agony arts, uncles, or non-binary advice givers.
0:10.8	You can learn how to cope with a friendship breakup with Cynthia Nixon, feeling calm with Christine McGuinness,
0:17.3	and how to recover from a broken heart with Danny Minogue.
0:23.9	Join the family. Just follow the link in the show notes.
0:35.0	Welcome to this super special episode of How to Fail with Fern Brady live from Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
0:40.1	Thank you so much for listening. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace,
0:42.9	the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online.
0:48.4	Naming your business is so important and it can be challenging.
0:52.0	I remember working to come up with a name for my podcast
0:54.4	and also my production company, daylight in case you were wondering, and I really could have done
0:59.8	with a helping hand back then. Squarespace's business name generator is genius. You can describe
1:05.5	your business idea and start generating AI-powered names in just seconds. And the other thing is that words are very much my thing, numbers less so.
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1:30.1	Head to Squarespace.com forward slash fail 10 for a free trial and when you're ready to
1:35.9	launch, use offer code fail 10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
1:41.8	My guest tonight is Fern Brady, a stand-up comedian and award-winning author born in Bathgate,
1:49.2	West Lothian in 1986.
1:52.0	Her parents are working class.
	...

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