Jo Brand

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2007

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the stand-up comedian Jo Brand. From the word go she always anticipated she would be heckled about her weight and appearance. While most people would run a mile at the thought of standing in front of a rowdy, aggressive and largely drunk audience, she says that the worst that can happen is humiliation - and she adds that as a woman, she was already equipped to deal with this, because people felt free to comment disparagingly on her appearance in everyday life.

Her first career was as a psychiatric nurse - and for several years she would spend the day working in a psychiatric unit before appearing at a comedy club in the evening. Both careers demand an ability to be calm in extreme situations and to display a confidence that is often not felt. Her extreme act meant that for many years she was labelled a man-hating feminist - but she confounded critics by getting married and having two children.

Elements of this programme may offend some listeners.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Oh England, My Lionheart by Kate Bush Book: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon Luxury: A church organ.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,
0:24.7	history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Kirstie Young,
0:31.8	and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:38.5	Elements of this program may offend or upset some listeners.
0:42.2	The program was originally broadcast in 2007.
0:49.2	Music My castaway this week is the comedian Joe Brand.
1:05.4	She's been making people laugh since the alternative comedy boom of the 1980s,
1:09.2	with her particular mix of deadpan outrageousness
1:12.7	and self-deprecating one-liners. For years, she was known simply as the sea monster,
1:18.8	a professional alter ego that reflected her distinctive luke and attacking style. She once
1:24.2	memorably quipped that the way to a man's heart wasn't through his stomach, but through his hanky pocket with a bread knife.
1:30.6	Yet there's so much more to her than seeding one-liners.
1:33.7	For ten years prior to finding her comedy feet, she was a psychiatric nurse.
1:38.6	And more recently, she confounded those who had her down as a man-hating lesbian by marrying and having two children in quick succession.
1:46.4	The stand-up that you put yourself through, Joe Brand, I mean, presumably you love it.
1:51.2	I do absolutely love it, yes. I don't find it something to be got through. I find it something to be got through before I've done it, but when I'm doing it, it's just an absolute joy 80% of the time.
2:04.7	I mean, to most normal people, there would be nothing worse than standing up in front of a stage
2:08.4	and convincing an often belligerent audience that they did indeed find you funny.
2:13.6	Well, yeah, that is a point of view that I hear quite a lot, but I don't agree with that.
2:18.3	You know, ultimately, the worst thing that can happen is that you're sort of humiliated by an audience.
2:24.2	And I think actually when you think about it, most of us can cope with that.
2:28.1	And particularly women can, because women, I think, suffer humiliation like that,
	...

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