Julia Raeside, author of 'Don't Make Me Laugh' - Journalist discusses writing angry, tricking yourself to work, and telling another's story
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Julia Raeside is a journalist and broadcaster, who has written for The Times, The Guardian, The Big Issue and many others, and appeared across the BBC.
Her new novel is 'Don't Make Me Laugh', which looks at the culture within the world of comedy... an industry which is rapidly approaching a #MeToo moment. It tells the story of Ali Lauder, a radio producer enlisted to hire Paul Bonatti to host a show. It could be her career breakthrough. Bonatti is a comedian who is thought to be cosy, warm, cool, and a fun feminist... turns out he's anything but.
We talk about how the idea developed from experiencing life at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, covering it as a journalist, and then thinking there was more to be discussed as a novel. You can hear why being a journalist isn't always helpful to novel writing, why she had to trick herself to write, and whether she was ever worried it wasn't her story to tell.
You can get a copy of the novel at uk.bookshop.org/shop/writersroutine
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of writer's routine. Thank you for being there. This week, we're chatting to Julia Rayside, a journalist and broadcaster. She's written for The Times, The Guardian, the big issue, and she's got a new |
| 0:22.3 | novel out. It's called Don't Make Me Laugh. It's all about why things within the comedy industry |
| 0:28.3 | aren't really what they seem. We discuss why her dipping her toe into that world, holding a mirror |
| 0:36.3 | up to comedy, whether she was worried that it wasn't her |
| 0:41.0 | story to tell. And you can hear why she likes to write around other people, but sometimes they |
| 0:46.0 | can be too distracting or too realistic. Occasionally I'd try going to a cafe and I'd bring |
| 0:52.4 | headphones because I couldn't concentrate with the cafe noise around me. |
| 0:56.6 | And then it got so ridiculous I tried to listen to music, couldn't concentrate with music on. |
| 1:00.8 | So I did actually do this a few times. I found myself sitting in a cafe with my headphones on, |
| 1:07.1 | listening to a sound effects album of quotes cafe noise, |
| 1:11.4 | which I can't even explain why that worked better than the actual cafe. |
| 1:16.3 | I think it's because I could tune in and out of people's conversations in a real cafe. |
| 1:20.3 | And that's too distracting. |
| 1:21.6 | So I am, yeah, the absolutely insane image of a woman sitting in a cafe listening to the sounds of a fake cafe. |
| 1:29.3 | It's all on the way with Julia Rayside in a brand new episode of Writers Routine. |
| 1:38.9 | Yes, welcome along to the podcast. |
| 1:41.6 | This is Writers Routine. |
| 1:43.4 | It's the show where we take a look inside |
| 1:44.9 | an author's working day. We peel back the curtain of where and when they do it to try and find out |
| 1:50.3 | how they do it and maybe how we can do the same. My name's Dan Simpson. You can subscribe to the |
| 1:56.8 | show's substack, by the way. More or less every week I'm releasing. Just a little newsletter |
| 2:02.2 | laying you know what's happening around here, peeling back our own curtain into the show, |
... |
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