Making a show with Alison Spittle

LONDON born comedian Alison Spittle is back in the city of her birth. She returned here in late 2018 to โ€œgive it a go.โ€

Her family moved over to Westmeath when she was six.
โ€œMy dad is English and living here. Itโ€™s kinda living away and kinda not. I feel very cultural Irish while living here.โ€

The plan for Alison is she is starting again in the UK and adjusting her material for the new audience. The competition among comediansโ€™ night be fierce in London but there is an abundance of contacts to pitch new ideas to as well.
โ€œEnglish people donโ€™t know as much about Irish people as we know about them.
โ€œWe have their โ€˜Coronation Streetโ€™, They donโ€™t have our โ€˜Fair Cityโ€™!!โ€

The comedianโ€™s new tour is called โ€˜Alison Spittle Makes a Show of Herselfโ€™ coming to Ireland in the next few weeks. We are chatting on the phone as she is making her way down Londonโ€™s Camden Street when the call suddenly goes silent!
Hi, Alison, Are you still there?
Seconds later, โ€œYeah, Iโ€™m fine, I just walked into a lamp post !!!โ€ laughs.
โ€œThis fella was making faces at me! So I was taking pictures of him โ€ฆ.โ€ laughs.

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Alison is the creator of funny RTE series โ€˜Nowhere Fastโ€™. Her new show follows hit tours and the multi award winning โ€˜Worrier Princessโ€™ and โ€˜Discovers Hawaiiโ€™.
This natural raconteur just canโ€™t help being funny. Her podcast โ€˜The Alison Spittle Showโ€™ is rambling and hilarious. Check out her interview with Sharon Horgan at Electric Picnic or Tommy Tiernan as guest.

Alison is part of the growing number of Irish women who are shaking up the comedy world led by Sharon Horgan, Deirdre Oโ€™Kane, Lisa McGee (Derry Girls) and Stefanie Preissner.
I suggest that the line that only men can do comedy is irrelevant now?

โ€œI donโ€™t know who made that a line in the first place. Humour is part of the human condition and weโ€™re (women) human – laughs – Some people forget that simple fact.โ€
โ€œI have been surrounded by hilarious women, my mam, my sister, my granny.โ€

The comedian talks freely about โ€˜Nowhere Fastโ€™, her RTE series which ran for one season.
โ€œIโ€™m very thankful to RTE for taking a chance on โ€˜Nowhere Fastโ€™. It has given me a lot of experience.โ€ She admits that she found it โ€œhard to give the men funny linesโ€ when writing it.
โ€œFailure is part of life. Iโ€™m at peace now whatever happens either way.โ€

Alison sometimes works with โ€˜Guilty Feministsโ€™ podcast, one of the most popular podcasts in the UK.
โ€œThey did a live show in Vicar Street last year. There was so many people from Limerick there!
โ€œDeirdre (Deirdre Francis White) shouted, โ€˜Is there anybody here from Limerick?โ€™ to huge roars.
โ€œThere were more Limerick women there than there was at the All Ireland Final. They even took over menโ€™s toilets.โ€ laughs

Limerick is one of Alisonโ€™s favourite haunts to perform.
โ€œThere is something different about Limerick people. They have a worldly knowledge that they have an insatiable appetite for. You can see how it has produced people like Blindboy Boatclub. You can get away with being off the wall with them as well!โ€

Alison is writing a play at the moment called โ€˜Starletโ€™. It is still in the early stages of development but will get its first ever showing in Smock Alley in February. It is one of her goals to write more for theatre.

Alison made a list of her goals when she started out in her career and achieved a large chunk of them, making a TV series, playing Vicar Street among them.

Is she making a similar list for this London chapter of her life?
โ€œWould you believe, I am literally on my way to Camden Library to do that in an hour. As someone self employed, I have to have goals to know where Iโ€™m going.
โ€œI made a goal that I would move to London. Right! I will do my own headline shows in London. Now, Iโ€™m going to sit down and decide what I want.
โ€œI wish you caught me an hour later!!!โ€ laughs

Support on the night comes from Julie Jay. Julie is a name to watch in 2019 with new projects about to be announced. She presents the very funny and nostalgic โ€˜Up to 90โ€™ Podcast with Emma Doran.

Alison Spittle is in Dolanโ€™s on Friday February 22.