Sara Pascoe admits she was ‘arrogant’ at the start of her comedy career

Sara Pascoe has admitted she was “arrogant” at the start of her comedy career. The comedian, 43, who began performing stand up in 2007, gained public notoriety on panel shows including Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Have I Got News For You after performing solo shows at Edinburgh Fringe. Pascoe went on to tour her material across the UK, alongside writing and starring in the BBC Two sitcom Out of Her Mind and penning three books: Weirdo , Animal, and Sex, Power, Money .

Speaking to The Guardian , Pascoe, who got into theatre at university, revealed she started doing standup on a whim after initially exploring character comedy, which she thought of as acting-adjacent. “I was arrogant,” she said. “I think if I’d actually seen the masters of their craft I would have known my place.



Instead, I was having a glass of wine and going out with the energy of a mad woman at a bus stop.” Despite never having even watched any stand-up before trying it for herself, Pascoe said she was “really, really, really addicted” to comedy “from the beginning”. Early into her comedy career, Pascoe was asked to appear on the BBC’s flagship standup show, Live at the Apollo .

Ahead of the taping, she performed a preview of her Edinburgh Fringe show where “nobody laughed at me for an hour”. “I remember thinking: crikey, should I do Apollo ?” the comedian said. “I thought, do you want to be the worst person who’s ever done Live at the Apollo , or not do Live at the Apollo ? “I’d rather be the worst person.

And so you have to make your peace with it.” She joked: “I’ve never let being bad at things stop me doing them, which is how I’ve had a career.” Pascoe said the start of her comedy career in 2007 collided with a time when the industry was “desperate” for women and female comics were “constantly getting recommended for gigs”, which aided her success.

Additionally, the influx of panel shows on television meant comedians could earn good money and gain exposure on television. “Everyone I know from that time is famous now,” Pascoe said, pointing to Josh Widdicome, James Acaster, Ed Gamble and Katherine Ryan as her contemporaries. In a previous interview with New City College , Pascoe previously admitted she “used to think comedy was for idiots” before trying it out for herself.

“I was very sneering,” she reflected. “I didn’t know I wanted to be a comedian until I’d done it for about three months. I was trying to be an actor from the age of 18 to 27.

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