The comedian and TV panel show regular on how she got into comedy and the inspiration for her Home Safe Collective. As told to Harry Trend.
“I was always a massive comedy nerd, I loved watching live stand up. My mum took me to watch my first live stand up when I was 14: Victoria Wood at Strand theatre in London. I just was in awe of her. But because I was quite shy, anxious and had low self-esteem, when I was younger it never occurred to me that I could do it myself.
In my teens and twenties, I would watch as much live stand-up as I could and then I ran comedy nights in Brighton where I live, just for fun. But I never performed, it was just so I could get my fix. My dad was also a big comedy fan, he used to come to the nights that I put on.
Before going full-time with comedy I worked in health and social care. I guess if you’re working with people who are not having a good time you need to be empathetic, caring and have compassion but still be able to find humour in that.
In 2008, my father died very suddenly, he had a heart attack. When you lose a parent, particularly when it’s sudden, you think ‘right, what do I want to do?’ So I did the Gil Edwards stand-up comedy course in Brighton in 2009, then started gigging the following year.
I started doing open nights in 2010, but I still had the day job. Then in 2011 I entered the BBC new comedy awards on a bit of a whim. It was very last minute it, somebody said to me ‘I think you should enter, you’ve got nothing to lose.’ So I did it and won the whole thing, suddenly I had people interested in me and it was a bit of validation. I got an agent, started getting into the circuit proper and I finally went full time in 2012.
When I first started I would never get to gig with other women, it just wouldn’t happen. We were treated like we were a genre of comedy, so you couldn’t have more than one on a bill. You’d always get the people coming up to you after gigs saying, ‘I don’t usually like female comics but…’ It would drive me mad because you think you’re complimenting me, but what you’re actually doing is being really unkind.
Promoters used to say all the audiences don’t like it. It’s rubbish because the audiences don’t even notice. If you’re funny you’re funny. Now young girls watching stand up on the telly have got loads of women to look up to – things will only get better too. It’s been such a brilliant change to watch.
In 2018 I set up the Home Safe Collective. The scheme came about after a young comedian in Australia called Eurydice Dixon, on her way home from a gig in Melbourne, was raped and murdered.
If you’re a woman out late at night, it’s somehow your fault if that happens to you. It’s just simply not fair because the world belongs to all of us, why shouldn’t we be able to walk home at night?
At the Edinburgh fringe festival there are shows all night long. If you’re a new comic starting out and you’re going to Edinburgh it’s already obscenely expensive, so you can’t always justify getting a taxi home after a gig. If you say no to gigs, they’re not going to ask you again, so you end up putting yourself in quite difficult positions – walking home late at night.
We set up Home Safe Collective which is basically a registered account with a taxi firm in Edinburgh, it’s the only one where all their drivers are police-checked. Anyone can register with the scheme and it’s particularly aimed at vulnerable people – women, people identifying as women and non-binary people.
We don’t say no to anybody. If you’re stuck or need to do a late gig and can’t get there safely, you can just call a cab and the fund is there for your taxi ride. We’d much rather people would never have to make an unsafe choice. Obviously, I wish I could open this scheme up to the whole world, but the Edinburgh fringe is a good place to start because it’s a place where we know lots of people who do find themselves in that position.
My tour is called Rose Tinted for two reasons. The first is because of nostalgia which got us in the mess we’re in. People look back and think the past was better and that’s why Trump’s happened and Brexit’s happened. The second reason is because I’m trying to look on the bright side. I’m a natural pessimist and I think sometimes that’s the best way to be because if you expect the worst you won’t be disappointed.”
Angela Barnes – Rose Tinted, Glee Club, Cardiff. Thu 18 Apr. Tickets: £14/£12 (student). Info: www.glee.co.uk