Birmingham Comedy Festival Free Half-Dayer part 2

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1. The pupil shouted, ‘Miss! I seen a video of you and you said you’d show a man your boobs for £50’
   It was comedy or bust for Tamworth’s Jules O’Brian after an awkward classroom incident for the former teacher
   Birmingham Post 19 Sep 2024

   WHEN comedians start out, they typically combine occasional standup gigs with a day job, often comfortably doing both side-by-side for years as they learn the ropes.

   But as former secondary school English teacher Jules O’Brian discovered to her initial embarrassment, doing both isn’t always possible.

   One day, the kids found a video of one of my early routines online. Obviously, it flew around the school,” recalls Jules, who’d only done a few gigs at the time.

   “I’ll never forget the day – I’d just managed to settle the naughtiest Year 9 class and a girl at the back shouted, ‘Miss! I seen a video of you and you said you’d show a man your boobs for £50, and do you know what, Miss? Good on ya!’

   “As you can imagine, no learning took place that lesson. I was called into HR and it was all a bit, well, awkward,” she squirms. “I decided that I had to make a choice… comedy won.”

   It was a wise move as Jules now spends her evenings performing across the UK alongside such acts as Rob Rouse, Justin Moorhouse, Paul Sinha, and Luisa Omielan, who she opened for in February at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall. “Over the years, I had been to see Luisa’s shows a dozen times, told friends about her, posted about her, written an article for a magazine about her, I had always just adored her.

   “So, to be her support act in such a wonderful, historical venue with an audience who embraced me and laughed, whooped and cheered like they did… it was surreal. Loved it!” Inspired by Luisa, Victoria Wood, Joan Rivers, Katherine Ryan and Rik Mayall, Tamworth-based Jules had long considered comedy, but didn’t know how to start until she spotted Brum comic James Cook’s popular comedy course.

   “The clincher was that the showcase at the end of it was to raise money for charity. So, I’d be doing a good thing, and people couldn’t be mean if I was rubbish!”

   Jules’ 2017 debut gave her the confidence to continue. There have been ups and downs since, but she’s persevered, and last year penned her first one-hour solo show—Avoid Excessive Cleavage—which explores some of the challenges she’s faced both as a woman, and a woman coming to stand-up comedy later in life.

   “I think we’re all used to seeing younger people on TV and in the media in general when it comes to entertainment, so there’s an expectation that you won’t have to deal with wrinkly faces on a stage, either—especially so when it comes to women.

   “My show is called Avoid Excessive Cleavage (And Other Advice To Ignore) because I became so tired of being bombarded with articles about what women should and shouldn’t wear after a certain age, how we should behave, tips to ‘hide laughter lines’ (heaven forbid anyone should know we’ve been enjoying ourselves), and so on.

   “I had one person explicitly tell me that ‘audiences prefer younger acts’ which felt like a bit of a gut punch at the time, but it’s a reflection of how some people think. After gigs, I’ll often have people come over and say, ‘I don’t usually find women funny, but you were good!’. And it’s well-intentioned, but I know loads of funny women in comedy (and in life in general), so it can feel frustrating to hear that. “[But] I think one of the positive aspects of coming to comedy later in life is that you’ve got so much to talk about. Deciding what to leave out can be the tricky part!”

   Having premiered Avoid Excessive Cleavage at 2023’s Birmingham Comedy Festival, Jules returns this year alongside fellow Midlands comic Kevin Daniel.

   “Kev and I are no spring chickens–I’m allowed to say it!–and we’re both trying to fit in as much as we can as fast as we can to keep up with these pesky energetic youngsters on the comedy circuit!

   “So, after last year’s sell-out successes of Kev’s show and my show too, we want to test out new material on an audience who will clap, cheer, boo, or cringe at our ideas,” says Jules, whose appearance is part of the second Birmingham Comedy Festival Free Half-Dayer on Sunday, October 13, which runs from 1pm at Cherry Reds and The Victoria and includes eight one-hour shows from James Cook, Kieran Flynn, A&E doctor Kwame Asante and others.

   Birmingham Comedy Festival runs from October 4-13, with appearances from Sarah Millican, Milton Jones, Rachel Parris, Richard Blackwood, Jo Enright, and Jonny Cole. For details, see: bhamcomfest.co.uk

   Article Name: The pupil shouted, ‘Miss! I seen a video of you and you said you’d show a man your boobs for £50’
   Publication: Birmingham Post
   Start Page: 24
   End Page: 24

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