Former BBC co-host Rachel Parris is looking toward the future of comedy (Picture: Poise)
As Rachel Parris takes to the stage with her revised Poise stand-up tour, the comedian is all too familiar with the pitfalls of being a woman who dares to have opinions.
Motherhood, middle-age and miserly politicians – all three are the subject of 40-year-old comedian Rachel’s latest musical comedy extravaganza that is coming back strong after a more-than-eventful summer break.
Between the first half of the tour and the next the entire UK government changed as 14 years of Tory rule was vanquished by a decisive Labour victory helmed by party leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Although it was the outcome countless were rooting for (including Rachel herself), it comes with one caveat. No more poking jokes at Tory politicians, or at least, heavily reducing.
‘I’ve had to rewrite my Rishi Sunak material, think up some stuff about Starmer and try and find something funny about the current cabinet,’ the Bafta-nominated comic told Metro.co.uk.
‘The fact that the most comedic thing about Starmer that anyone has found is that he’s a bit boring is in itself very boring. So that’s not a joke that I’m making in my show, because everyone’s made that joke, and it’s not very funny,’ she added with a wry smile.
The comedian had to rewrite a whole bunch of material ahead of the Autumn leg thanks to the election (Picture: UKTV)
Rachel’s public acclaim blew up when she joined Nish Kumar on BBC’s hit satirical series The Mash Report to pick apart the chaos the country has been plummeting into full throttle since the Brexit vote in 2016.
‘There was so much low-hanging fruit to mock. Their behavior was generally damaging and absurd, frankly,’ she said about creating comedy under the former government.
But now she has the chance to prove everyone wrong about speaking truth to power.
‘During the Mash Report everyone went, “Oh, well, what if you get a Labor Government? Are you still going to come after them?”
‘And the answer is yes, of course, there’s plenty to come after. Whoever is in government, whoever is making the moves, that’s who you come after.’
Rachel first appeared on BBC Two’s Mash Report (described by one tabloid as ‘preachy, self-righteous [and] left-wing’) from 2017 to 2021 where she would deliver scathing political takedowns in cheerily-delivered monologues.
It subsequently moved to Dave as Late Night Mash (where she took over as the presenter) in 2022.
Rachel and Nish have worked closely together over the years (Picture: UKTV)
Since then the show has been entirely scrapped. But even two years on, Rachel has admitted that there are ‘little pockets of trolls’ still lurking around the internet, ready to pounce.
‘It’s amazing what people will say that they wouldn’t say in public. Nish got absolute tirades of racist abuse and trolled for his political views.
‘And I got lots of sexist abuse, ranging from, obviously, people calling me names to someone …read more
Source:: Metro
