Alison Spittle is currently storming the worlds of stand-up comedy, TV, radio and writing, so news of her new standup show Soup (coming to Banbury’s The Mill BOOK HERE and Oxford’s OFS BOOK HERE) should satisfy her legions of eager fans.
What SOUP’s about though seems to be more complicated: “It’s very hard to explain what it’s about, which is so silly because I spent years writing it, and then when it comes to actually telling people what it’s about it’s very hard,” she laughs.
“But I’d describe SOUP as a stand-up show about being mental,” she says. “It’s about getting diagnosed with CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) because I was robbed eight times. As well as what it’s like to be a renter. And, of course, it’s about soup.”
Fresh from a critically lauded run at the Edinburgh Fringe, SOUP is already going down extremely well and it’s Banbury and Oxford’s turn next.
“soup is one of the best conversations you can have with a person. It’s so much fun”
So why ‘Soup’? “I’m in this WhatsApp group that compares soups. It’s people sending pictures of soup, then other people make positive judgments on their soup of choice. And we just talk about soup because soup is one of the best conversations you can have with a person. It’s so much fun.
“It’s like asking someone what their favourite Robbie Williams song is. Sometimes people aren’t that into Robbie Williams or into soup but they can always name one.”
“I also talk about how hard it is to make a home as a renter because my landlord just tried to raise my rent by, like, £1,200 a month.
“But mental health has been a through-line for all of my stand-up. My CPTSD comes from twice walking in on people robbing the house and once a man had a knife. I know that doesn’t sound funny, but I promise you that I talk about it in the show in a way that is very funny.
“Sometimes people aren’t that into Robbie Williams or into soup but they can always name one”
Comedy is the best medicine then right? “The therapy that I’ve had has been really good and I’m really thankful for the NHS. So I would say comedy is the second best medicine, but if comedy helps them, that’s good. It’s not really proven to be effective but it’s nice to do it.
“So professional help is the best medicine when you have a mental illness, not doing stand-up about it, which is a theme that the show kind of explores, actually.
“I like to explore and of course I like having different soups in different parts of the country”
“But when I do stand-up about stuff that I feel uncomfortable with, that’s when I feel most comfortable because I have control over how I say it or how people hear it. It’s the only way I feel like I express myself freely.”
As co-host of the enormously popular ‘Guilty Feminist’ podcast and her project BBC Sounds’ ‘Wheel Of Misfortune’, Alison is already firmly on the comedy map. Her new play Glacier also debuted at Oxford’s OFS over Christmas.
So does Alison still get stage fright or is she used to the limelight now? “It’s daunting because I’m playing places that I’ve never been to before, so I hope people turn up. But it’s also exciting to visit new towns and cities.
“There are quite a few places I’ve never been to before and because I’m Irish I’ve had to look them up on a map. But I like to explore and of course I like having different soups in different parts of the country.” Job done then!
Alison Spittle brings Soup to the Mill Arts Centre on Thursday 29 February BOOK HERE and OFS on March 24 BOOK HERE
