Michelle de Swarte — from catwalks to comedy clubs

Jordan Rossi: What first inspired you to pursue a career in comedy?

Michelle de Swarte: I was doing a TV presenting job with Abbey Clancy and George Lamb called “the fashion show” . It was for ITV 2 around 2007, so as you can imagine the word “fashion” was meant very, very loosely. Part of the show was filmed in front of a live audience and this stand up comic would come and warm up the crowd before me and Abbey would come in and say the sentence “bang on trend” repeatedly about outfits found in high street shops we swore were the perfect imitations of the latest millan runway show. I would stand in the wings watching him, with some God-awful huge bow in my hair and a rah-rah skirt thinking, “I want to do what he’s doing”. A couple of years later, I did my first gig and it’s fair to say that I was absolutely shit. A decade later, after many brooklyn dive bar gigs and spots in old git pubs all over the country, I finally made it on ‘Live at the Apollo’.

JR: How do you balance the different aspects of your career?

MdS: If I’m filming it generally means I can’t gig in the evenings. If I’m not, then I gig most nights of the week, so it’s more making sure that whatever has the tightest schedule (what pays the most money) takes precedence.

JR: Can you walk us through your creative process when developing new material?

MdS: I’ll have a nugget of an idea and then work it out on stage, some jokes take longer than others. I’m a longform storyteller and not a one-liner comic. Sometimes I’ll be talking to friends and they will laugh at something, so I’ll write it down and then take another look while in front of an audience and let them tell me what is working.

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 31: The Dreamers. Full story is available in stores worldwide now.