Getting to know her audience

Josie Long prefers discussing museums to topical issues in her comic routines - and she's picking who'll be at her Cat Laughs show, writes Brian Boyd

THERE'S NOTHING REMOTELY funny about repeating the phrase, "Who here, out of everyone here, likes Nelly?" But, in a poky Edinburgh Fringe venue room, the line, as delivered by rising young comic Josie Long, becomes something like the eighth comedic wonder of the world. For perhaps no other act is the phrase "you had to be there" more appropriate. Long inhabits a weirdly wonderful world in which the typical comedic concerns are banished and replaced by imaginative musings on subjects as atypical as rye bread.

Now 25 and from south London, Josie Long first came to attention when she won the if.com (formerly the Perrier) newcomer award two years ago. By then, though, she was already a circuit veteran having started her stand-up career aged 14. This week she is one of the draws at the Smithwicks Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny - and, in a typical twist, she has decided that for one of her shows she gets to handpick the audience.

"I get the word 'weird' used a lot about me," says the personable Long. "So we came up with this idea for Kilkenny that for my own solo show I was going to decide who the audience would be. It's a small room - it only fits about 70 people - so I posted a bunch of questions on my website and, depending on how they were answered, the person got an invite or not. The questions weren't very difficult - for example, one of them was that you had to come up with an anagram of your name and then write a small description of what this anagram person would be like. It's the first time I've had such advance knowledge of the audience - so I'll be able to tailor the material to include certain people."

For anybody else, this type of invite-only gig might have been an indulgent affair, but it fits Long's modus operandi perfectly. She doesn't do contemporary material: she never picks on the obvious targets but instead talks about a world where French needlework techniques (specifically appliqué) and museums (a favourite one is the Victoria Albert) take on huge significance.

"We're sort of getting back to the 'weird' thing, aren't we?" she says. "I know it's a bit of a cliché but I think if you do anything with real heart, your intent comes across. But it can be difficult doing such material. Every comic gets heckles but I tend to get really harsh stuff like 'you're not really a comedian' thrown at me. Other people just tell me that that hate me and that I'm wasting their time! I find it strange because if you go to a music gig and you don't like a certain song, you don't shout out 'You're not a real musician, you're wasting my time' - but that's what I have got sometimes. It makes you harden up after a while, though, and I find Edinburgh really important to me because there I can do stuff that just wouldn't work in the circuit clubs. There are certain comedy clubs I just don't do - and I think that's a mutual decision between me and the clubs. I deliberately go after a certain comedy atmosphere so a lot of the mainstream clubs just don't work for someone like me."

AT A STRETCH you could categorise Long as a lo-fi, DIY comic. And it's no surprise to hear her list off her comedy inspirations: "The first would have been Vic 'n' Bob and then later Lee and Herring and Eddie Izzard," she says. "Now it's Ross Noble and David O'Doherty - I know David well because we often used to find ourselves doing the same 'Best New Act' competitions a few years ago. I know people do tend and try and put us all into this 'lo-fi' category but it's not a movement, it's just a personal approach. I suppose for quite a while, and even still now, comedy was seen by a lot of people as a stepping stone for a TV career. I never got into it for that reason."

When she was just 14, she happened upon a comedy workshop that took place close to where she lived. Even though she was the youngest member - by quite a few years - she fitted in perfectly. "I just really loved it, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I did my first gigs on the proper circuit when I was just 16 and I think that's how I got my style. At 16, you can't really do any life experience stuff and you can't really talk about political subjects. I just did really odd little jokes about desperate and silly topics. It's all I could do at that age".

When, this year, Stewart Lee decided to compile his own list of "The Top 10 Stand-Ups in the World" and put on theatre gigs in London featuring each of the 10, Long, to her astonishment, found herself included in the list alongside more established acts such as Harry Hill, Sean Lock and Kevin McAleer. "I'm doing the gig this week and I'm absolutely terrified," she says. "I really don't know what I'm doing on that list."

Long finds it "very frustrating" whenever her name is mentioned in articles about female comics. "I can't see why all female comics get lumped in together. It's ridiculous. And I get asked a lot about who my favourite female comics are. But I just don't look it at that way - like everyone else, I think, I have personal preferences that have nothing to do with gender. But for some people, gender is still obviously an issue - I've had people say to me, 'I don't normally like women comics but you're alright' or just the usual 'women aren't funny'. I would like to think that we're beyond talking about comics in terms of their sex, but obviously we're not."

It's not something she's ever likely to address in her material - she simply doesn't do "issues". "I can't understand how certain comics manage to get angry about all these issues," she says. "If you're touring a show for a year, that's a lot of angry energy you have to access each night. Similarly, I never do material about individuals and certainly never to mock them. I just find it better all around to talk about museums."

Josie Long's invitation gig is at Cleere's, Kilkenny on Saturday at 6.45pm. She also performs at the Zoo Bar on Friday at 7.30pm; The Village Inn at 10.45pm on Saturday and The Ormonde Hotel on Sunday at 6pm.

www.ilovejosielong.co.uk The Cat Laughs begins tonight. Additional shows added to the schedule are: The Dark Show on Saturday night, hosted by Rich Hall's Otis Lee Crenshaw and Tommy Tiernan, Umbilical Brothers and Jarlath Regan on Sunday night.

See www.smithwickscatlaughs.com