This week, Beth's guest is comedian Mae Martin. Mae has accolades across different comedy genres, radio shows, a book and musical comedy. Most recently, Mae starred in 'Feel Good' a semi-autobiographical show about her life that she also wrote for Channel 4/Netflix.
Beth and Mae discuss her battle with addiction, why honesty is important in comedy, how society perceives sex and gender and what it was like acting for the first time.
“When you start there’s such a huge gap between your taste and what you aspire to and your ability... that’s the point where you have to not give up because the more you do the smaller that gap will be”
Episode Highlights:
01.01 - What is Mae’s worst ever job?
02.32 - How did Mae Martin get into comedy?
03.22 - What journey has Mae had with Musical Comedy?
04.48 - Is feeling comfortable in the job you do learned or something you’re naturally born with?
05.27 - Mae speaks about her semi-autobiographical TV show Feel Good and how did she approach acting in it?
07.47 - How did Mae find it performing in a show that was based on events in her real life?
08.39 - How much does addiction apply to everyone and where do they stem from
12.00 - What does Mae hope people take away from Feel Good? Does she think it’s important for art to have a wider societal point?
14.00 - Quickfire Round
15.07 - Fun Fact
15.53 - Mae speaks about her book ‘Can Everyone Please Calm Down? A guide to 21st Century Sexuality’
18.35 - How much has the public perception of sexuality changed in recent years?
20.41 - Does Mae doubt her direction or her work?
22.12 - If Mae could wake up tomorrow having gained one quality or ability, what would it be?
22.52 - Does Mae Martin feel successful? What defines success?
25.24 - What has been Mae’s biggest challenge?
26.15 - What does Mae want to do next?
27.07 - Does Mae believe in fate or choice?
Quotes:
“I just slowly moved in a direction of being more specific and person and honest. That seemed to be what people were responding to and actually connecting with more”
Mae Martin
“I kind of thought that acting was about arranging your face in a certain way, like I’m sad, so I should make my face sad. Then someone told me, you just have to feel the feelings”
Mae Martin
“If I’d known how it would feel I might’ve written it differently so I’m kind of glad I didn’t know it’d be that intense”
Mae Martin
“The worst thing you can do with addicts is what we do to them which is put them in jail and punish them and the best thing you can do is pull them closer and surround them with people”
Mae Martin
“People often think about addicts as this group of people that are junkies and we can’t really relate to them. Actually addiction is something that a lot of people can relate to, not just substances but that feeling of doing something compulsively even though it’s having a negative effect in your life”
Mae Martin
“People are funny in their lives. You can be in the middle of a breakup and someone says something funny and you both laugh for a second. Life is funny”
Mae Martin
“There is nothing worse than something that is written just for the purpose of getting a message across, it feels so heavy-handed”
Mae Martin
“All the conversions about sexuality and gender in the media are so politicised and explosive. Actually what we’re talking about is love”
Mae Martin
“Just because we have gay marriage, it doesn’t mean there’s not certain intersections in the city where I’d be scared to go. We have a long way to go”
Mae Martin
“It’s taken me twenty years to get to this point but I feel confident that I can go on stage and be at home there”
Mae Martin
“I now know for sure that career success is not connected to happiness. It feels good but it’s about the work you’re doing outside of that, that makes you happy”
Mae Martin
“The first thing is finding people to collaborate with who you are on the same wavelength as and who you really get on with”
Mae Martin
I think there’s no real shortcut around hard work, putting in the hours and being super patient. It takes a long time, there’s so much rejection. You won’t be as good as you want to be at first… and then you will be”
Mae Martin
“When you start there’s such a huge gap between your taste and what you aspire to and your ability... that’s the point where you have to not give up because the more you do the smaller that gap will be”
Mae Martin
Resources Mentioned:
