Sara Pascoe has been a fixture on the UK scene for more than a decade. Cutting her comedy teeth on the circuit, she has quickly become a TV panel show staple alongside contemporaries Katherine Ryan, James Acaster and Joe Lycett. She has hosted a podcast on sex work, written a book about feminism and starred in her own sitcom – and as if that wasn’t enough, this year she landed one of the ‘loveliest jobs on television’ as host of The Great British Sewing Bee.
Now, the 41-year-old is heading out on a 50-date tour with her latest show, Success Story, which details her rise from a 14-year-old wannabe to the heady heights of a fully-fledged comedian, writer, wife and mother.
However, with her baby son just four months old, the tour, which kicks off this month and comes to Dorking in November, Crawley in December and Guildford next March, could prove a little more challenging than her previous sell-out gigs.
“So far it has been a bit mixed,” she admits. “Sometimes it works perfectly - I put the baby to bed, leave him with my husband, do the gig and then I am home before he even wakes up. But other times have been terrible – the baby won’t go to sleep.
I leave a distraught husband and baby and get a series of voice notes throughout the gig and I can hear the baby screaming in the background. Then I feel half glad that I am not there and then the other half of me is afraid that my husband will not let me leave the house again.”
“Working has made me really appreciate all the people who are trying to balance a job with having a child.”
Sara had been quite open about her problematic path to motherhood, detailing her struggles and subsequent IVF experience with fans on social media. After marrying fellow comedian Australian Steen Raskopoulos in 2020, she admitted she was initially ‘shy’ about sharing the news of this pregnancy following a miscarriage.
She also said the experience had made her mindful of what announcing the happy news could have on others going through a difficult time, telling fans on Instagram: “Also I conceived via IVF, so huge love and support to anyone going through it or thinking about it. I want you to get everything you deserve and hope you know how brave you are to go on this journey of the unknown.”
Becoming a mum has significantly influenced her material and the tour, her first since 2019, with the subjects up for discussion taking quite a different turn in the subsequent years.
“The tour I had planned was mostly about my dog,” she explains. “And it’s not that I love him any less, but it’s just like, ‘Sorry mate, life has moved on’.”
Along with her personal take on her blossoming family life, Sara will also be looking back on her career and some of the wonderful and just plain weird ‘stuff’ that she has experienced thus far.
“In terms of work, sometimes you think you have it sorted and then it just takes a turn. One of the things I talk about on the tour was my experience on Altogether Now – the singing show hosted by Geri Halliwell. Basically, you sing before being judged by 100 people and if you are not good enough you have to sit down and your light goes out. I was voted off first and received all this horrible feedback, live on air. I had to try really, really hard not to cry.
“Luckily I was seeing my therapist the next day and I was in there, saying ‘What is wrong with me?
Why do I keep saying yes to things that I am so bad it?’
“My therapist did not know what I was talking about – she must have thought I had had some kind of fever dream as I was just saying over and over ‘Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls said I was not very good at singing’. I think she thought I was a fantasist.”
Sara, who was already an established comic by this point, reveals she had agreed to do the show to right a previous showbiz wrong from her adolescence. However, her plan had failed and this second attempt merely added insult to injury.
“I had been on Michael Barrymore’s My Kind of People when I was 14 and had forgotten to start singing when the music started - I just stood there and cried. I was doing the Geri Halliwell show for my teenage self, singing on TV for millions of people in a Christmas special. But it just made me feel worse.”
Born into a creative family, her dad Derek is a musician, while her grandmother Rosa Newchurch was a poet and writer, Sara sought a showbiz career from a young age. Her early brush with fame alongside Barrymore on Saturday night prime time ITV, spurred her on with the Dagenham-born teen setting her sights on winning a place at the University of Cambridge with the express aim of joining the prestigious Footlights theatrical group. Her chosen subject was to be philosophy after she ‘fell in love’ with the novel Sophie’s World.
Although Cambridge and philosophy were exchanged for three years at Sussex and a degree in English Literature, her determination to perform remain undimmed and Sara embarked on a career as an actress.
“I had always really, really wanted to be an actor but it wasn’t until I tried stand-up that I realised that I didn’t particularly want to act, I just wanted everyone to look at me,” she laughs.
Once Sara had decided a career in comedy was what she truly craved, success arrived following spots at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a few years grafting on the circuit. While Sara is pleased to be recognised as one of the country’s top comedians, she says in terms of equality, the profession remains a ‘work in progress’.
“The temptation for people like me who have had some success is to just go, ‘Yeah it’s really great for women in comedy, I have bought a flat. But actually, there are still a lot of people who might be put off from doing it. If you do the wrong gig or have the wrong promoter or someone who is a bit sleazy then it can really be difficult.
“There are still clubs in this country where if a woman walks onto the stage the men in the audience will get up and go to the bar. So it [inequality] is definitely out there and it still needs to be part of the discussion.
“We need as much diversity as possible and I always say to people, if you think there is no one out there that looks or sounds like you then comedy needs you. Audiences do not want to hear the same stories over and over again, it is important to bring new ideas, and new experiences. Diversity is not just box ticking, it is a way of keeping comedy fresh and interesting.”
Sara too works hard to keep her career as varied as possible, branching out into podcasts, sitcoms and of course, regular appearances on the numerous panel shows that fill the weekly TV schedules.
“It is a skill and sometimes you get a go but if it doesn’t go well, then you may not do one for another couple of years. Some people, like Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, are fantastic straight away. They know who they are, and are just so quick and witty. It is important though to have a go as a bit of TV exposure is a great way to introduce yourself and get people to your live shows.”
This year has also seen Sara host her first mainstream BBC1 programme – the Great British Sewing Bee – taking over from fellow comedian Joe Lycett.
“Oh it is not like proper presenting,” she says modestly. “You are not in a studio reading from an autocue. You are actually just in this big warehouse all day watching people create fantastic things. You meet some lovely, talented people and you talk to them about their sewing and their lives and then occasionally remind them they have a few minutes left. I genuinely liked everyone there and had a really great time.”
Not content with performing and presenting, Sara has also written two successful books and a sitcom but Sara is aware juggling these tasks may now be easier said than done.
“Writing slots nicely between stand-up and television, however, I am not sure how that will work with a four-month-old baby. There used to be more space in my life than there is now…”
Sara Pascoe Success Story is at Dorking Halls, the Hawth Crawley and G-Live in Guildford. For tickets, visit: sarapascoe.co.uk
