Happy Tea: A wildly honest, comedic, and totally unfiltered one-woman storytelling show.
TICKET LINK: https://edinburgh.justthetonic.com/event/88:5410/
Happy Tea blends caregiving, documentary filmmaking and deeply personal storytelling — what made you want to turn such chaotic life experiences into a comedy show?
I feel that sharing difficult life experiences helps other people, as in general people only share ‘the good stuff’ online. Sharing difficult times through a comedic lens, I think, helps people laugh at me and then at themselves. From doing the show, I have had a bunch of people reach out about how the comedic take has helped them look at some of their own experiences in new ways, and helped them move on and I think that drives me to get even more raw with it and just share the truth, however embarrassing that may be. I think it really helps people to hear when other people have also struggled; it’s quite unifying in a way.
The show is described as “wildly honest” and “totally unfiltered”; how do you decide which personal stories are worth sharing on stage and which remain private?
A lot of this story has already been shared through the more serious lens of a feature-length documentary, so a lot of the more difficult subjects are already public knowledge so I may as well share it through a comedic lens too! I did check in with other people who were involved to ask if I could share certain things and I have a list of ‘what not to share’. But when it comes to me, in terms of things that have happened to me or things that run through my mind, I will pretty much share anything, see if it works on stage and then if it is funny it stays in the show 🙂
You balance very dark humour with warmth and absurdity — why do you think audiences connect so strongly with comedy that embraces both messiness and vulnerability?
I think that people connect with messiness and vulnerability, as that is life, at its core. We like to pretend we are all in control, but that is just not reality. It is usually only our closest people who get to know when things truly go wrong. So I think that it connects as everyone can relate to some version of it in their own lives. I do think having dark humour interlaced with more lighthearted absurd humour builds a more rounded show, but to be honest, that is not really planned. I just add anything that I find funny and see if it works, and it turns out it is a bunch of different types of comedy in one long story.
Making the documentary Charged under “unique circumstances” clearly shaped the material — did creating that film change the way you think about storytelling and resilience?
Yes, without a doubt making the film changed the way I look at storytelling and resilience and I think making that film, overall, changed me. I think I use to have a much more harsh and mathematical way of looking at life, but I think going through that journey and making the documentary really opened my mind to the nuances of life and just accepting what you feel but actively making choices everyday to make things better no matter how hard everything is. Storytelling wise, someone once told us that if it was “written” it would seem too far fetched so I guess the fact that it is true makes it easier to tell.
Your comedy seems to celebrate unconventional thinking, whether through DIY projects, business ventures or surreal observations — do you see creativity as something that spills into every part of your life?
Creativity is certainly a central pillar of my life. I am always making things, I spend a lot of time on interior design and making things for my house. I have made floors out of magazine pages, I have a VW bug as my kitchen island, and other fun things. In my business ventures, I am always making things, whether that is the products themselves, marketing assets or trade show displays; the list of creativity is essentially endless when building and running a national food brand. Weirdly, I am not very creative with myself; my hair and clothing is somewhat everyday, so I endeavour to get a bit better at that. I really want my brain to spill over with that creativity but it has not naturally happened… yet!
Directed by Stuart Laws, Happy Tea sounds both tightly crafted and gloriously chaotic — how did the collaboration help shape the balance between structure and spontaneity on stage?
Stuart is very good at structure and has a lot more experience than I do, so it has been really enjoyable to play with the flow of the show and chat through ideas. Stuart is naturally more spontaneous than me too, so that is something I am trying to get better at, ha. But, the areas for spontaneity are somewhat built into the structure, i.e some structural pieces cannot change as it is a storytelling show, and if the audience does not hear some things, the end of the show will not make any sense. But some other bits are more playful pieces that, if changed, would not affect the overall show, so those are the areas for more spontaneity.