For those of you that remember it, the early noughties saw us treated with Faking It, a TV show on Channel 4 where ‘normal people’ (I mean, come on, it is TV after all!) were plucked from their natural habitat and given 4 weeks to master a skill well enough to fool a panel of experts…well, I am now living this dream. And before I share more on this…if you want to be reminded of the great show that was, here’s the link…https://www.channel4.com/programmes/faking-it/episode-guide/

There is one of my 40 before 40 challenges that has been commented on by more people than any other: doing stand up comedy. Standard reactions include…”Oh My God, are you mad?”, “Why?” and “Are you really going to do that?”. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t have put it on the list if I didn’t have any intention to do it and this whole 40 before 40 is supposed to be a challenge otherwise it would just be my normal life. Yes I planned to do it and yes I am mad and Why? would be a good question to ask here but I can’t answer that because I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve always wondered about doing. Having said that, as I ticked off year 1 of the challenge, I started to think that this comedy one wouldn’t happen. What was I going to do…turn up at an open mic night and die on stage whilst being gonged and rotten tomatoes being thrown at me (you can tell I’ve thought and worried about this a lot)…that wasn’t going to happen, so how was I going to manage this one? Read on and you will discover…

Last Thursday, I entered my new life (life = Thursday evenings for 2 hours) with my new friends (new friends = people I have only just met also trying their hardest to be funny) and now I’m on an 8 week journey to stardom  dying on my ass on stage  standing up on stage and delivering a stand up comedy set. Last night was our first training session and it had its highs and lows…turns out improvisation is not my strong point but being contrary is…amazing how you can find out something in a comedy class that your friends and family have known for a long time! Week 1 and so far so good, I didn’t feel completely out of my depth, despite some very very funny people in my class and I really enjoyed getting to know everybody a bit better.

Now onto the good bit…you can all come and watch me. And in fact, you all NEED to come and watch me because I have to sell 10 tickets by week 3 otherwise I’m off the course/buying them all myself. I can’t promise amazing quality for the whole show but I can promise that you will not have seen anything like some of my fellow comedians-in-training who will be on stage on Sunday 15th March and you could be seeing the next John Bishop/Frankie Boyle/Sarah Millican/Jack Dee/Lee Evans (delete as appropriate to your tastes) before they are famous.

I know you’re now itching to go and buy some tickets after this hard sell. And not that I’m at all competitive but someone in my class has sold 20 tickets already!! Here’s the link you need and you need to say you’re buying tickets to see me (I think this is so they know to seat you all near the bar!). https://www.ultratickets.co.uk/events/ultra-comedy-leeds-15-03-2020/

And if you don’t want to come, can’t make it or just think…£20 to see a bunch of amateurs, no thanks love, then would you consider donating a few pennies to Cancer Research instead? Link to that is here: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/kelly-heathcote-tryingtobefunny

Wish me luck!! I’ll try and keep you updated, although we all know I’m not the most regular of bloggers…yet (!)