Some lied. Some hid it. And few even mined it for jokes. Becoming a mum used to be near-fatal to a comedian’s career. But now, in a Mother’s Day special, we meet the new wave taking on taboos
‘Before I had kids, I swam in an ocean of time,” says Josie Long, who has been doing standup since she was a teenager. “I did a lot of touring and was away for long periods. If I wanted, I could write all night. I slept in all the time.” Now she has two children and has just about managed to carve out three days a week for work.
The comedian’s recent shows have featured material about motherhood, including a beautiful account of the birth of her first daughter. “When I started in comedy,” she says, “I was on the sharp end of a lot of sexist stuff. I was told over and over that women’s bodies are disgusting and women’s experiences are niche. So it was wonderfully liberating to do a story about childbirth.”
