Harriet Kemsley: ‘I had spelt cellulite right but island wrong – and I was 11’
Fresh from a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, stand-up comedian Harriet Kemsley is bringing her new, critically-acclaimed show Honeysuckle Island to Cambridge this week.
Tired of being told how to look and behave since she was a teenager, Harriet is taking a long, hard squint at the beauty industry through her two remaining false eyelashes.
Harriet, who is married to fellow comedian Bobby Mair, channels her personal experiences into this new piece, sharing anecdotes and jokes on the vicious cycle of beauty enhancement.
Speaking to the Cambridge Independent from a branch of the restaurant chain Leon in Oxford Circus, having just done a voiceover nearby, Harriet recalls working with Bobby, with whom she had a baby at the end of 2021, in an appearance on TV’s Comedy Central at the Comedy Store.
“It was weird doing that because we’d worked together but to be on stage... like stand-up is such an individual thing,” she observes, “and to be together on stage at first felt really jarring. But actually it was fun because when we were making jokes about each other, you could see the genuine pain on the other person’s face – so it was really terrible!”
Do the pair often discuss their individual acts with each other? “Yeah, we do,” says Harriet, whose other television work includes Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Roast Battle, and a series with her husband titled Bobby & Harriet Get Married.
“We always try and do a joke on stage first. That was some advice that I heard from Jerry Seinfeld, how you should never tell a joke to anybody – you should do it on stage first, otherwise you’ll lose complete faith in the joke.
“And so we say it on stage and then sometimes the other one might think of a tag for it, or be like, ‘Oh, the phrasing of it doesn’t quite work, if you phrase it like this it will help’. So it’s very useful to have a sounding board to each other when we know each other’s voices so well.”
Explaining the meaning behind the name of her new show, Harriet says: “It’s called Honeysuckle Island because it’s based on this dream travel destination I created when I was 11, and on it I’d put zip lines and monkeys and waterfalls – everything you’d want for your dream island as a pre-teen.”
The comedian and actress adds that when she looked at it recently, she saw she’d drawn a cellulite machine in the corner and notes that it’s strange that at that age she was aware of that – “and I’d spelt cellulite right and island wrong!Something about these priorities is off... and so the show is now that I’ve had a baby daughter.
“It’s looking back at that and thinking how things haven’t changed since I was a child and what life is going to be like for her growing up and the pressures she’s going to face – kind of teaching her to do what she wants to do but just be aware of the noise. But it’s a very silly show, kind of making fun of it all.”
So did Harriet really feel under pressure to be beautiful growing up? “Yes, very much,” she says. “I talk in the show about being hairy, having really bad eczema over my body – and also being dyspraxic and awkward and how it wasn’t necessarily naturally sexy!”
Harriet began her stand-up career in 2011 and within months won the Funny’s Funny contest. Her other accolades include being a Leicester Mercury New Act of the Year finalist, the Up the Creek New Act of the Year, and a Leicester Square New Act of the Year finalist.
She last appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018 with her sell-out show Slutty Joan, which went on to tour nationwide, and she also hosts a podcast Why Is Harriet Crying? with fellow comedian Sunil Patel.
[Read more: Comedian Bobby Mair: ‘The show’s called Cockroach, but it’s not harrowing....’, Former BBC New Comedy Awards finalist Helen Bauer’s new show looks at self-esteem]
As an actress, Harriet has appeared in both film and TV, including the film Bonobo and on Channel 4’s Damned and the BBC’s Doctor Foster. She also provided the voice of Nashandra, the final boss of the video game Dark Souls II.
Encouraging people in Cambridge to come out and see Honeysuckle Island, she concludes: “I think it’s just a very fun, silly show that talks about things that are hopefully relevant to our times, but in a fun way.”
Harriet Kemsley will be appearing at the Junction’s J3 on Saturday, October 22. For tickets, priced £15.50 (£13.50 concessions), visit junction.co.uk. For more on Harriet, go to facebook.com/harrietkemsleycomedy.
