SUSIE McCabe is trying to be positive.
After nearly two years of Covid lockdowns followed by a cost of living crisis, the Scottish comedian has promised her audiences they’ll leave her new show “feeling great and full of hope”.
Born Believer kicks off its Fringe debut on Wednesday at Edinburgh’s Assembly George Square Studios.
Although she is known by many for her independence campaigning – she recently made headlines for her Question Time appearance – she says this show is taking a step back from politics.
“I wrote the show about turning 40 and the changes that happen to you when you’re a woman,” she told The National.
“And I talk about growing up and trying to be a better person now I am a bit older.”
Despite hitting on serious topics that will see her talk about her parents health issues and the Covid pandemic, McCabe still promises an uplifting show.
She said: “I flip it into being a more positive person … and when I do talk about trying to be a positive person, it ultimately goes back to me saying ‘f**k’s sake’ with sheer frustration at my parents, my partner and my mates.”
The comic said overall though it’s a “really funny and daft show”.
She said: “I am generally the butt of the joke with a bit of social observation thrown in.
“It’s light relief for an hour because you’re getting to laugh at someone else’s life and forget about your own.
“I don’t do politics at all in it. I just talk about my life.”
McCabe said that audiences had changed a bit following two years of Covid lockdowns and now a cost of living crisis. She said audiences were less likely to heckle.
She said: “People don’t seem to get as smashed. They seem to sit there and watch it and be a part of it and enjoy the experience because it was taken away from us for so long.
"I’m a great believer that when there’s a cost of living crisis invariably if people come see your show, even outside the Fringe, you’re the cheapest part of the night.
“Because maybe they’ve got a babysitter, they got taxis, maybe they went for dinner and bought a new shirt or a dress.
“That might be their big night out for that week, or that month or that six months, that’s their big night out because they don’t have the same money.
“You need to make sure you give them a nice time and if you as a comedian create a nice atmosphere in that room and people want to listen to you and you’ll negate hecklers or somebody will go, ‘hawl, you. Shut up’.”
For McCabe, making people's nights is the best part about being a comedian.
She said: “There’s nothing better than hearing someone walk out when you’re backstage and they’re like ‘See that bit? What about that bit?
“That’s when you know it resonates with people. They say ‘That’s exactly my mum, that’s exactly you’. That’s great.
“And when you see people leaving with a smile on their face that’s the best job in the world.”
McCabe will be performing her show Born Believer at the Fringe throughout August. Tickets can be found at here
