Epic. I’m so proud of her. Promising Young Woman has absolutely blown up and I’m desperate to see what she does next. She’s very bold. And such a lovely person, not that she necessarily has to be. But she is. Like Eugene Levy’s masterfully crafted character Dr Allan Pearl, I also suddenly felt like I had “found my people”. A local dentist, in the film Dr Pearl has just discovered amateur dramatics, and I had just discovered the world of professional comedy. There’s a scene in Waiting for Guffman where Dr Pearl has just had his first rehearsal for the production and he reflects to the camera, quivering with emotion: “I’m … I’m walking on air. You know, this is a sensation which is … forget it. When I became a dentist I thought I was happy, but this … ” I. Felt. So. Seen. To me, discovering the comedy community – where people were permitted to say on stage the things that were weird/different about them and be applauded for it, the complete inverse of the high school experience – was a similarly emotional revelation. That kid in the Spice Girls music video for Viva Forever

Can Everyone Please Calm Down? by Mae Martin | Waterstones

David Friend, "Tom Green, Andrew Phung vie to be ‘last one laughing’ on Canadian reality competition". Toronto Star, January 12, 2022.

This is very much an aside, but Charlotte: do you recall very much your time as an uncredited extra on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

Mae Martin’s queer love story Feel Good season two review – Mae Martin’s queer love story

CR: A fit little squirrel, thank you for that. It’s funny, it’s only when you asked me just then, but when I heard them in the script, I really think Mae’s talking about George – I don’t associate them with myself. Obviously that doesn’t make that much sense, but when I hear ‘fit squirrel’, I’m like that’s so sweet, George is a fit squirrel – but now I’m like, that’s what you and Joe think of me. They’re good with words, these guys! Good with words. It’s a work of fiction. But it’s got an emotional truth’: Mae Martin and Charlotte Ritchie in Feel Good. Photograph: Channel 4 That’s the thing – a lot of the chat around Feel Good leans towards the heavier side of it, but it’s really funny.Last week, Martin discovered how popular Feel Good is when visiting Trans Pride in London. “It felt amazing. People were being so nice. They were just coming up and talking to me.” Has Martin ever experienced this in the past? “Yes. I guess before Feel Good it was once a week-ish, and now it’s a couple of times a day.” After one show, a girl approached Martin with her father, before turning to him and saying, ‘Dad, I’m bisexual.’ “And do you know what he replied? ‘Me too.’” How did that feel? “It was cool! But I’m not a licensed family therapist, so it was also quite scary. Especially because then they wanted to go out to a club. I was like, ‘I’m gonna pass.’ With the next show, Dope, I saw a lot of addicts or people who have family members struggling with addictions. That was pretty wild. But I love it all.” a b Wiseman, Eva (15 March 2020). "Mae Martin: 'It's enriching to share things you're ashamed of' ". The Observer . Retrieved 5 July 2021. There’s been increasing attention recently to on-set behaviour towards women. Have you had disquieting experiences? In another sketch Martin mentions that the only thing young Mae asked for at Christmas was the right to turn up at the extended family dinner naked. Well actually, Martin says, the reality was somewhat different. “I loved to be naked. I was naked a lot as a kid – it wasn’t just Christmas. That was a joke.” Now I can see why Martin is so reluctant to be asked about the truth of their comedy. Personal comedy is a retelling of reality with bells on. To literalise it is to suffocate it.