...On wOmEn As sExuAl ObJEcts

the flat, with guests including 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Rose Matafeo, singing comedy sisters Flo & Joan and drag star Grace Shush.

When it became clear that live comedy clubs were in serious trouble as a result of the pandemic, Jayde played a key part in setting up three ambitious nights at the Clapham Grand in London. After signing up Al Murray, she managed to get more than 40 other comics on board, including Fern Brady, Ed Gamble, Aisling Bea, Ed Byrne, Sarah Keyworth, Catherine Bohart, Shappi Khorsandi, Dane Baptiste and Jessica Fostekew.

‘I didn’t realise until I got there that it was going to feel like everyone’s first gig back,’ she recalls. ‘The nerves off stage were amazing. It was like we’d all started again. There was such an adrenaline rush afterwards.’

They raised around £20,000 to help smaller venues, but the #savelivecomedy movement was and is about so much more than that.

‘It was about awareness: to show the government that this is an art form you need to pay for; to show them how much money the industry brings into the country and how screwed it is at the moment,’ says Jayde. ‘The comedy circuit isn’t just comics – there’s a massive family tree, her father uncovered a disappointing secret, that the Adams bloodline has only ever resided in Bristol. Can Jayde Adams stay relevant in an age of multiculturalism, or is it time to wheel out her Chinese half-brother?’

Various aspects of identity interest Jayde. Since being on Crazy Delicious, she has noticed that when she makes a selfdeprecating comment about her weight, lots of well-meaning women contact her to say she shouldn’t speak that way about herself because she’s beautiful.

‘I know!’ she laughs. ‘It’s not about that. I’m a big, bodacious woman with a lot of confidence so when something happens to me that I can’t control, that’s funny. Getting stuck in a chair is funny. Being in an elevator and it telling me it’s overcapacity when I’m the only one in it is funny. But this new wave of body positivity is removing humour from the world because everyone is scared and we’re forgetting to laugh.

‘It’s really sweet that people want to say these things but I find it really condescending. How can you watch me be the way I am and still think I need your help? I’m not vulnerable. We are not victims. All of this comes from women being told the only thing that matters about them is what they look like.’

■ The Funny Women Stage Awards final is streamed live from 7.30pm on Tuesday, and will be available online after

the show, funnywomen.com