SUZI RUFFELL
THE COMEDIAN, 34, TELLS TOM WIGGINS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF STAND-UP AND HAVING A ROBOT HELPER
How has tech changed being a comedian since you started?
I hate people recording gigs with their phones. That’s happening more. Quite often you’re working up stuff and making it good enough to put on telly so the last thing you want is someone putting it on YouTube before you’ve even worked the punchline. So that’s annoying but I’ve got a live transcription app on my phone for recording improvised stuff that could become part of the material but I might forget. That’s particularly useful when you’re dyslexic.
What tech do you use on the road?
I use Waze to get to gigs so
I think I’d be lost without my phone but I’ll also take my laptop, which has got all my warm-up music on it. Sometimes if you leave it up to the theatre staff they will put on Adele, who I love, but it’s the last thing you want to listen to before trying to make 300 people laugh.
Have you done online gigs?
Initially, I thought the idea was dreadful but people found ways of making it work, such as having a front row you can see. That’s quite fun. If you’d told me a year ago I’d be doing gigs online and talking to people in the audience about their soft furnishings, I’d have assumed I was going to have some sort of breakdown.
Are they here to stay?
I think so. There are people who really like stand-up but never felt like they could go – people who are housebound, the elderly, carers or those who just don’t like being in a room with loads of people. It’s different but we’re finding ways to make it brilliant in its own way.
What tech do you remember having growing up?
We had a SNES. I’ve actually still got it. If you blow on the Scart lead for long enough it’ll work.
If you could invent any gadget, what would it do?
A robot that could change a duvet. There was a Simpsons episode where they moved to a town that had robots to do everything so Marge starts drinking really early because the oven cleans itself and the floor gets hoovered. I assumed that’s what would be happening by now.
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