‘When everyone is in on the joke, then it’s really freeing and fun’

Katherine Ryan will be cheerfully trading insults on panel show Roast Battle, she tells Gemma Dunn

Stilettos, sequins, wigs and... Botox. Katherine Ryan is leaving no stone unturned ahead of her new tour. And she doesn’t care who knows it.

“You’ve got to give a little showbiz!” she insists when I speak to her ahead of her opening night. “People come out to the theatre in the West End, so I’m not exactly going to rock up with my hair scraped back and jeans. Can you imagine?

“I think that would be really rude. I might be a very nasty woman, but I’ve got manners!”

The aptly named Glitter Room – her first tour since the critically acclaimed Kathbum – will see the Canadian comic take to London’s Garrick Theatre for a 24-night residency.

It’s a big deal for Ryan,

35, who is as decidedly glamorous as she is funny. But Botox and comedy entwined, she warns, calls for a “delicate balance”.

“You gotta be careful out there,” she quips. “You need some honest people in your life – and a really good doctor.

“And you need to be able to move your face, especially in my job,” she adds, “but I’m just very transparent about these things. Why would I pretend that my hair is my own when I know it’s extensions? Why would I pretend that I don’t get Botox when I do? I think like, ‘Whatever, I don’t care’.”

It’s this honesty that’s got Ryan – a former Hooters worker – where she is today.

In the decade since she moved to the UK (the star initially travelled to London with her daughter Violet and now ex-partner, whose infidelity inspired her 2014 show), she’s carved out a career as a panel show regular and headliner at Live At The Apollo and has fronted sellout gigs.

She even became the first and only British and Canadian woman with a Netflix special to her name with In Trouble.

Now, on the cusp of her next glittering foray, she’s reflecting on her beginnings – namely her love for stand-up.

“You wouldn’t have the chops to do television, as a comedian, if you weren’t also touring and doing stand-up,”

0 Katherine Ryan is a judge on Roast Battle

she says. “That’s the gym!”

Much of Ryan’s appeal – like many good comedians – is she doesn’t mind being at the expense of the joke.

With such candour, it’s little wonder Ryan makes such a brilliant judge on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle.

Returning for a second series, the show – based on the US smash hit, Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle – will once again see a mixture of top comedians and new faces going head to head in an attempt to ‘take down’ their opponent.

While host Jimmy Carr makes his welcome return, Ryan will be joined by a new face on the judging panel, in the form of Jonathan Ross.

“It’s such a perfect gig for Jonathan Ross because he’s really respected by all the comedians,” Ryan reasons. “They all want to sit on the couch and be on The Jonathan Ross Show one day and they’ve grown up watching him.

“And he’s really funny,” she says. “I think we forget, because he’s Mr Late Night, that he can be really edgy and really cutting as well.”

Roast Battle is about the demonstration of consent, she states: “It would be horrible to say those things

unsolicited to someone on the street, out of context. But when everyone is in on the joke and everyone is consenting, then it’s really freeing and fun.”

No stranger to a battle herself, how would she fare in competition with Carr and Ross?

“I would lose [against Jimmy]” she confesses of her 8 Out Of 10 Cats and Your Face Or Mine co-star.

“I love and respect him above all others. He’s so hard working, so talented, but difficult to roast because what can you say? He self-roasts a lot. He’ll say it first and he’ll say it better.”

As for her fellow judge? “I think I could beat Jonathan, simply because he is a gentlemen, he has daughters and he’s very sensitive.

“He wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings, but he’d be a fool to think that way because I don’t have any feelings and I’d destroy him,” she says with an evil laugh.

Next, Ryan will join Carr for new Netflix panel show, The Fix.

The dream would be to try her hand at scripted comedy, she reveals.

“That would be a challenge – like a sitcom – because I’ve never done that before.”

But that’s not all. “And one day maybe I’ll become a gymnast as well,” Ryan says, chuckling. “Who studies? I’ll just show up one day.”

“You wouldn’t have the chops to do television, as a comedian, if you weren’t also touring and doing stand-up”

● Roast Battle returns to Comedy Central tonight