MY SPLENDID ISOLATION
DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE aka The Guilty Feminist podcaster
The comedian and author shares the ‘guilty favourites’ helping her laugh her way through lockdown – and the joy of finally learning to dance ‘My husband and I now have more in-jokes than ever’
What I’ve been watching
My guilty favourite: Indoor Boys, a roaringly funny web series about two gay guys who don’t leave their apartment, from the Broadway stars Alex Wyse and Wesley Taylor. My feminist favourites: Run by Vicky Jones is a pacy comedy-drama about a couple on the lam. And This Way Up by Aisling Bea is a hysterical, heartbreaking treatise on loneliness that is ripe for lockdown viewing.
What I’m reading
My guilty favourite: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits.
Smith is a scandalous, Wildean libertine with an Instagram account to match and his book, a guide to life, is a naughty little firecracker. My feminist favourite:
A Thousand Ships. Natalie Haynes is a clever, classy classicist, and her book turns the Trojan War into a feminist masterpiece, shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
What I’m listening to
My guilty favourite: the Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast with Zach Braff and Donald Faison. Their joyful reminiscence on making the sitcom Scrubs gives me mad nostalgia for a simpler time. I have two feminist favourites: first, Grownupland (I’m exec producer but the Lockdown Special, in which Steve Ali’s monologue parallels his experience as a refugee with the global quarantine, made me weep). The hosts, Sophie Duker, Heidi Regan and Ned Sedgwick are comedy geniuses. Also, Talk Art with Russell Tovey and Robert Diament, who’ve introduced me to so many female artists and experts while removing snooty barriers to entry.
A hobby I’ve taken up
Dancing. I have a lesson every day on Zoom with Melissa Bravo – a talented young dancer, teacher, feminist and patient saint. I haven’t done jazz since I was a teenager and now I don’t know why. It’s the visceral definition of joy. I’m also learning “club” and “street” which is absurd, but we laugh a lot and it’s getting me into my body for life (and stand-up) on the other side of all this.
The thing that made me laugh recently
My husband, Tom Salinsky. We’ve never had as many in-jokes as we have in lockdown. As Sex and the City’s Mr Big says: “After a while you just want to be with the one who makes you laugh.” Also: Locked In with Tom Allen on Youtube. That man has funny connective tissue.
What I’m looking forward to doing when this is over
My guilty wish: I’m a feminist but I truly believe after lockdown we’ll come out on to the street and applaud the waxers. My feminist dream: getting back on stage and hearing our Guilty Feminist audience laughing again. I’m going to cry. I might even dance. I’ve got some moves now, after all.
The Guilty Feminist podcast is at guiltyfeminist.com. Deborah Frances-white’s new Instagram Live show, The New Normal, in which she interviews Guilty Feminist regulars about life and feminism in quarantine is on weekdays at 6pm