Since winning the Gilded Balloon So You Think You’re Funny award for new acts at Edinburgh in 2012 – joining a highly illustrious list of such past victors as Dylan Moran, David O’Doherty and Peter Kay – 30-year-old Irish comic Aisling Bea has gone from strength to strength.
Her live shows continue to win widespread acclaim, and she has made appearances on TV shows such as Russell Howard’s Good News Extra, Trollied and Dead Boss. Indeed, Bea’s all-round talents have led to her describing herself as an “actor, stand-up, writer and avocado enthusiast.” Asked by Hot Press to place those in order of priority, the comic replies that, “I do the first three only to afford a lifestyle that buys me avocados if and when I want.”
Though she may insist that her stand-up career exists mainly to subsidise her fruit intake, Bea has won admiring notices from many of her peers, including Canadian comic Katherine Ryan. Speaking to Hot Press recently, Ryan was full of praise for Bea, as well as Sarah Millican and Sara Pascoe. However, Aisling is reluctant to riff on the familiar old subject of “women in comedy”.
“It also has some brothers in it,” she shrugs. “You could almost call it a 'community' of “people”. You know women are half the population now? We’re not some unicorns that just walked out onto the racetrack. You can mention three in a sentence without it being a gender issue.”
Ryan also discussed the way in which doing TV affects her stand up. How does Aisling find the switch between sitcoms and panel shows and live performance?
“On panel shows you’ve got to have a big bunch of thoughts, jokes and angles on everything that comes up,” she muses. “You don’t know what bit might make the edit. We record those 20-minute shows for up to three hours. You don’t get to riff for ages on a subject, which you get to do on stage, but I like doing panel shows the most when you knock an idea into the air, then someone else picks it up and passes it back.
“That’s the best. It’s the worst if you’re left like a lemon and no one wants to play ball with you or you they won’t let you have a go of the ball.”
Looking ahead to her Electric Picnic appearance, Aisling notes that there are substantial differences between regular gigs and festival slots.
“Comedy at festivals is best if a) you play an instrument b) people are tired and want to sit and listen and/or c) it is raining and people are forced to sit and listen. I personally enjoy rain. I am excited about Electric Picnic though as most of my mother’s family are from Laois, so I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the Mountrath/Abbeyleix massive.”
Has Bea had any hairy experiences and/or rock ’n’ roll encounters at festivals?
“At Latitude one year I got bitten by a horsefly,” she recalls. “Myself and Sara Pascoe went for a 2am wee behind a tree and my leg swelled up to twice the size, so that I couldn’t take my leather trousers off for 24 hours.  That’s just unhygienic rather than rock ’n’ roll.”
Does your material change much when you perform for Irish audiences, compared to UK ones?
“Home is talking to family, away is talking to friends, so the angle and tone can definitely change,” Aisling explains. “I’ve learned that the hard way when certain bits seemed odd to do at home. I started stand-up in the UK so my perspective has always been as an immigrant and foreigner in some way. I have to go through bits in my head to edit them before I gig in Ireland.”
Though now based in London, Bea says her time away from home has given her an intriguing perspective on Irish society.
“It’s been an interesting eight years living away,” she reflects. “I was so sad and angry about the way the economy went, the drain of young people from the country, what it did to the elderly community and the country they had worked to make. But in the last two years I’ve just loved how the country has stepped up culturally: comedy, plays, cafés, restaurants, festivals etc. I also think that Ireland is 88% better at community and charity than the rest of the world.”
Asked about her favourite comedians on the scene at the moment, Aisling gives a doff of the cap to the aforementioned Katherine Ryan.
“In the last year Katherine has honestly become so good, it breaks my heart,” she enthuses. “I also love Romesh Ranganathan, Eleanor Tiernan, Dylan Moran, Celia Pacquola and David O’Doherty. And Bridget Christie regularly brings me to tears with laughter.”
Though she may be hesitant to tackle the issue of female performers in comedy, Bea is enthusiastic about the potential for Irish women to succeed in stand-up.  
“I personally think culturally Irish women are the funniest in the world,” she states. “So if Ireland is not nurturing that, pack up your tools and emigrate like the carpenters and electricians, ladies.”
Finally, what can we expect from Aisling’s current show?
“My show last year was my first full show and I didn’t do Edinburgh this year,” she responds. “So I won’t have another new full hour worked on until the new year, but from my shorter gigs you can expect a horse on a racetrack trying to be a unicorn.”

Aisling Bea plays Electric Picnic on the Sunday.