INTERVIEW
Jenny Eclair
Grumpy Old Women To The Rescue
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
28th and 29th March 2018
Jenny Eclair
Grumpy Old Women To The Rescue
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
28th and 29th March 2018
Comedienne, Jenny Eclair, together with Dillie Keane (Fascinating Aida) and Lizzie Roper (Hollyoaks Ch4, Boy Meets Girl BBC2) will be flying in to Southend’s Palace Theatre with the launch of their brand-new 90 minutes of ‘full-fat’, ‘batteries included’ comedy show, Grumpy Old Women To The Rescue on the 28th and 29th March.
I only have 24 hour's notice that I’m going to be interviewing Jenny and so I deftly head to Wikipedia to do a bit of background research. I already know that Jenny is one of Britain’s top-rated female stand up comics, having toured many times with her one woman shows and that she was the first woman to win the coveted Perrier Award for comedy. I remember her on tv reality shows, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Splash; I also know that she has successfully written some hugely popular books. Yet, of all the fabulous achievements Jenny has accomplished in her career, the first thing that Wiki tells me is that Jenny Eclair is 'best known for being a grumpy old woman' and I cannot help but wonder just how Jenny feels about that. More later.
Fastforward 24 hours and Jenny is on the other end of the phone. She has warmed up some tomato soup in the microwave pre-interview but informs me that she’s "overdone it and it’s boiling hot!”
Jenny reckons that it will have cooled down in the time it takes for me to chat to her about the show, and I hope that this hasn’t made her too grumpy, so I start off by wishing her a belated Happy Birthday (she was fifty eight on the 16th March).
“Oh that’s very kind of you, thank you very much. I went out for dinner which was very nice. I had a slight hangover, which I was a bit cross about because I don’t think I deserved it,” she tells me, rather indignantly, and I sympathise; hangovers seem to be one thing that tend to get worse as you get older. Jenny responds with a laugh, admitting “I’ve had some that I’ve really f***ing worked for, to be quite honest.” Luckily, and coincidentally, dealing with a hangover is one of the many subjects the Grumpy Old Women tackle in the show.
As well as hangover cures, Jenny tells me that the Grumpy Old Women will be coming To The Rescue bringing with them tons of comfort and advice.
“The premise,” Jenny explains, “is that we are all superheroes who have retired to a grumpy paradise island but we’ve been called out for one last job, which is to save the world.” She goes on, “Then we have to decide when we’re going to do it. We look in our diaries and find that actually we’re quite busy.”
“The show is made up of sketches, chatting about all the sorts of things we all get up to from doctors appointments, to internet dating to celebrating a birthday and Christmas.”
Jenny adds, “There’s a section on grandma duty, although none of us have grandchildren, we decided that we’re going to have a look at that. So yeah, it’s all the things that might be in anybody’s diary at any one time.”
Dillie Keane, one of the original Grumpy Old Women is back on this tour, alongside newcomer, Lizzie Roper, and Jenny couldn’t be happier.
“Dillie’s an incredible performer. She has brought her musical talent to the show. She’s sublime, she really is,” Jenny enthuses. She goes on to explain that with Dillie on board they are going to have a musical interlude in the show for the first time on a Grumpy Old Women tour.
Lizzie, according to Jenny, will be bringing lots of voices to the show.
“She’s very good. She does voices, she’s very good on voices and showing off - I just sort of fill in between them,” she says modestly.
Jenny has co-written the show with Grumpy Old Women’s original creator and writer, Judith Holder, with whom Jenny has become firm friends since they first met on the tv series of Grumpy Old Women.
I only have 24 hour's notice that I’m going to be interviewing Jenny and so I deftly head to Wikipedia to do a bit of background research. I already know that Jenny is one of Britain’s top-rated female stand up comics, having toured many times with her one woman shows and that she was the first woman to win the coveted Perrier Award for comedy. I remember her on tv reality shows, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Splash; I also know that she has successfully written some hugely popular books. Yet, of all the fabulous achievements Jenny has accomplished in her career, the first thing that Wiki tells me is that Jenny Eclair is 'best known for being a grumpy old woman' and I cannot help but wonder just how Jenny feels about that. More later.
Fastforward 24 hours and Jenny is on the other end of the phone. She has warmed up some tomato soup in the microwave pre-interview but informs me that she’s "overdone it and it’s boiling hot!”
Jenny reckons that it will have cooled down in the time it takes for me to chat to her about the show, and I hope that this hasn’t made her too grumpy, so I start off by wishing her a belated Happy Birthday (she was fifty eight on the 16th March).
“Oh that’s very kind of you, thank you very much. I went out for dinner which was very nice. I had a slight hangover, which I was a bit cross about because I don’t think I deserved it,” she tells me, rather indignantly, and I sympathise; hangovers seem to be one thing that tend to get worse as you get older. Jenny responds with a laugh, admitting “I’ve had some that I’ve really f***ing worked for, to be quite honest.” Luckily, and coincidentally, dealing with a hangover is one of the many subjects the Grumpy Old Women tackle in the show.
As well as hangover cures, Jenny tells me that the Grumpy Old Women will be coming To The Rescue bringing with them tons of comfort and advice.
“The premise,” Jenny explains, “is that we are all superheroes who have retired to a grumpy paradise island but we’ve been called out for one last job, which is to save the world.” She goes on, “Then we have to decide when we’re going to do it. We look in our diaries and find that actually we’re quite busy.”
“The show is made up of sketches, chatting about all the sorts of things we all get up to from doctors appointments, to internet dating to celebrating a birthday and Christmas.”
Jenny adds, “There’s a section on grandma duty, although none of us have grandchildren, we decided that we’re going to have a look at that. So yeah, it’s all the things that might be in anybody’s diary at any one time.”
Dillie Keane, one of the original Grumpy Old Women is back on this tour, alongside newcomer, Lizzie Roper, and Jenny couldn’t be happier.
“Dillie’s an incredible performer. She has brought her musical talent to the show. She’s sublime, she really is,” Jenny enthuses. She goes on to explain that with Dillie on board they are going to have a musical interlude in the show for the first time on a Grumpy Old Women tour.
Lizzie, according to Jenny, will be bringing lots of voices to the show.
“She’s very good. She does voices, she’s very good on voices and showing off - I just sort of fill in between them,” she says modestly.
Jenny has co-written the show with Grumpy Old Women’s original creator and writer, Judith Holder, with whom Jenny has become firm friends since they first met on the tv series of Grumpy Old Women.
Despite all of the moaning that Grumpy Old Women appear to do, having a sense of humour really seems to be the thing that gets women through the toughest of times. Jenny agrees.
“Women are very much in practice of laughing in the face of adversity. I think that there’s almost a war spirit mentality about it. It’s kind of roll your sleeves up and get on with it and I just think that women do laugh a lot together.”
Jenny continues, “I do think that women do share an incredible amount of stuff. You know, we’re all worrying about our parents, about our kids, about our jobs, even down to the funny noise the car’s making. We are all sharing that kind of stuff.”
Something that a lot of celebs seem to be sharing at the moment is their menopause experiences, some of which sound quite daunting and Jenny explains that HRT has helped her enormously. Also, for anyone who needs any advice surrounding the menopause, the good news is that the Grumpy Old Women have a Menopause Mastermind skit in the show.
As well as great advice, the show is set to be jam packed full of laughter and chat. Never one to shy away from speaking her mind, Jenny admits the she comes from a generation of women, where it is much easier to do so.
“Generations before that, women would be locked up for mentioning fanny’s in public!” she exclaims.
With an audience dynamic of mostly middle aged ladies, I ask Jenny if they get many men coming along to the show.
“Yes,” Jenny exclaims, “And we know that they are either gay or the designated drivers. They are most, most welcome. We’re very thrilled to see the men.”
So back to Wikipedia and that ‘best known for being a grumpy old woman’ entry. Does she mind it or would she rather be best known for something else?
“Well, I don’t mind,” she reveals, “it’s one of the things I’m known for but it’s fairly evenly split between comedy, standup, writing; it’s not just one thing, it’s a few things but I don’t mind that label at all.”
When I ask Jenny where is she most in her comfort zone, the phone line goes quiet for a moment. “That’s a really tricky one,” she confesses. “Hmmm…everywhere and nowhere because I think that nothing is easy until you’ve done it and proved it; and then it becomes easy. There is no such thing as an instant comfort zone, the comfort zone has to be earned.”
She always seems to me to be completely comfortable and at ease when she’s up on stage.
“Oh yeah…but there are no guarantees. There’s always a process of working it in. So it only becomes easy when you’ve done it. And there is nothing like a live audience to tell you where the laughs really are.”
For an evening of guaranteed laughter with the superhero Grumpy Old Women next week at Southend’s Palace Theatre you can grab your tickets online at www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
www.grumpyoldwomenlive.com
“Women are very much in practice of laughing in the face of adversity. I think that there’s almost a war spirit mentality about it. It’s kind of roll your sleeves up and get on with it and I just think that women do laugh a lot together.”
Jenny continues, “I do think that women do share an incredible amount of stuff. You know, we’re all worrying about our parents, about our kids, about our jobs, even down to the funny noise the car’s making. We are all sharing that kind of stuff.”
Something that a lot of celebs seem to be sharing at the moment is their menopause experiences, some of which sound quite daunting and Jenny explains that HRT has helped her enormously. Also, for anyone who needs any advice surrounding the menopause, the good news is that the Grumpy Old Women have a Menopause Mastermind skit in the show.
As well as great advice, the show is set to be jam packed full of laughter and chat. Never one to shy away from speaking her mind, Jenny admits the she comes from a generation of women, where it is much easier to do so.
“Generations before that, women would be locked up for mentioning fanny’s in public!” she exclaims.
With an audience dynamic of mostly middle aged ladies, I ask Jenny if they get many men coming along to the show.
“Yes,” Jenny exclaims, “And we know that they are either gay or the designated drivers. They are most, most welcome. We’re very thrilled to see the men.”
So back to Wikipedia and that ‘best known for being a grumpy old woman’ entry. Does she mind it or would she rather be best known for something else?
“Well, I don’t mind,” she reveals, “it’s one of the things I’m known for but it’s fairly evenly split between comedy, standup, writing; it’s not just one thing, it’s a few things but I don’t mind that label at all.”
When I ask Jenny where is she most in her comfort zone, the phone line goes quiet for a moment. “That’s a really tricky one,” she confesses. “Hmmm…everywhere and nowhere because I think that nothing is easy until you’ve done it and proved it; and then it becomes easy. There is no such thing as an instant comfort zone, the comfort zone has to be earned.”
She always seems to me to be completely comfortable and at ease when she’s up on stage.
“Oh yeah…but there are no guarantees. There’s always a process of working it in. So it only becomes easy when you’ve done it. And there is nothing like a live audience to tell you where the laughs really are.”
For an evening of guaranteed laughter with the superhero Grumpy Old Women next week at Southend’s Palace Theatre you can grab your tickets online at www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
www.grumpyoldwomenlive.com