Interview: Canadian comedian Mae Martin
The comic discusses labels, Berlin and trying to look as cool as Jack Kerouac
Having won over Fringe crowds for the last two years running with her perfectly pitched combination of wit and angst, Canadian comedian Mae Martin returns to Scotland to try out some new material on the locals. 'I'm talking, broadly, about labels and why we feel the need to oversimplify things,' she says. 'It's a work-in-progress show, so that means I can have fun and improvise. No two shows will be the same. I promise it will be funny, though.'
The List is confident it will be. The gamine stand-up's torrent of self-excoriating neurosis is hard to resist, and unsurprisingly, Martin's been busy since she was last strangling a mic in Scotland. 'I've been doing lots of things,' she says. 'Russell Howard's Good News, the odd panel show, a live album, and I had a great time last fall opening for Nina Conti on tour. On top of that, I'm trying to learn to cook.'
And she's just back from Berlin. 'I love Berlin!' Martin shouts. 'I defy you not to feel young and alive in that city. The tube is open so late! I ate schnitzel, currywurst, and went to a war museum and a gay bar. Two very different vibes.'
On thing is bothering this writer: is Martin still plagued by her strange, self-confessed inability to look as cool as Jack Kerouac? 'Yes,' Martin says. 'It's a constant worry. I can't tell you how much money I waste on plaid shirts, whisky that I hate the taste of, and Moleskine notebooks that I never write in.'
Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow, Sat 29 Mar.