Never Assume!

It’s Friday July 29th 2022. It’s Hot. There’s Been A Heatwave Recently. But People Are Still Gatherin’ Indoors At At Local Cafe For A Night of Live Comedy. And Happily TheOrator.Press ‘Comedy & Jest’ Page Have Been Granted An Interview The Very Charismatic Jen Nolan, A Young, Up & Comin’, African-Irish Comedian.

She’s About To Take Part In A Monthly Comedy Event ‘The Palace Panel  Show.’ Held At The Paxton Cafe Crystal Palace, Since October 2021 And This Is Jen’s First Time Appearin’ On The Live Panel Show.

It’s A Live Discussion Show Featurin’ A Panel of Comedians Reviewin’ Recent News Stories And Commentin’ On Current Affairs. The Panel Show Host Provides The Subjects For Them To Get Their Laughin’ Gear Around As They Offer Up Their Own Bespoke Humourus Take On Things.

Jen’s Comedy Style Is Observational, Satrical, Political, And Strong And Surreal.

She’s Affable, Beautiful And Confident. She Has Stunnin’ Green Eyes, Blonde Hair Extensions, And The Radiation of A Low Key Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Tom Boy, Vibe Goin’ On. Plus There’s A Tendancy To Look At Little Cute And Coy When Given A Compliment.  [She Laughs It Off As We Put That To Her.]

She’s Just 28,  And Today Is Dressed In A Black T-Shirt, Jeans Shorts, And Black Chunky Boots. On Her Instagram @Itsjenthenolan She Makes No Bones About The Fact That She Loves Her Food And She Embraces Body Positivity. Her Friendliness, Warmth, And Naturally Funny Disposition Mean It’s All Good. Her Look And Her Style Are Workin’. In Fact Her Look Is Something She Is Constantly Changin’. Her Dress Sense Is Eclectic, Versatile And Chilled. She Can Go From Sexy Chic, To Chilled Tourist To Tomboy In A Hearbeat.

In Fact Her Own Physical Appearance Has Afforded Her Some Incredible Insights From A Unique Vantage Point. It Means She Gets To Know Unexpectedly Exactly What Some People Are Thinkin’When They Reveal Things Truthfully Yet Unwittingly. Notwithstandin’ She Is Mixed Race, By Virtue of The Fact Her Mother Is Irish And Her Father Is Nigerian, Her Natural Skin Tone, Eye Colour, And Hair Texture Means She Appears To Be Caucasion. And Because of That She Is Privy To Alot of People Unwittingly Espousin’ Their Racist Opinons Openly And Freely – Mistakenly Expectin’ That She’s Goin To Agree.

Make No Mistake About It. This Funny Lady Is Takin’ No Prisoners. She’s Serious About Her Career, She’s Serious About Satire And She’s Glad To Observe The Beginning of the End of ‘The One In One Out’ Culture (Where Due To Racism And Tokenism Only One Black Person At A Time Was Allowed In By Gatekeepers. Includin’ On The Comedy Scene).

Startin’ Out As The New Kid In Comedy

TO.P:   So Please Tell Me How You Got Into Comedy

JN:        I Was Originally Doin’ Actin’, But The Course I Was Meant To Do Got Cancelled Because It Was Meant To Start The Day of The Lockdown. But When The Group Re-opened They Were Not Offerin’ That Anymore, They Were Only Offerin’ The Stand Up Comedy. And I’ve Always Been Told That I’m Funny So I Went For It And Took It From There.

TO.P:  So You’re Relatively New At This?

JN:  Yeah. I Started In September [2021]

TO.P:  That’s Amazin’!  So How Did You Hear About This Comedy Gig Tonight?

JN:  Well There’s A Group On Facebook For Comedians Where People Post Gigs And Stephen Said They Needed Somebody Extra, And I Just Put My Word In, Showed Him My Material And He Really Liked It And Said Come On Down And Get Involved, Because My Stuff Can Be Quite Political And That’s Sort of What They’re Goin’ For As Well So It Was A Good Fit I Think.

TO.P:  Wow! Well Done! So What Have You Got Comin’ Up In The Future?

JN: Next Week I’ve Got Two Gigs. One of Them Is With 7pm Comedy.  And The Other One Is With Comedy Bandits. Yeah I’m Just Basically Applyin’ For As Many Gigs As I Can. I’m Doin’ A Doin’ An Event On The 17^th With My Friend At The Dona, Stoke Newington,  Which Is Goin’ To Be A Night of Music, Drag Kings And Comedy. It’s Like A Mezcal Bar/Events Bar.

The Tories, Gather-Gate, Party-Gate And Mick Lynch For Prime Minister

TO.P:     So How Are You This Evenin’ Jen?

JN:          I’m Good. I’m A Bit Nervous Because I’ve Never Done This Night Before But I’m Excited To Make Some Good Jokes About The Tories.

TO.P:    And What Do You Think of The Tory Debates Goin’ On Right Now (Without Wishin’ To Hijack Your Routine)?

JN:       I Think They Are All A Bunch of Vultures. I Think They Are Like School Children That Are Tryin’ To Fight To Be Head Boy. I Think They Don’t Care About Workin’ Class People. They’ve Got None of Our Interests At Heart. And To Be Honest I Think They’re All Parasites.

TO.P:   What Did You Make of Gather-Gate or Party-Gate? We Call It Gather-Gate In The Magazine Because We Were Just Not Allowed To Gather, Whereas When People Get Into The Symantics About Whether or Not It Was A Party, I Can’t Stand It. It’s Like Forget That.  We Just Weren’t Allowed To Gather.

JN: I Know. Was It A Work Event? Was It Not A Work Event? I Think It Was Just Abhorrent Because I Would of Loved To Be Havin’ Some Cheese And Wine With Me Old Nan In A Nursin’ Home. And I Couldn’t Even Go Outside Her Window Because We Had That Allocated Time. And I Think A lot of People Died Not Just From Covid But Because The NHS Was So Overwhelmed And People Died By Themselves. And I Think It’s Absolutely A National Shame That They Tried To Pass The Blame On And Say It Was A Work Event, As You Say It Was No Gatherin’ Allowed, Cheese And Wine or Not.

TO.P:  So If You Had Your Way Who Would Be The Next Prime Minister?

JN: At The Moment I Think Mick Lynch. I Don’t Agree With His View On Brexit But I Think At The Moment He’s The Only Person Who’s Got The Interests of The People At Heart. Workin’ People. And He Understands That We All Need A Basic Income. We All Need A Roof Over Our Heads. But He’s Not Runnin’.

Comedy Through The Ages

TO.P:   And How Have You Found The Comedy Scene Generally. The Boys. And The Girls? The Older Ones And The Younger Ones On The Circuit?

JN:       I’ve Found It’s Very Male Dominated And  Generally Very White Male Dominated. But I Have Found I’ve Been Seein’ A lot More Black & Brown Folks And People Who Are Diverse In Terms of Skin Colour. [She Mentions The Joker Comedy Club In Earls Court As An Example].

JN: But I Feel There’s Not Enough Female Representation. Everybody’s Still Very Friendly And I’m Funnier Than The Boys Anyway So It’s Fine [She Says Laughin’].

TO.P:   And What About The Older Comedians And The New Kids On The Block. E.g. Lenny Henry’s Generation, Angie Le Mar, Curtis Walker And Those Guys. Are You Mixin’ With Them or Just The Younger Guys, As You’re Obviously Very Young?

JN: I Met One Older Comedian, Jeff Innocent. He’s A White Guy, He’s From Newham, But He’s Very Very Radical And Amazin’  And Totally On The Right Side of The Revolution.  And Generally When I’ve Met Any Of The Older People They’ve Been Super Nurturin And Quite Happy To Mentor. If You Show That You’re Serious And Interested They Are Pretty Happy To Help And Support. So Yeah, It’s Really Nice.

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Funny Bones. Doctor’s Orders!

TO.P:              Recently There Was A Medical Report That Doctors Are Recommendin’ That People Go And See Some Live Comedy To Make Themselves Feel Better. And In Fact I Have Interviewed A Comedian Who Built Up His Comedy Practice Because He Was Blue, At One Stage, Years Ago, And Just Went To See Comedy And He Got Totally Into It. And That Was Years Ago That He Did That, But Not It’s Official. What Do You Make of That?

JN:                  I Think That Is Absolutely Brilliant Because I Think Not Only Is Just Generally Good For Your Soul To Laugh, Especially With The Way The World Is At The Moment, I Think It’s Also Good For People To Hear Different Points of View As Well Because We Can Live In Echo Chambers Sometimes. And I Think Comedy Is Supposed To Make You Laugh And It Is Supposed To Make You Think, And It’s Great For Meetin’ People And Generally Getting’ Up And Out The House After Bein’ Locked Up For So Long. So I Think That’s A Great Tonic For This Generation. Yeah.

TO.P:                     Who Makes You Laugh?

JN:                          My Mum. She Was Really My Inspiration For Getting’ Into Comedy Because She’s Really Funny. Jeff Innocent Is Great On The Circuit. Definitely Recommend Checkin’ Him Out. Aurie Styler As Well. Mo The Comedian.  And Another Guy I Saw The Other Night At Top Secret Comedy Club But I Can’t Remember His Name.

TO.P:                     Did You Watch Mo’s Series Just Recently?

JN:                          Yeah I Did, Yeah.

TO.P:                     What Did You Make of It?

JN:                          I Thought It Was Great. I Think He’s Got A Real Knack For Getting’ The Best Out of People,  When He’s Interactin’ With Them. And It’s Just Nice To See Somebody of A Workin’ Class, Black Background, Actually On TV And Bein’ Represented It Was Really Really Great.

TO.P:                     I Went To The Palladium Last November, Around The Time You Were Startin’ Out, To See Slim The Comedian, The First Black Man To Headline His Own Comedy Show In This Famous, Legendary, West End Royal Theatre, And He’s Under The Same Management As Mo Now (And I Interviewed His Management), And They Said They Are Endeavourin’ To Change The “One In, One Out” Policy When It Comes To Black Comics, Which Was A Real Thing, Have You Experienced The “One In, One Out” Policy Where They Say “We’ve Already Got A Black Comedian, So There Can’t Be Another One” Type of Thing?

JN:                          I Think Promoters Are Really Tryin’ To Change. They Are Askin’ For More Black And Brown Folks. More Non-Binary People. More Females. I Think A lot Are Tryin’ To Diversify The Line Ups A lot More. I Think Comedy Since The End of The 80s Has Been About Flippin’ The Script. It’s Been For The People Who Have Been Marginalised And Stuff Like That. And I Think In Terms of Eddie Murphy Comedy Helped Him Find His Voice And Get His Voice Across And Get To Where He Is Now. Comedy’s Always Meant To Be For That Revolutionary Spirit Type-Thing, And I Do Think Promoters Are Makin’ An Effort But Still More Needs To Be Done.

TO.P:                     Is There Anything  You Would Like To Say or Add Yourself?

JN:                          Just That It’s Been A Pleasure Talkin’ To You. What You’re Doin’ Is Fantastic. And I’m Glad To Be Involved.

TO.P:                     Ahh! Thank You. Enjoy Tonight!

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