Whether you’re into comedy or not, a night (or more) at the Les Gets Comédie festival is a fabulous accompaniment to your winter holiday. During January each year we’ve been entertained by a long list of British and French comedians, from Tom Houghton to Maisie Adam and many more in between. The cream of the French comedy crop take to the stage between Saturday 25th and Thursday 30th January 2025, with local funny man Gaëtan Roos performing on 25th. Friday 30th is a night dedicated to English language comedians including Jake Lambert, Zoe Lyons and Lou Sanders alongside (my personal favourite) Maisie Adam headlining once again.
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TO SEE MAISIE ADAM AT THE LES GETS COMEDY FESTIVAL HERE
You’ve surely seen Maisie on TV in recent times. She hails from Harrogate, North Yorkshire and as well as being hilariously funny, she’s also known for her unique hairstyle; it looks like your regular fringed bob from the front but is almost entirely shaved at the back. She’s a regular on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week, QI, Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie To You? and The Last Leg. She’s also in the middle of a huge 73-date UK and European tour when we speak.
Maisie, when you’re writing new material, how do you know if it’s funny or not?
“That’s such a great question because it’s one that I’m still working out. It’s very much trial and error; so many people think we just rock up and say funny things as soon as they come into our heads. We do a lot of ‘work in progress’ nights, where you’re allowed to go on stage with a pen and paper and work it out as you go along. And they’re really fun because nine times out of ten, the audience know that’s what they’re showing up for, they’ve paid a pittance to come in on the proviso that not everything they hear will be polished and funny. Also, you’d be so surprised, I’ve written jokes before that I’ve thought, honestly Mais, that’s a banger, take the rest of the day off. And then you go and say it on stage and it gets a little titter. Then similarly, on the other hand, you can say something in the spur of the moment and it gets such a laugh and you think god, all that stuff I’ve written, it got a little titter and I’ve just said this out of the blue and it got a huge laugh. So, it’s a lot of trial and error but also – and this is something that I learned from appearing on Mock the Week, if you just stay up to date with the news and try and write a couple of bits every day, basically taking the piss and making light of whats’ going on in the world, that will keep you match fit. Not to compare what we do to athletics.”
How did you find the Les Gets crowd last year? There was quite a lot of heckling, is that normal these days?
“It’s really not normal and we were all surprised by the heckling as well. In the UK, hecklers are really not that common. It’s a question I get asked the most when I do interviews, or if I get chatting to somebody. How do I deal with heckles? I always find myself going, ‘you’d really be surprised by how little that happens’. Then you go to Les Gets and you’re like… no, it actually does happen. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline after being on the slopes all day, people just feel a bit more vocal. Or they’ve been down at the Apres Ski bar, they’ve been on the jager bombs, but yeah, they’d definitely had 50p put in them. I wonder as well if it’s the excitement that we’re there. If you’re at a comedy club in the UK, it’s on a lot of people’s door step. They can come any time. I mean, Les Gets is fantastic but I don’t think it has comedy all year round, so some people in the crowd get a little bit like excited, there’s school children vibes in the audience – you’re here!”
If you weren’t a comedian, what job would you of?
“Oh, that’s tricky because my GCSE results were not good. I used to want to be a sports journalist, I wanted to get paid to go and watch football or the athletics and then write match reports, that kind of thing. I’m very sporty and I think the idea of either writing or commentating would be where I ended up. I even do it when I’m in Les Gets as I’m skiing, I’m commentating on how people are going down the runs, they don’t know I’m doing it, it’s just for my entertainment.”
Do you get nervous or anxious before shows?
“If I’m going a gig like the one we have in Les Gets, or if I’m on tour with my own show, then no, I don’t. I get nervous if its something different. I got very nervous before we did the Royal Variety Performance because you’re aware of the other acts that are on that night and the room, who’s in there. I think it’s anything when you’ve got to do something out of the ordinary, like you have to finish and bow to the Royal Family and then the audience. Obviously there is no other gig in the world where you’re required to bow and you have to make sure you don’t turn your back to them, so anything that gives you extra things to think about makes me nervous. Live comedy is spinning so many plates in your head – your material, you need to stay in the room and keep track of Helen and Steve who are teachers, but we’ve also got this hen do group over there, so you’re spinning all of these plates and you’re constantly thinking of a line for the people on the front row too. To then mix all of these protocols that you’ve got to follow, that was definitely one where I did get a bit nervous. And anything where I’ve done a TV gig for the first time, trying to make sure that you come across alright and that you remember all of the news stories.”
What’s been your favourite TV series so far?
“Do you know, I can answer this dead quick. A League of Their Own is my favourite series to do because the stuff they have us doing is ridiculous. It’s not actually gone out yet, but a couple of months ago we filmed the A League of Their Own rally. Me and Jill Scott were one time, Jamie Redcap and Alan Carr were another, then it was Michael Richards and Tom Davis and we had to leave the UK, drive across France, Switzerland and Italy in this rally car and it was a race, we were racing each other with different ways of getting across. Me and Jill are driving and I was like ‘I know this place, I’ve been here before’ but I had no idea where we were. ‘I’ve gigged in that room,’ I told Jill. We were driving through Les Gets! Gill was like, no you’re getting mixed up, but I said you watch, when we drive through there’ll be a big roller coaster on the mountain and we went passed it and she couldn’t believe it. I was pointing everything out to her, I was like the tourist information. That was my favourite one to do, we went up Mont Blanc and a couple of days later we were in Turin. Oh and we’d come through Paris on the way, and one of the challenges was to take the most romanic photo because its the City of Love. We went full method and went to a bridal store and got massive wedding dresses. We were running through the streets of Paris trying to find the most romantic location for a photo. A lot of Parisians thought we were an actual couple and tried to congratulate us.”
What advice would you give to someone considering a career in comedy?
“Build a thick skin. You’ve got to be ready for anything and everything to pop off. I’ve done gigs where there’s been fights in the audience, there’s heckling. If you’re gonna gig in Les Gets, get ready for some heckles! No two gigs are the same either. I’m between two legs of my tour at the moment, the first leg was 41 dates and no two were the same and I’m doing the same show every night. It’s because the audience always changes. So yes, build a thick skin, keep match fit, keep writing and keep gigging. There are so many people who only gig within a 10 mile radius of where they live, or only if the fee is a certain amount, or if the tech is this or that. But you need to gig in rooms above a pub, at festivals, in comedy clubs, at awards shows, take every gig you can because it will only make you a better comedian. It’s like with anything, the advice is to practise, practise practise for sure.”
How do you choose which members of the audience to involve in your show?
“It’s an instinct I think, which again builds up with practising over time. So when you start, you get chatting with maybe the most vocal people in the crowd. You then realise that some people come to a comedy night because they fancy themselves as a bit of a comedian, usually they’re the people who heckle. And nine times out of ten, they’re made to look like a tit because they forget they’re going up against professionals. When you’re just starting out, you think they’re the best people to talk to because you get something back from them. Sometimes people love to sit on the front row because they want to be chosen, they want to be picked and say something funny when you ask them what they do. B it’s never as funny as what you can make from an actual answer. So, you learn to avoid the people who come along wanting to be part of the show. If you think about what makes the best comedy, it’s relatable stuff. I love gigs when you can see the audience nudging each other and saying ‘that’s you, you do that’! I want to chat to people with real lives and real jobs and real ways that they met, I want to find the funny relatable-ness. I don’t like to make fun of people and I know that people are always nervous when comedians speak to them. Instead I try to draw out the comedy from what might seem like a normal scenario. You can tell the people who don’t want to be spoken to also!”
What’s the best part about being a comedian?
“Getting to see all of the other comedians do the thing you love. I don’t think anybody gets into comedy unless they’re a fan of comedy. That’s the most fun aspect, certainly when you’re coming up through the ranks and you get booked for these weekends at a comedy club and you get to stand at the back of the room and watch the headliner. That’s something that I still find very special, getting to work with people who were my heroes as I was growing up. You hear it in other industries as well. Jill said that was a huge part for her, playing with players that she’d watched as a kid. There’s not many lines of work where that can be star struck by your colleagues. That’s what I love about comedy, you find yourself looking up to and eventually working with the people who’ve inspired you and made you want to be a comedian in the first place. And you never stop learning. Last night I was filming Have I Got News For You and I was with Jason Manford and John Richardson; I went to go and watch them when I was like 13 years old. And there I was, working alongside them on a panel show. It’s amazing, I was just watching Jason host and trying to pick up little things that he did to make sure everybody spoke. You’re always learning from people because it’s an always evolving industry.”
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Is there a down side?
“You’re away from home a lot, and that can be tricky. You have to have very understanding family and friends. You have to make peace with the fact that you’re going to have to say no to a lot of things, birthdays and parties and things. When people plan things four weeks in advance but your diary is booked up for six months. Yeah, that can be hard. I don’t think I’ve got a Saturday night free until April! I’m not going to be able to make your Christmas do in two weeks time! There’s a lot of that, but if you’ve got really nice, understanding family and friends that get that, then it becomes easier to focus on the positives, for sure.
Do you ski? That’s a very Tom Houghton question, I know.
“I’ve been very lucky, my mum taught my dad to ski and they’d go every other year. Then me and my brother were born so we’d come to, often to France and Austria. Since I’ve met my husband I’ve roped him into it too. So I ski and I snowboard and I absolutely love it. I’d never been to Les Gets before coming out to do the gig, so it was amazing to discover a new resort and the runs are fantastic, I absolutely love it. When we came last year, literally on the day we arrived, there was a massive dump of snow. I’ll be the first one up the mountain every day while we’re in Les Gets, and the last one off. If I could ski to the gig I would. Last year we watched the French comedy acts and that was a learning curve. They were incredible, we all went to dinner with them and they put us to shame with how good their English was but it’s always nice to mingle with comics from another scene.”
Who is your comedy hero?
“Victoria Wood has definitely inspired me a lot, in terms of her relatability and creativity and creating a platform. Even now, there’s still a lot of people who say ‘I don’t usually like women comedians’, or ‘I don’t usually find females funny’ and I say ‘yes you do, Victoria Wood was selling out decades ago!’ Some people are always going to see the same stuff. So Victoria Wood for sure, Peter Kay and Lee Evans were big inspirations when I was growing up, being a northerner Peter Kay was very relatable.”
What’s next?
“As soon as I get back from Les Gets it’s straight into the second leg of my tour, which is continuing across Europe; Helsinki, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Berlin, all of these places where again, I’m sort of going ‘please say there’ll be some English speakers’. I’m hoping it’ll be like in Les Gets, with loads of English folk abroad. We get everywhere. And then another 32 dates in the UK so there’s a lot of that and I’ve got some very exciting TV bits coming up which is exciting.”
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TO SEE MAISIE ADAM AT THE LES GETS COMEDY FESTIVAL HERE
