Comedian Kiri Pritchard McLean is on her way back to Nottingham and bringing one of her most personal shows to the stage. CJ DeBarra met with Kiri to talk about fostering, stage shows and the dark humour of social workers.
Stand-up comedian Kiri Pritchard McLean is heading back to Nottingham in November with her new show, Peacock. The last time she appeared on stage here, it was a Christmas show for her hit podcast, All Killa, No Filla, which she co-hosts with Rachel Fairburn. However, this time, it’s something together different and very personal.
Kiri has a wonderful talent for blending the personal, the performance and making you feel like you are watching your best friend on stage. Never one to shy away from difficult subjects, this time she is talking about her experiences of being a foster parent. Not something you normally see comedy shows about - so why?
“My partner and I have been doing it for three years. It came about because so many of my friends were asking about the process which, because of the terms and conditions, I hadn’t been able to speak about as I had to keep it secret,” she explained.
“My friends, who like me didn’t have children biologically, didn’t feel it was right for them. They would hear me talk about it or meet the children and realise what a lovely way of life it was giving us and the beautiful family life we had.”
Nottingham is always one of those cities where you know it’s going to be a great show and you don’t have to worry about it.
She added: “They would come away saying, I will look into it so I thought, if I took my job of talking to lots of people and spoke about this, then maybe I could raise awareness for the fact we are desperate for more foster carers. We have amazing young people who are in the system who have needs that need to be met.”
After writing the show, Kiri faced the impossible task of asking for permission to talk publicly about something notoriously private.
“I said, I’ve written a secret show. Can I show you how I would talk about it if I could? There was a real mix of trepidation where they wanted to talk to people about becoming foster carers but they were worried,” she admitted.
“They were asking about heckling, which meant I couldn’t control what people say. I had to explain, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I sort of know what is likely to happen and ‘the risks.’ I’ve talked about emotive things on stage before and protected people’s identities. I do my due diligence so I can protect everyone but still tell the truth of the story.”
This meant performing the show in front of a tough crowd - social workers and their managers.
“I had to get it signed off so I had to do it in front of my social worker, the marketing person and another social worker who had to escalate it. I had to do the show in front of the head of fostering for the whole of Wales, and the head of social services for my local area too. So it couldn’t have gone higher.”
Kiri added: “They all watched it and were really passionate about the message. The other side of this is that you won’t find anyone with a darker sense of humour than a social worker, other than a comedian, so they got it.”
Part of the message of the show is recognising the difficulty of the job and the caseloads that social workers are facing. That years of austerity have had a knock-on effect on the situation and that we need to have another narrative out there to say not all social workers are bad.
Kiri is looking forward to returning to the Nottingham Arts Theatre on George Street. On their podcast, which has thousands of fans who call themselves ‘legends’, Kiri and Rachel mentioned a member of the volunteer staff at the theatre who possibly has no idea they are famous.
“We did a Christmas show for All Killa there last year and it was absolutely fantastic. The staff at that venue were great. There was an older guy called Michael who couldn’t believe it was all made up and not scripted,” she said. “It is just us chatting. We had this volunteer usher who was really passionate about the show and won over by it. I’m excited to go back.”
“Nottingham is a great city. I’ve done loads of gigs over the years and played the Canalhouse a lot. It’s always one of those cities where you know it’s going to be a great show and you don’t have to worry about it.”
The tour is one of the largest that Kiri has done with roughly one hundred dates in total. She still has about forty dates to do including Nottingham. Far from being fed up, she is enjoying the energy it has created.
I want to do more fostering as we have done a fair bit this year but we haven’t been around as much so it's been tricky. We want to have lots more young people to fill the house with laughter.
“This is the most fun I have had on tour which is why I’m not completely rinsed already. I love this show so much as I’ve had lovely interactions with people afterwards who have been through similar things or are care experienced,” she explained.
“I’ve had lovely feedback because I bring the fostering teams down to chat with people after the show. They said they now have people going through assessment after watching the show. I couldn’t be prouder of the outcome.”
She added: “There have been some mega gigs like getting to play the Millennium Centre in Wales. As a Welsh comedian who is not that famous, that is really special. Having hundreds of people in that room was amazing.”
After the massive tour, the podcasts, the All Killa shows and press….it’s no wonder Kiri would like a day off. “There is a possibility of touring it internationally and doing more All Killa stuff but I’ll wait to see. I’ll be honest, I’m going to have a year off!” She laughed.
“I have a podcast I love called, Who are you Wearing and I’ve not had time to do a new series of that. I want to catch up on all the things that don’t pay the bills so slide down the list. I want to do more fostering as we have done a fair bit this year but we haven’t been around as much so it's been tricky. We want to have lots more young people to fill the house with laughter.”
Kiri will be appearing at Nottingham Arts Theatre on 17 November. Tickets are available here.
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