New Act of the Month: Nat Wicks
Musical comedian Nat Wicks is our New Act of the Month for February. Just over a year ago Wicks took a punt on stand-up at a female-only comedy night in Newcastle called Laughing Lasses. But since then, her act has changed dramatically, moving from more ‘traditional’ routines to proper funny songs about grammatical errors and daytime telly. Andrew Dipper caught up with the Middlesbrough-born comic for a quick chat about her comedy.
AD: Hi Nat. How and why did you get into comedy?
NW: I have always been a bit of a joker and a huge fan of comedy in all of its forms; attending gigs as a punter and generally consuming as many laughs as I could. I’m sure I really got into it for the same reason most people probably do- my mental health’s inbuilt need for constant validation. “Oh, you laughed at me? Brilliant, I don’t need to jump off a bridge now!” It’s a good feeling.
In reality, I was finally inspired to take the leap when I went to a great gig put on by The Laughing Penguin a few years ago; Sarah Millican was working on her Chatterbox solo show and was just astounding. It gave me goosebumps. So the next day I researched as much as I could, sent a couple of emails and promptly forgot about it. A year later I received an email offering me a slot at Laughing Lasses New Act night, so I dove in. After a year and a half(ish) and the realisation that my stand up was mediocre at best, I decided I needed a hiatus and a new direction, so I was reborn as a musical act, because hey- bitch can sing, yo.
AD: Describe your first gig…
NW: It was potentially foolish to pick a national competition to be my return gig, and the first one that I would give music a punt at, but hey, it worked out okay. I had no intention of progressing, I had just remembered that Funny’s Funny had been an incredibly friendly gig the previous year. I didn’t get past the heats of course, but it turns out that I did better than I had expected to and got some fantastic feedback.
AD: If you could gig with one comedian who would it be?
NW: There are too many names to put on here really. I’d love to share a stage with Josie Long; she is really quite wonderful. If we are talking about super fantasy gigs though, I’m sure that dueting with Tim Minchin and a full orchestra would be okay…
AD: Where do you want to be in five years’ time?
NW: It would be an absolute dream to be able to be a professional comedian, but in reality world ‘not dead’ is probably a good start. I’m not fooling myself; you’ll probably never see me on TV (unless the Great War of 2015 wipes out all of the other comedy acts), but being able to gig for a living would be fantastic.
AD: Are you a Tweeter?
NW: I can’t got on board with it. I only go on when I want to read Charlie Brooker slagging off a major televised event.
AD: Finally, where can we see you next?
NW: I’ve got a couple of charity bits coming up but the next interesting one will be the Musical Comedy Awards Quarter Final in London town on 2 March. I’m certainly not going to get through, but it is going to be a really fun gig.
