Isy Suttie webchat – as it happened

The author, comedian and Peep Show star joined us to answer your questions in a live webchat – from comedy to food via why she’d love to star in Batman, catch up with her answers here
  
  

Isy Suttie, who will take on your questions.
Isy Suttie, who will take on your questions. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

That's it for today!

Huge thanks to Isy and to everyone who submitted questions. Until next time!

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Thanks for all your questions, especially the one that suggests I could have a role in Batman. If you need touring and book information, go to isysuttie.com. I'm off to eat some Thai green chicken curry.

SalvadorDarley asks:

If you got a dozen top lads from Matlock and I rounded up a dozen “faces” from Darley Dale, who’d win the resultant “off”?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I guess it would have to take place on Bakewell Road, halfway between Darley Dale and Matlock. And I'm going to say Matlock would win, because it's the best place in the universe. Although Darley Dale does have a good chippy, so well done for that.

Xavier Quli asks:

Hi. I think I heard you say recently on the wireless that you were dragged along to Christian holidays as a child. Has your early experience with faith had any lasting effect on you – for better or worse?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I liked going to the Christian camps, partly because there were activities like pond-dipping and rock climbing - it was really fun camping. In terms of religion, they didn't make any difference to what I feel now, which is that I'm not really sure what there is or if there is anything. But pond-dipping whilst singing O Come All Ye Faithful isn't a bad thing.

Galaxina asks:

Do you feel under pressure to be amusing all the time?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

bluehamster asks:

What do you think of the never ending trend of forcing comedy through the panel show format?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Each panel show is different, and the ones I like doing the most are when there's a game involved - like Would I Lie to You, or 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Like anything, there are very good and bad panel shows, but if you get the format right and the comics are free to improvise in the way they want to, they can be really good.

hoboh2o asks:

How was working on Shameless?

Must admit I found it very funny but rather sad to watch.

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Shameless was like being in a massive, very colourful family. It had been running for a long time, but unlike Peep Show, because it filmed for a lot longer it had a permanent office and you had a permanent dressing room. So I got to know the other actors very well. At the time it felt like I was going to school - you'd go in a minibus and have breakfast in the canteen, and ask how someone's date went last night.

Darren Gallacher asks:

Where you upset at not being a major character in the last season of Peep Show?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I was a bit sad not to be in every episode, but then I think that Dobby had such a good run of it overall, and Sam and Jesse did everything they could with that character. It was such an epic show to be involved in, and when I remember it, I remember my whole time being such fun. It's diplomatic, but it's the truth!

David Bana asks:

You sing and play the guitar. Are you professionally trained? Did you ever consider a musical career rather than musical comedy as part of your stand up?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Yes I did singing lessons and guitar lessons for many years growing up, and also I went to Guildford school of acting. I did audition for GuildHALL but when they asked me for my favourite shows I said pantomimes. I think they were hoping I'd say Pinter, and I didn't get in.

I did a lot of dance and singing and music stuff there, and I did try to go into music when I graduated, but my songs were a bit weird for that music world. I had a song about an accountant called Martin who used to smear himself with the contents of a fryup every night. It wasn't really funny, or making a satirical statement, and it was a bit weird - it was enough to make people say: you don't belong on the music circuit. Other people would do songs about relationships - I was always trying to play a character or tell a story. So it felt like a natural move to go towards the comedy circuit, and make the songs funny.

My voice isn't a musical theatre voice either. Though I did do a musical called the A-Z of Mrs P, but I regarded that as a play with songs in it, rather than a cheesy musical.

Joe Bradbury asks:

Hi Isy, loved your routine on Alternative Comedy Experience! Do you get fed up of being rather patronisingly called a “sexy geek” online?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I don't really look at online stuff. I don't look at forums or anything about "sexy geeks" which may exist. And it doesn't change my ability to do geeky things unfortunately - I'm still no good at science or computers. There was one Peep Show scene where I had to mend a computer in the background and I just kept pressing ctrl-alt-delete.

farmerbob asks:

Have you got any plans for another series of Love Letters? One of my favourite radio shows.

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Sadly not. I absolutely loved doing both series but I didn't feel I had enough male voices in me to do a third. And I had run out of stories from my personal life that felt relevant to that show. I tried to write an episode when I got together with my boyfriend and it didn't work - I realised I had to be having various dating mishaps alongside my characters' for the show to work.

Glen Pierce asks:

Curry or Chinese? Marmite or Peanut Butter? Stilettos or DMs?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Curry (Thai green). Both together. DMs.

alankimble asks:

I worked with you at an Oddbins call centre years ago, which was quite fun despite it all. Do you remember that time some guy phoned to complain whilst he was in the shower? And do I remember it right that you threw up in a shoe at the Christmas party?

(it’s Theo by the way, hi!)

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Hi Theo. Despite it all, they were halcyon days. I loved working in Oddbins, and as a result I got the equivalent of GNVQ in wine tasting - that's true! Due to the constant wine tasting, I don't remember the time the guy phoned from the shower, but I may have blocked it out. Yes I did throw up in a shoe on the way back from a Christmas party, it was my housemate Hannah's shoe. And she didn't want it back.

'I was offered £20 to get off stage at Edinburgh 2005. I haven't ever seen anything as dramatic as that, or think of anything that would come close'

Ash Preston asks:

Hi Isy, looking forward to seeing the new tour. In relation to the Edinburgh £20 memory, what’s the worst case of awkwardness or dying on stage you have seen that wasn’t yourself (you can keep names anonymous). My worst was easily making a woman cry once by doing an impression of the child catcher from Chitty Bang Bang, which I later found out the woman had been terrified of from a young age. What were the chances!

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

This is referring to when I was offered £20 to get off stage at Edinburgh 2005. I haven't ever seen anything as dramatic as that, or think of anything that would come close. I've seen straightforward deaths, where the audience goes quiet or heckles a bit, but no-one offering money. Definitely not in excess of £20.

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Spluuuuurgh asks:

If you could only eat the same one main meal at dinner time for the rest of your life what would it be?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Thai green chicken curry.

'It's all a big cauldron: acting, standup, writing, songs, radio, everything feeds into everything else'

CrazyVaclav asks:

To what extent do you feel that acting experiences have fed into your comedy and vice versa? When you perform in a stand-up comedy context, do you feel that you are sometimes consciously playing a character or a persona for example?

Also, what is your favourite joke?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I feel like it's all a big cauldron. Acting, standup, writing, songs, radio, everything feeds into everything else. When I'm doing standup I don't feel like I'm playing a character, it just takes a lot of years to work out the completely right version of yourself to be on stage, and that's just trial and error. It's a distilled version of you, but you're not conscious of that. Or I'm not, now. I do sometimes play other character on stage - in this tour now, I play my mum, my old housemates, and I always enjoy doing that.

I can't think of my favourite joke... my favourite standups are people like Phil Kay who tell stories and make things happen in the moment. Just go see Phil Kay!

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Liam Quane asks:

What is the best thing a director can do for you on set? :~)

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Trust me. I think sometimes, all being well, everyone's working together and it runs smoothly and you're working towards a common goal - there's a bed of trust underneath everything. But what sometimes happens is for various reasons, often time constraints, it might be that people say "go this, go there, say it like this" - that's always less fulfilling when you feel that you're working together and there's a feeling of freedom.

H Edge asks:

How does it feel to be (in a complimentary way) a heroine for us nerds out there? Making us feel more accepted with every Batman KAPOW acting role?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I don't think of myself as a nerdy heroine but that's very nice of you to say. I always thought of Dobby as someone who worked in IT and spoke her mind, but I'm always happy when people who are nerdy say they like the character - and I'd love to have her in Batman!

'My favourite book is The Magus by John Fowles. I've got a real love of psychological horror'

riclad asks:

What’s your favorite USA and UK TV show, and is there any TV show from your childhood that inspired you to become an actress and comedian?

Do you listen to any podcasts or follow any YouTubers?

Who is your favorite author?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Very hard to decide. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Freaks and Geeks, The American Office. UK would be between Black Mirror, the Inbetweeners and Alan Partridge. They all feel real, like completely rounded worlds. They're not just jokes in a row - they're real people who you get to know and love. Especially Freaks and Geeks, which feels like there could have been loads of other episodes you haven't seen, it's that rich. You feel like you've just dipped into the ones that happen to have been made. Underneath there were fundamental statements about growing up dealt with in a really sensitive and funny way. And obviously Partridge is an incredibly funny character and you're aware he's a creation, but the world around him is completely believable. Lyn, you can imagine going home at night. That's what I look for, that three-dimensionality.

Childhood, it was Brass Eye and the Day Today. It was the first thing I watched without my parents, and I really loved it, because it felt so edgy and funny. I loved Fawlty Towers growing up, and still do. The relationships are perfect, you always know Manuel is going to mess up, you know Basil is going to try and be high-status and not achieve it. The balance in status is so right between the characters, and so hard to get right.

I follow Stuart Ashen on YouTube - he does these videos of his hands, and he opens things like a toy from Poundland or sent to him from overseas, all quite random toys and sweets and food - quite simple things. And it's the first time he's opened them. He's really funny, and talks about everything in great detail. I almost get ASMR from it. And then podcasts: I listen to Lake Woebegone, and we were late to the Serial series - maybe we should jump now to Making a Murderer now though because everyone is watching it.

Fave authors: Iris Murdoch. My favourite book is The Magus by John Fowles. I've got a real love of psychological horror - I love the Wicker Man, and anything about doppelgangers or magic that you can believe in that's related to folie a deux - when people go mad - and I love The Magus because it's a really simple story about a really manipulative and powerful man who will go at any lengths to have control over the protagonist. It involves elements of the occult and magic but they're tied into reality - it's really shocking and exciting and all-engrossing.

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'The hardest thing about going out with a standup is that if something funny happens to you, you have to decide who gets the material'

thesulks asks:

Do you and partner Elis James spend all day telling each other jokes? And which of you is the funniest?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

No, because we have a small baby, so we spend all day working out how to deal with the next bout of nappies or sick-mopping. But we do all have a laugh. The hardest thing about going out with a standup is that if something funny happens to you, you have to decide who gets the material. I think we're funny in different ways - that's very diplomatic! He's funny off the cuff, much to my chagrin.

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'I'm so used to ASMR – it happens on an almost daily basis. It's about the moment of contact, about us both wanting the same thing for a moment'

lewisdenson asks:

I’ve really enjoyed all of your radio programmes like the one about on hold music, but particularly your latest show about ASMR.

Do you think that everyone can receive ASMR or do you think it only affects a certain type of person? Is it a similar feeling to tingles down the spine when at something like a music gig and your favourite song comes on?

I’m always inspired by your work, and I think your laugh is my favourite celebrity laugh.

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

ASMR is a feeling that often starts in the scalp or back of the neck, or back of the arms, and it's like a nice version of goosebumps. You feel very alert and very relaxed at the same time. Some scientists say it's related to flow, which is the state that some sportspeople get into when they feel like they're working at their peak. You feel very energised and very relaxed. A lot of people get it at the hairdressers or while having a massage, but other people have other triggers - like someone looking through their belongings, or someone in a soft voice explaining something very boring. I get it from interactions with strangers about the most mundane things possible, like the weather. Or a detailed interaction about a small thing in a shop - like if there's any Bisto, and they go and find it for me. And I'll get tingling in my head.

I'm so used to it - it happens on an almost daily basis. It's about the moment of contact, about us both wanting the same thing for a moment. And especially with a soft or quiet voice. I also get it from the hairdressers and dentist's, but that's a more common trigger. People can think you're mad, but people who get it will know what I mean.

I don't think everyone can receive it. I like the theory that everyone has ASMR as a child, and that it's related to being cared for, particularly by a parent - like when monkeys groom each other. But for the majority of people it disappears when you grow older. My first memories of it are as a child, and it's a very deep almost tribal feeling. I don't think it's a certain type of person - you don't have to be extra emotionally intelligent, or someone who would talk about getting it, it's just something that people don't talk about it a lot - people almost get guilty about talking about it at the doctors or at work because you're getting this extra bonus bit to your life. I think it's similar to the feeling of being a music gig, but I think that feeling is maybe called frisson, which is in the same family and slightly different.

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ID384208 asks:

How do you approach making comedy about subjects that are not common knowledge like ASMR?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I think if you've got a personal view on something and have something to say about it, that's enough. And with the ASMR documentary, I didn't set out to make it funny, because it was commissioned through documentaries, and because we had Joe Lycett and Rhodri Marsden that bit was lighter and funnier. The links I tried to make quite snappy. I'm glad you thought of it as comedy! That documentary was really about me exploring something really personal to me that ended up chiming with a lot of people who didn't know the feeling had a name. Everyone had a view on it which was really what I wanted.

ID2534846 asks:

As a “female comic” do you feel you get complemented/criticised in the context of your sex? ie “you’re funny for a woman” or are you seen as just a comic, regardless of sex?

If the former, what do you think needs to change so that women’s comic abilities are judged/viewed on a par with men?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I think if you're funny and you work really hard, it'll all be ok. I haven't ever thought about being a woman, and I don't think it's good to get caught up in thinking about it - I prefer to just create stuff. The good thing about being a writer and actor is you can write things you can be in - if I wasn't a writer I might feel differently. In scripts there tends to be an imbalance - the men do the funny stuff and the women stand with their hands on their hips. But in terms of standup, the way the land lies now, if you gig as much as you can, and you're funny, you'll be ok.

You can only go in excited about what you've got to say - if you go in thinking about how they're going to view your clothes or gender or hair, that's not the right angle to have. It's not my problem if people view me differently from a man, it's not something I ever think about.

jameswalsh asks:

Hello – I saw you alongside Simon Munnery at Fylm School earlier this month, I thought you and Kevin Eldon were both excellent, even if it was a bit creepy to have the comedians lurking behind the audience for a change.

How natural is it to make the move from stand-up to writing – do you think some comedians are more suited to it than others? Which fellow comedian on the circuit would you most like to see write a memoir or a novel?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

Thanks, it was a really weird feeling to be behind the audience, but I enjoyed the ouija board bit. And I think Simon Munnery is a fantastic and inventive comic who's just about the only person who could put on a gig like this.

For me it didn't feel like a big jump from standup to writing, in terms of my brain coming up with the content, but the actual writing discipline is very different. With standup you can try it out that night if you want to, so you might have written a character of a Russian trainspotter and you can do it that night, whereas with writing a book at first it felt strange not to be bouncing it off anyone. But once I got into it I really enjoyed it. And I had to get up each morning, not look at my phone or email or talk to anyone, and then write 2000 words. Then I'd allow myself to be Ms Pacman for the rest of the day.

I would love to see Dr Brown write something - what he does on stage is unique and he doesn't use words in the way a standup does, so I'd love to see what he'd put on paper.

KentonCooooool asks:

Isy, I once seen you at Firefly in the Marcus Garvey Ballroom in Nottingham enjoying yourself. Is Nottingham putting on enough “weird techno nights”?

Hands in the air? Or hands on your head? How do you embrace the weirdness?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I don't think that was me! It must have been my techno-loving doppelganger. But weirdness is always good.

presquemonday asks:

If a very very funny yet offensive (level: tongue-in-cheek) joke popped into your noggin regarding David Bowie’s death on the day the world was informed would you have tweeted it for seventy five grand STERLING?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

No way. He is a God.

wait_what asks:

How on earth did you cope with some of the cringey scenes? I can barely watch them without my toes/entire body curling, I can’t imagine how difficult it was to film them!

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I didn't really think of them as cringey, as when you're filming a script you're just thinking about doing it as convincingly as you can. As long as know understand what the character is doing, it only seems cringy from the outside. That said, the stationary cupboard scene was awkward to film because we were in an actual cupboard and I'd only just met David. We were pleased when that was done.

Grimble44 asks:

Isy, tell us the most interesting thing about Matlock.

In fact, tell us ANYTHING interesting about Matlock.

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I might be remembering this wrongly, but I think Matlock had the first ever tram. That might not be true. But this is true: there's a raft race every Boxing Day on the river Derwent where people make their own rafts and race down the river, and one year a guy made a machine that could fire kiwi fruits and would fire them at people to slow them down. His mates had a raft in the race, and they employed him to stand on the shore. He definitely got told off.

Here's Isy at Guardian Towers

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vammyp asks:

There’s a bloke who goes about Stoke Newington taping bits of rubbish to lampposts and walls, this morning I saw him carrying see-through sandwich bags full of hard boiled eggs and dragging a burning industrial waste bin.

So my first question, why’s he doing this?

And my second question, what’s your favourite pie filling?

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

This guy sounds incredible, apart from the burning industrial waste bit. I sometimes carry sandwich bags with hard boiled eggs in them, and have been known to smash them against the wall to break them open - so I like the sound of this guy. I'm hoping he's related to the Hackney Mole Man, who burrowed under his own very expensive house near where I used to live in Dalston to create a series of tunnels.

Pie filling: I think chicken and mushroom. Classic 80s filling. It's got to be from a chip shop as well.

Isy is with us now – let's get started

Her first answer is for Jimbob72, who asked:

Why did you decide to make a short film with The Stranglers? I liked it, by the way.

User avatar for IsySuttie Guardian contributor

I did 6 Music roundtable with JJ Burnel, and really got on with him. I've always been a fan and had the idea for the short film in my head already, so it seemed like fate. Then JJ agreed to be in it - it was a very cold night and we had to shoot the scene 20 times. You don't usually have to do that in a band - but he was a really good sport.

They were really anarchic as a band, and they've got incredibly catchy hooks, but I also loved the whole "vibe". That vibe is basically: not giving a shit. Especially at the time, they were anarchic in their attitudes. JJ is also a lot of fun.

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Post your questions for Isy Suttie

Isy Suttie will be known to many as Dobby, the “IT misfit” on Peep Show, whose romance with Mark was one of the series’ most constant sources of fist-gnawing awkwardness. But as well as stints on Shameless and Boomers, plus radio series and on-stage roles including the A-Z map inventor Phyllis Pearsall, she’s turned to writing.

Her new memoir The Actual One is about the early midlife crisis suffered by so many late-twentysomethings, when you can no longer postpone growing up and it’s time to settle down. After a bet with her mum, Suttie ends up on a quest to find a life partner, “the actual one” of the title. It’s out on 28 January, and Isy is taking it on a book tour next month.

Before hitting the road, she will join us to answer your questions about anything in her varied career in a live webchat from 1pm GMT on Tuesday 19 January. Post yours in the comments below, and she’ll answer as many as possible.

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