The old saying, by idiots, goes that there are no funny women. Which is bollocks. There are loads of funny women and there has been for years. But, for me, the cleverest and funniest of all is from right now. Her name is Josie Long.
If you've never heard of Josie then here are the basics. Born in 1982, Josie grew up in Orpington in London. She first came to prominence when she won a BBC New Comedy Award aged just seventeen - she'd been performing Stand-Up since she was fourteen years old. She studied English Language and Literature at Oxford and while there she set up and ran experimental comedy clubs. While she was studying, says Wikipedia, she gave up Stand-Up to concentrate on her degree.
She clearly keeps wonderful company, too, as she presents a wonderful podcast called Utter Shambles (linked in the sidebar), with comedian-supreme Robin Ince. She also supported Stewart Lee on his 2005 tour. She's also a proper brainy clever clogs who may only be second to Prof Brian Cox in terms of enthusiasm when talking about science and the universe. Her Radio4 show All The Planets' Wonders (I'm not really sure where to put the apostrophe in that one, but I'm sure Josie would) is one of the most beautiful series I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The shows are on Youtube, but you'll have to search for them yourselves.
Since 2006, Josie has toured a live show almost every year, covering most countries of the world who would actually be able to understand English. And her shows are incredible. I've seen her once before, on her Trying Is Good tour in 2008. I plan to see her whenever she gets to Cardiff again. She recently had to cancel a few shows around my area following a nasty car accident in which she "almost died", so says her on Twitter. OH, yeah. She's on Twitter too... Here she is.
I would urge you all to dig out as many bits of Josie Long stuff you can, be it her on The Bubble, her on You Have Been Watching or her incredible appearance with Stephen Fry on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. And especially see her live if you get the chance. She really is a wonderful, funny, warm and razor-sharp comic. I heart her.
