Page 218 - Katherine Ryan press pack

And that was a moment for me because it was the first time I had done British

television and it was really daunting because Hannibal Buress, who’s an American

comedian, was on it. And a bunch of really famous headliner male comedians were
on it. And I thought, “What am I going to do?” I could just run away, I could climb

out the window or I can just be myself and see if it works. And I did this very

specific celebrity angle on politics and this pop culture thing, the only way that I

knew how, and it ended up working for me very well. And then I got booked again.

And I’ve pretty much been steadily working since that day so it was a real
turnaround and I almost didn’t do it. It was really daunting. And then I just

thought, well I can’t do an impression of anyone and beat them that way, so I have

to just me my most authentic self and hope that it works or it doesn’t work, but at

least I was authentic.

Can you explain the phenomena of the British panel show?

The first thing I noticed when I moved from Canada to the U.K. [in 2008] was that

everything is old here, but it’s not frowned upon. They keep old buildings and they

treasure their history and they have really inefficient ways of heating their home
that I just don’t understand as a Canadian. But they love tradition, they have this

nostalgia. And there’s a big pub culture in London that I didn’t quite experience in

the same way in Canada, where people are very inclusive and they go out and

support live music, live comedy and they share stories. There’s this sort of group

mentality. So panel shows have been around for years and years and years and to

an outsider, maybe they seem outdated or specifically British. But that’s why I
think the British public love them, they just love nostalgia. Panel shows are just a

bunch of comics in a room chatting, which is what you get in a pub every night of

the week. And that’s just the way it is over here, they hold on to the stuff that

works. And I love it. I really think it gives comedians such an opportunity to

always be writing really fresh, topical political material because you wouldn’t have

that opportunity maybe in other countries for something to happen in the news and
then you’re talking about it on television that night. And we have that here.