Page 59 - Katherine Ryan press pack 2015-20

of parties. It’s the best place to be if you’re rich and beautiful, for a weekend; you couldn’t do
it any longer than that or you’d die. But that same girl brought my little sister the next year

and my other little sister the year after, so we have Facebook albums of all these Playboy

pictures. Everyone in the town is like, ‘what’s going on?’ My mum is the only female in the
family who hasn’t been.”

In terms of stand-up comedy, Toronto is like Edinburgh in August compared to her home

town (“Sarnia doesn’t really do comedy: they’ll ship a comic in once a year”), so she knew
that a move to the UK and its burgeoning stand-up environment was required for her to

progress that career. And within about five minutes of landing at Heathrow she was already
making waves, coming runner-up in the Amused Moose comedy competition and winning

the Funny Women prize in 2008 with an inviting mix of spiky social commentary and silly

songs. Ryan’s flair for a dramatic image continued in 2011 with her first Edinburgh Fringe
publicity shot showing her as a heavily pregnant beauty queen, while few who saw it will

forget her turn on Let’s Dance for Comic Relief as Nicki Minaj.

She seems pretty content with her level of celebrity

Her stage success (she has three Edinburgh Fringe shows under her belt now) has led to other

opportunities, with TV roles in Channel 4 university comedy, Campus, and Matt LeBlanc’s

BBC vehicle, Episodes. Ryan has also become a regular presence on all those game shows
that have been criticised for rarely featuring women, but she seems pretty content with her

level of celebrity. “Mathematically it would seem harder to get success because everybody
has the opportunity and access now, and so fame actually becomes less likely. Not too long

ago it was just Coronation Street and Hollyoaks on TV and three channels and only a few

people were famous. Fame doesn’t really work out for many people. It’s nicer to just think
that we are all contributing.”

• Katherine Ryan: Glam Role Model, Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 28 November; Oran Mor,

Glasgow, 29 November; The Stand, Edinburgh, 30 November