S8, Ep2: Maisie Adam, comedian

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:07I'm Grace Dent and this is Comfort Eating from The Guardian A podcast where we pay homage to the lesser celebrated foods in life Because even as a restaurant critic I believe the food that matters most is often that snack you cobble together when you're curled upon the sofa Each week, I ask my guest to lift the lid on what comfort foods have seen them through their lives. Because you can tell a lot about a person from what they eat behind closed doors.

0:48Hello friends. You find me out the front of my house. It's a windy day. I am clutching my specially formulated pet cleaning spray. I make it myself. I don't like to brag. Before my guest gets here, I'm cleaning fox paw prints and other unidentified brown fox smears. Let's not go into it. I'm taking them off my white wall. In anticipation of a fabulous guest who arrives shortly. I know it's ridiculous, but I just don't want them to think it's me coming in on a night and falling against my wall with muddy, suspiciously small hands. Okay, here's the admission. I've consciously created a safe space for foxes around my house because I absolutely love them.

1:39Some of them even come into my back garden. One of them has started breastfeeding her baby on the roof of my garden shed. It's a bit like being at the Greenfields at Glastonbury in 1986. It's pure punk. Speaking of which, today's guest has punk roots herself on which more later on. She's a comedian. She's a writer. She's an actress. It's Maisie Adam. She's one of the most exciting rising stars on the UK comedy circuit, decorated with Best New Act, Best Newcomer and winner of the National New Act Gong. Maisie's critically acclaimed comedy achieves sellout tours and has bagged her a regular spot on the TV quiz show circuit.

2:29Her love for comedy is shared with her love for football. Both playing it and watching it, you'll find Maisie chewing the ear off Susie Ruffell on their football podcast, Big Kick Energy, or clutching a pie at Elland Road watching Leeds United with their dad. But she's not doing any of that now. She's coming here to eat some comfort food with me. I've no idea what she's bringing. Just get this particularly muddy print off. That's not mud, is it?

3:07Maisie Adam, welcome to Comfort Eating. Thank you. Buzzing to be here. Now, for the listeners, Maisie is sitting in front of me wearing a very on-trend red, red Perry polo. And I might add she's sporting a Trey Ella mode bleached mullet. Now, in lockdown, some people got puppies, some people got married, some people got divorced. What did you get, Maisie? A haircut. A dramatic haircut. but I got my fella to just shave the back of my head. Yeah, and I wasn't even having a breakdown. I've always liked that kind of style, that sort of mod skin girl kind of vibe. And I've always thought about it, but you go, well, there's not a good time.

3:55I've got, have I got news for you in my diary next week? I can't sit next to Ian Hissop with a buzz cut. But lockdown happened. It's hair, it's not a tattoo on your face. It's like, if you don't like it, the likelihood is you're going to stay inside with, like, your fella anyway. So you might as well. Did he just get the clippers and go right up the back? I've seen people do that. The irony is, Mike did it, Mike's husband, and he did it grand. And every sort of three weeks, he'd have to top it up with the clippers. Just be sat in your bra in a towel. And he'd be going at it in the kitchen with the scissors.

4:35You can never have traditional hair ever again. But my mum's never had it. And I think I get it from her. I have got some feedback from where I get all my celebrity gossip. And this is a Reddit user, FabulousKitchen5831. And her opinion is the reason you got your hair cut because people kept focusing on your shiny bob. So you went a bit drastic. I went a bit drastic. There's a quote for the poster for the tour. But this is what I find quite fascinating is how many people, their minds were blown when I got that haircut of like, God, what brought that on? Or what was it for? Or what was the catalyst?

5:23And you go, well, I just fancied. The same way you wake up and go, I'm going to wear my blue top today. I'm going to wear a skirt instead of trousers. I just was like, oh, I'm going to have that haircut. that I've thought about doing, but thought, well, I probably shouldn't because I've got that thing in my diary. Suddenly I had a free diary and it didn't matter what anybody thought.

5:52We're going to go to snacks. Now, every time I roll out the metaphorical red carpet for a celebrity guest, I ask them to share with me the food that brings them comfort and joy, The food that gives them the confidence to pull off a Chelsea cut. To go a bit drastic. The food that allows them to run around a football pitch for 90 minutes. Maisie Adam, I have never seen anybody smiling like a Cheshire cat through the lead up to their snack. You're a hungry woman. I'm so hungry, mate. I'm so hungry. Maisie Adam, please reveal your snack. Right. You ready, Grace? Absolutely. Go on. It's some kind of...

6:33It's so beautiful. I could cry. It looks like a very, very cheesy shepherd's pie. Yes. That sweet potato on the top. That cheesy sweet potato. Yeah, a bit of cheese on it there. I can't speak. Honestly, this is the effect it has on you. I'm so excited for you to try it. Now, what I want you to explain while I salivate and you just basically you're rocking backwards and forwards with excitement. Please explain exactly what it is. So there is a flavour in this, though, that I want to see. hit you. Do you know what I mean? Do you want to serve yourself? It's a stodgy... Oh, my God. A stodgy... Oh, my God.

7:14So it's braised steak. Yeah. Oh, my God. Isn't that sweet potato? Come on, Grace, you can do it. Is it a vegetable? No. Oh, my God, my day's gone from a four to a ten. Is it a cinnamon? Yes! Yes, Grace! I knew you'd get it. Now, how do you feel about that? cinnamon in a savoury braised steak sweet potato pie dish. It's blown my mind. There is nothing that this cannot solve with your day. I should say this isn't my dish. This is Mike, my husband's dish. And as you say, it needs a bit of warning. So the day has to be going quite badly in advance for me to text him and say, it's one of them days.

7:57You've rang up your manager and said, can you just check ticket sales in blah, blah, blah. And they've went for, you're like, Mike, get the cinnamon out. Yeah. Do you know, I once did a gig in Guildford and they advertise it as a comedy and curry night. So like the ticket includes both. And I just don't think that's what comedy's for, is it? Like to have a naan included in the price. But it was so bad. I followed this bloke on who just did like really awful misogynistic material, but he was roofing it. Observations about playing the recorder at school are not going to go down well, are you? And then I went up, just down on my ass for 20 minutes, Grace.

8:42At one point, it was so quiet, I heard somebody from the back of the room snap a poppadom. And it was the lowest point of any... I was like, you should never be able to hear the snapping of a bread. Is that a boonah? Can I have a bit of your boonah? Yeah, honestly. Yeah, can I have some lime pickle for the train? It was so bad. That would be one where I'm going, Mike, whack the oven on. Are you and Mike bonded by being big foodies? Do you go for, like, fancy dinners together? I don't know how you're going to feel about this, Grace. We have an opinion about a lot of the fancy restaurants. We'll sometimes screenshot their Insta stories or their thingies and send them to each other with the caption, M-P-T-F.

9:31And it means more plate than food. And any place where there's more plate than food, I just don't think we'll be giving our money there. If I ever get hit by a bus, I'm going to leave notes that you cover my column at The Guardian. Yeah. I'm just going to make sure the first thing that you go to is a 24-course tasting menu. Oh, no.

9:56you're originally from Yorkshire for the last six years you've lived in Brighton now moving to a new place yeah you've got to work on finding a new community have you found your people yes I was gigging on the Brighton circuit but I was quite aware quite early on that having just friends from the circuit isn't maybe a healthy thing no it's competitive it's boring as well it's I don't want to chat about different gigs when I'm not gigging Yeah, yeah, it's boring. I joined a football team and it was the best thing I could have done, Grace, when I moved to a new city. What's the team called? We're Brighton Seagulls.

10:36Clever, isn't it? Bit of a thinker. Currently top of the league, thank you for asking. Is there any comedians in the team? God, no. No, and that's why I love it. There's as much interest in the girl who works in recruitment as there is me who was on the telly the other day. I came across a moment on Big Fat Quiz of the Year where you meet one of the lionesses, Millie Bright. You just have to throw to host Jimmy Carr because you are absolutely lost for words. They set me up good and proper on that though. So it was Big Fat Quiz of the Year and there was a sporting round and all the questions they had deliberately done about bloke sport, knowing it would wind me up.

11:14So this was the year that the women had won the Euros, right? So I was like grinding my teeth. I was like, sorry, the biggest event by a mile has been that the Lionesses won the Euros. And of course, they know that. And they've read me like a book. So they've deliberately done all these questions about, you know, blooming men's tennis or men's cricket or men's rugby. And I couldn't bite my tongue any longer. And eventually I was like, how come none of these questions about the Lionesses? Like, it's ridiculous. It's been like the biggest sporting event. And I said it. And then Jimmy was like, oh, it's interesting.

11:47We actually do have a question about the Euros, but we thought we'd get Millie Bright to ask it. And they'd just bring her out. And I was not prepared at all. I did full fangirl. It was quite mortifying. I sort of had to go up to Millie at the end and be like, I'm really sorry if that was a bit strong. I've got the shakes and everything. It was mortifying. I love how they set that up and you just fell for it. Just fell for it 100%. I was giving it both barrels. Yeah. Yeah. what is it about football why do you love it it's a good question I've never been asked that like I've always been around football like my family are all football fans but it was never women playing it was always Leeds United it was always blokes and then when I was at university England women made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup and I was not enjoying university at the time and so I was sort of distracting myself and as I say I've always loved football and here was here was a load of women playing and they were absolutely killing it your eyes are a little bit glassy talking about football honestly I just love it Grace but you used to go to Leeds with your family yeah yeah and I loved it and it was terrifying but thrilling and exciting it was the ritual of it all it was a full sensory experience it's like I went to the women's world cup last summer in Australia and it was just pure positive vibes could you imagine women trying to be football hooligans we just feel the need I just I just I've never really got to the end of a night in a pub and wanted to like throw it's a glass of one no I think our sense of place in football as well is so much less threatened by a toxicity like I don't feel my patriotism as an England fan never feels threatened to the point where I have to throw a chair at a Marseille fan do you know what I mean and I think that's something that definitely only exists in the blokes game that doesn't exist with us I've got to ask you about the food at Elland Road okay if there were to be one criticism of my beloved leads.

14:08The food's not, it's not, it's not great. There's, there's some burger vans on the outside. You can get a pie. What's in the pie? I mean, I'm not having that. Yeah, it's questionable. It's questionable. I think the less questions you ask, the better. There's a great story of my family of like, my cousin tells it brilliantly when she went with my granddad. He had a pie and I'd like a bite of it, but he was getting on a bit and his appetite wasn't what it used to be. And he had a bite or two of it and then he couldn't quite finish it. And you can never lose that Yorkshire-ness. And he just turned around to the rest of the terraces and went, does anyone else want the rest of this pie?

14:47And it was just passed back. Like this bloke sort of six rows behind was like, yeah, I'll have it. And it was just passed through. He was like, I've not touched it. It's all right. It's just, just had two bites. Well, it's not one, no. Exactly. We went out with my granny last weekend, me and Matt, we went back up North to see her. We took her to this pub in a village called Beckwithshaw. Proper lovely country pub, big beams, you know the ones. And she had this roast beef Yorkshire pudding, all the trimmer. She's 93. And then she was like, have you got space for a pudding? Me and Mike were like, yeah, I don't know if you have after that.

15:23This pudding comes, it's a sticky toffee pudding. It's literally the size of a red. And we were looking at each other, me and Mike going, we're in here. We'll have a lot of this. No way. hoovered it. Literally hoovered it. Three gulps maximum. I bet if you asked her now, she'd go, I eat like a bird. Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to take her to those restaurants that are more plate than food. She'd be in the kitchens going, who brought this out?

15:55You grew up in a Yorkshire village with your dad, Philip, your mum, Jill, your brother, Daniel. Yeah. Oh, Daniel. No one ever calls him Daniel. Daniel. Even when he's in trouble, he's Danny. Tell me about those early years when you're all living in the house together. Just wonderful. My mum and dad are very opposite. My mum is this outgoing, gregarious, punk. She's strong-minded and she knows what she wants. And she's very, very driven. Very, very driven. So when I was born, she was a PE teacher. And then she worked at Leeds Met. But when she left the university, I think there was a sense of she'd worked there for a long time.

16:37Me and my brother were growing up, leaving school. I think there was a bit of like, she's, it's like almost how I spoke about the haircut. She had this thing that she's always wanted to do. My mum has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things music. She just lives and breathes it, absolutely lives and breathes it. And she spotted that loads of other people had the same passion for it through literature. There's a huge section of people who are passionate about music, particularly it does end up being a lot of punk and rock. And through the medium of words, whether that be spoken, written or whatever.

17:13And she decided to launch this festival in Manchester off her own back. It was just her. Literally, she was on Blooming Vistaprint making these flyers. For me to see my mum literally live out this passion and she was discovering that so many other people shared the same passion and they would buy a ticket and congregate at this place in Manchester to hear people talking about either autobiographies or memoirs or a collection of poetry or whatever. It's fantastic. I'm going to go back to your childhood. How big a part does food play? Right, it's an average night you've come in from school and work.

17:55What is on the table for you and Daniel? Me and Daniel. So my dad was the cook. He's a brilliant cook. When he left school, he was a chef for a bit. I think he would always do really hearty food. Oh, my God, he did such a good sausage and mash. He used to get these, like the sausage meat was unlike anything I've ever had. I think they were Cumberland sausages, but they'd put, he'd sometimes have like a bit of apple in there. It was just beautiful. And he'd make banging, bang as a mash, with Yorkshire puddings that he did himself. And he'd always, oh my God, I would never see my dad so angry as if he messed up the Yorkshire puddings.

18:34And he wouldn't say, he'd be like, no, we're going again. And we were like, it's all right, dad, don't worry. No, going again. Something about oil, oil has to be dead art or something. It's science. Yeah. There's no such thing as a bad Yorkshire pudding. That's what we tried to tell him, but he won't have it, unless they are overflowing in the oven. Yeah, but then you've got this pile of reject ones that you can just go afterwards and just dip in gravy. Perfect, yeah. What about roasts? So every Sunday we'd go on a big walk up in the Dales or around a reservoir that we were quite near. But my dad would put the pork, it was always pork, like every single time.

19:13pork and he put it on before the walk and you'd come in and it's literally the best smell for my childhood it's coming through that front door and it hitting you and you know when you've been walking like especially in winter and you've really worked up an appetite suddenly that hitting you was unreal and he'd have um he was again meticulous with making sure he nailed the crackling if he hadn't got the crackling he'd be like oh always bad mouth in the butcher you know he's giving me a bad cut here. I've not got the crackling. Onion gravy for me, mum and dad, Daniel. Danny was always fussy, so we'd have to have one without bits in.

19:52He had to make two gravies for Danny. Yeah, because Danny won't have red onions in it. That's when he would get Daniel from me. Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry, Daniel. Do you know what I mean? Get a grip. Get a grip or a sieve. You know what I mean? I know. Yeah. I don't have my dad make it. He's bossed every single element of a roast and there he is having to make two gravies.

20:27You went to St Aidan's Church of England school. Now, I've done a few of these interviews. School is Marmite. Some love it, some hate it. where were you on the loving hatings? Loved it. Loved it. Yeah. Look at your little face. Yeah, poor. Look how happy you are. I loved school. No, I did. I was really, again, really, really lucky in the, and it's only something I sort of realised when I got into adulthood. And, you know, you go to uni and you chat to other people. And as you say, you realise not everybody has that experience. Don't get me wrong, it did have the sort of hierarchies that every school has of the popular kids and the sporty kids.

21:08But it didn't feel like a hierarchy. Like if you were in the band, you didn't get bullied by the people who were into sport. It was like, oh, you're just really good at saxophone and I'm really good at rounders. Do you think that school loved you back? I think so. Why do you think that? I think so. I got a head girl, didn't I? I got a head girl. There you go. There you go. Well, can I say? There you go. That was voted for by students, but that was the last year that that happened. and they changed it the next year. So when you got into the sixth form, you could like campaign in like a sort of mini, you know, you'd design your own posters and put them around school and you had to then make a speech.

21:49I did a rap to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but changed the lyrics. Yeah. I don't think it would age well, but I loved it. And so for example, so I'm - We're not moving on from that. We're going straight back to this bit. So you have decided that not only do you want to be Head Girl, you're going to run the entire campaign and it's going to culminate in you doing... In a performance of me doing Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but changing the lyrics so that they adhered to life within school. I mean, look, I would hate to put you on the spot. No, no, I do not, Grace. If you just maybe just give us a little...

22:29I'm not asking you to actually rap, but do you remember any of the rhyming couplets per chance? No, genuinely. It's funny that because you've remembered everything else since. I'm trying to remember. Crystal clear clarity. I know. I think as the years went on following it, it went from wasn't that such a great idea to then going I need to erase that from memory. Oh God, did you get a badge? Yeah, got a badge. Did you get a head girl badge? But do you know what? Did you ever enforce any kind of punishment on people? Did you see people littering? I thought it would be, right, I get to give detentions to people who are being knobheads.

23:09I get to, you know, really change the course of school. You know, four days a week we're coming in now. Nothing. No, it was more like, can we all think of a system for stacking the trays after lunchtime? So this is where me and you differ, because day one, I would have just got a load of first years to carry me about on a sedan chair. Yeah, yeah. obviously that's what the dream would be what was school food like so our school catering i actually i had never had food like i absolutely loved it there was a dessert that they used to do that was like um rice crispy and cornflake chocolate thingy in the little paper cases but it wasn't hard grace it was i don't know if you put syrup in it or something i don't know but it was it was gooey and i literally became obsessed with them every single day you know when you're working your way down the bit from like main course and so i would be eyeing up and if there's two left i'd be like please don't have that yeah please don't have it please don't have it please don't have it i'd be going oh the sponge looks nice doesn't it boss that's mine i mean usually these things are quite easy to make yourself i couldn't work it out and i would come back and say to my dad oh dad these um these cakes at school they're unreal they're unreal and the guy who was like in charge of catering, Trevor, he wasn't like a front-facing role.

24:29He was just always in the back in the kitchen. But I said to my dad so many times, I must have said it so many times, like, oh, these cakes. Eventually my dad was like, why don't you just ask Trevor for the recipe? I think he was a bit threatened. Yeah, I can sense an undertone there. And I did. So I was in like, you're seven. I don't know what Trevor thought, this little 11-year-old being like, can I have the recipe to your crispy cakes, please? he did and he went he went to the back and he wrote it all down for me and I brought it back to my dad and my dad could never replicate it I tried to replicate something for I was doing something on tv and I was trying to replicate like a like a tray bake and what I found was the margarine that they use in these things margarine it isn't even margarine it's like a liquid oil and that is why it's so delicious but you can't replicate it because unless you buy this stuff by the six liter bottle you know I would have done that I would have done that for this it was worth buying a trade level six liter bottle yeah yeah

25:42I often ask people who are funny when is that moment in your past that you remember thinking actually I am quite funny in my family humour is such a I know it sounds so general to say everybody's family does that But telling stories, telling stories and anecdotes and being from a loud family and you having to do that. But then you did drama at school. Yeah. Did they think you were funny? Your drama teacher? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I had a teacher called Mrs. Bray, who, again, I would say I owe a lot to. She would always cast me as the funny role in productions. and I loved Grace that you could get feedback straight away when you were doing the funny role.

26:31If you're being Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, you don't know if you've done a good job until the end when people clap. But if you're the funny one in the play and you hear laughing at your lines, you know you're nailing it, right? If there's a line that's meant to be funny and no one laughs, you know you've not really done it right. I loved that you got immediate... It's that comedian insecurity thing, isn't it, of needing to feel validated. validate or are you finding me funny you're finding me funny did mrs bray tell your parents yes so there was a parents evening i was about 15 16 and all my parents evenings had always been mixed bag anything where you had to sit with a pen not not good someone once said to me that um the big light in a northern household only gets switched on for parents evening it's so true that's the only time when your mom and dad come in put the big light on that's when you know we have a chat oh god that's it i can remember sitting at home with the babysitter and just being like just the longer your ear is the better because i know what's coming out and then i and then i did drama when i was 16 and i was bracing myself again for they keep saying you get distracted and you don't listen and you're too busy trying to make people laugh and mrs bray had said to my mum and dad you know she's got really good comedic timing and i think my mum and dad were like yes i'm sure you know where's this going it's going in a garbage yeah gobby exactly and she went but you know that that's a talent you must harness that and my mum and dad came back being like no no she really said that you were you were funny and that that's a skill but then you went to east 15 drama school yeah south end on sea so mrs bray took me aside when it got to the time where you're meant to be applying for unis or whatever and i felt a pressure to go to university and she pulled me aside and said don't go to university it's not for you in a really great way i needed it because i would have done it because it's what everybody was doing she went you need to go to a drama school because that's where it's not essays and you know thesis god bless this it's practical she was amazing she was so so good What was it like when you got there?

28:39Is it everything you hoped for? Well, I'd applied for all of the drama schools first time around and not got into any and I had to take a gap year. And that really felt like a... When I say gap year, I wasn't backpacking around Thailand. I was working in Fat Face in town, saving up. See, that's quite a prestigious job in the North though. It is, yeah. Did you get a good discount? Oh my God, so good. 75 % off a uniform, 20 % off friends and family. And yes, my code still works. My second question is, did you have to work on the fat face sale at Christmas? Yeah. I mean, to be quite... Put 14525 in your bag online.

29:11It still works. Oh, my God. 14525. But next week's guest comes in and I'm just heads and foot. I've got the whole lot on. Everything's just fat. Oh, fat face. My family start talking about the fat face sale from about the 20th of December. Yeah. What time does it start at? People are outside on deck chairs. My aunt would put orders in like it was a Christmas turkey. She'd be like, when's that going in the sale? She'd come in if it was full price. My auntie on it and she'd be like, oh, that's nice. And I'd be like, two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. I'll put it aside. I'll put it aside. Those flannelette pyjamas.

29:51Yeah. Yeah. Do it all. So I worked there for a year and then I went to uni. And it answered your question, Grace. Like the first year, great. The second and third year. It just was not. I wanted to really learn the craft of acting. And instead, it was really that thing of the year about grind you down to build you back up again. First day, they made everybody sit in a circle like group therapy and tell their life story, including really traumatic events. And you're like, you aren't trained to be getting people to say this in front of 20 other people. And it can be really traumatic for somebody to start talking about.