Interview: Jonny Pelham

Jonny Pelham has a gift for putting people at ease. The openness with which he performs stand-up comedy builds trust with an audience, allowing him to delve into the most sensitive of topics.

In his remarkable 2015 newcomer hour, Before and After, Pelham explored growing up with popliteal pterygium syndrome and his dilemma when offered facial surgery by the NHS. In 2019’s Off Limits, Pelham confronted the trauma of child sexual abuse. "It is such a taboo topic," he tells us over a video call. "It feels like there is a social need to talk about this issue. If it's treated as a horrible topic that nobody wants to talk about, then it just perpetuates."

His comedic talents, developed in front of tough crowds at Newcastle comedy clubs while still a student, were evident in his subsequent Live at the Apollo set. Instead of using a more mainstream routine for a wider TV audience, Pelham candidly opened with that 'horrible topic'. Then, in his 2021 Channel 4 documentary Let's Talk: Child Sex Abuse, he spoke to other survivors.

Despite the need for these conversations, the aftermath of talking about CSA so publicly has sometimes taken its toll on Pelham. "I'm quite an avoidant human being so I don’t really process my emotions. People kept coming up to me and talking about what happened to them as kids – and that does have an impact."

Pelham found himself questioning if stand-up allows for a truly honest picture of his experiences. "There was a sense in my last show where I said, 'This happened to me and I processed it and I'm fine'... I guess I've realised that was an over simplification."

Now bringing his fifth show, Optimism Over Despair, to Edinburgh, Pelham is set to explore the inherent tension that comes with portraying trauma in comedy. "Part of this show is problematising the idea that I was as OK as I thought I was about it. There's a need, when you do a comedy show, to tell everyone that you're OK because the audience need to laugh; and to laugh they need to feel relaxed and safe.

"I have a desire, a deep desire, not to wrap the show up in a bow and say, 'I'm fine now'; or to make myself out to be a 'happy victim' to make it more palatable for audiences. It is a tension that I am trying to figure out. It’s a fascinating tension."

After a brief period where Pelham considered "knocking stand-up on the head", he’s lately experienced a shift in his perspective towards the art form. "I've always had this idea of transformational change through doing comedy. I'm letting go of that idea of it. What happened to me as a kid has had a profound impact on who I am. It's not going to be a case of me moving past it and becoming the 'authentic' human being I was always meant to be. Life's messy and fucked up. It won't be caterpillar-to-butterfly. It'll always be a fucked-up caterpillar. But that's fine."

To his surprise he’s found writing Optimism Over Despair cathartic. "I've actually really loved writing this show, especially after I’d got to quite a negative place in comedy. I think I write shows to try and figure out what's been going on in my life. Writing the show has helped me figure out the last two or three years of my life in a helpful way."