Sara Pascoe is the latest guest on hit podcast Dish from Waitrose with Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw. Sara talks about the best thing about being a comedian, her love of soup, why mash is better than chips, being vegan, how she got into comedy and her new series Zero Stars and lots more.
Dish from Waitrose is available on all podcast providers.
Here is a taste of the interview:
SARA ON THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A COMEDIAN
“This is the most amazing thing about being a comedian and why-I think everyone should be a comedian, is that you just get a clap for arriving at work. You haven't done anything else but say your own name off stage and everyone's like, yeah. It's so nice.”
SARA ON HER LOVE OF SOUP
“I love soup, so, much…Oh, soup or Take That? Well, I probably eat soup more than I listen to Take That's music. But if I had to get rid of one for the planet, I'd feel really selfish getting rid of Take That, so I'd get rid of soup. Not that you were making me.”
SARA ON WHY MASH IS BETTER THAN CHIPS
“Yeah, I think, I think this is comfort food territory-And I think soup, the warmth of it. And it's so healthy. It's such a great way to eat loads of beans and vegetables. Stew exactly the same for that reason. And mash, for me, that's like a disgusting comfort food. Like, you know, you can make it taste so buttery, you can put olive oil in it. Salt and pepper. And I don't know, I'm miming like a pig [imitates a pig]. I wanna shove it into my face.”
SARA ON BEING VEGAN
“No [my husband is not vegan]. Exact opposite. Greek-Australian. Likes really good meats-that's taken 6 hours…We're divorcing, yeah. I really thought I could convert him, but 5 years in, nope. He's still a murderer. It's over. It's fine. I am. I really believe that food is so personal. And we all have access to the same information. And we make our own decisions. I love not eating animals, but I also understand that, other people don't care. And that’s fine! That's fine.”
“Not since I was 7, eating meat. And then probably quite a long time ago, now maybe about 15 years ago, um I met lots of people who were also vegan. There's a lot of vegan stand-ups actually. I don't know if you found this. Comedians used to be quite rock and roll, they used to like do cocaine and stuff, and now we're all just like-Having naked baths and kombucha, [laughs], yeah.”
SARA ON HOW SHE GOT INTO COMEDY
“No [it wasn’t always going to be comedy]. I wouldn't have known that comedy was a thing, but I did want to be, uh, famous, and that's very important, actor. I really, really wanted to be an actor. I was, I was very naive. I was when I was really precocious and like, I had my first Oscar by 22-or I'll kill myself. I remember we once had TIE come into school. Did you ever have TIE? It's like a-Theatre in Education. So, we had this group and they were doing this play about why you, um, shouldn't drink drive. And it was sort of that theatre where the character, they stop and you can tap in and go like-‘What the character should have done.’ ‘Like, I'm not coming with you-you've had 3 beers.’
So, like that. And it had such an effect on me. I just suspend my disbelief too easily. So, I watched it and I thought, ‘I'm just never gonna learn to drive in case I drink.’ And I still haven't learned to drive 'cause this play was so powerful. But at the end they- I like, like put my hand up to tell them that I was going to be an actor and they were like, ‘Oh right.’ And I was like, ‘I'm going to go to RADA, I'm gonna go to Broadway, and then I'm gonna win my first Oscar by 22.’ I was like this little mini Tom Hiddleston. But, uh, it, it, it didn't happen.”
SARA ON WHY SHE THINKS SHE IS A BAD ACTOR
“The reason I'm such a bad actor, I found this out in therapy about 4 years ago. I'm a really bad actor because I don't lose myself, because I want to be seen. And that's comedy. Comedy is showing yourself. And I would be like, ‘I'm Lady Macbeth!’ ‘What's going on! Oh my hands!’ I was, I didn't, I didn’t ever, I didn't ever, when other actors would talk about losing themselves, I'd be like, ‘Do you mean putting on a voice?’ So, it all worked out really well.”
SARA ON HER NEW SERIES ZERO STARS
“I'm obsessed with her [Roisin Conaty]. She is the wisest, funniest person ever. And essentially we got pitched this job, which is, do you want to go on holiday together 8 times this summer? Yes, please. So desperate for it. Didn't really listen to what the show was, which is very poorly reviewed tourist attractions. I was I was like, ‘You had me at Roisin!’ ‘Sorry, what's that about Albania?’ Okay.”
“Yes. Everywhere we go to, hotels, resorts, restaurants, are all places that some people-have really disliked. And actually what kept happening in the series is that, you'd read these reviews. People are really harsh online now. One tiny thing or something that isn't to their particular taste. And often we would go and have a really wonderful time, because when you are with your friend-and you want to have a nice time, life is fantastic. And it's what you make of it. But there were some, you know, odd stuff.”
“We went on the worst cruise. The most poorly reviewed cruise. I think the ship is from the '80s. And, um, and you can't you can't-you can't get off. Well, there was a hole! There's a hole in my bathroom. It didn't have a drain, it just had like a hole in the floor. And I'd taken my, like, youngest son, who was 18 months with me, and he kept putting my phone in there-and it was full of, full of hair. 30 years of hair. And I said to the director, ‘You've got to get in my room. It's got this hole full of hair.’ And he went, ‘We can't!’ You know, ‘We can't show, a hair hole!’…Oh, so it [the cruise] starts in Turkey and it goes to Greece. Or well, vice versa. Starts in Greece, goes to Turkey. Yeah.”
“Yeah, I, I think that's what's great about it as a format, is it is really funny. It's funny what they made us do. I went to Transylvania-which I never would have done by myself…Yeah, we got got to do graffiti. We shot guns! In a rifle range in Albania. So we did some stuff where I was like-I never would have done that.”
“Yeah, Roisin was really brave. She had her nose waxed in Turkey. I hope she won't mind me saying that. [laughs] It is in the programme…No, no, because they said to us, go to, they often didn't tell us really what was going to happen. So we'd go and meet a contributor, there might be a translator, and they duh, duh, duh- And we thought we were in a barber's. I thought I might get a head massage. And then he starts putting cotton buds, with wax, up Roisin's nose. He yanks them out, he's like, ‘Your turn.’ I was like, ‘No, no, no-’ ‘I don't want-’ I think it is fantastic. I'm just scared of pain.”
“Well, that's it. It was done very honestly. So they always knew. And usually-especially if it's a small business, what you realise is these businesses sort of, either, sink or float based on these reviews. So quite often they wanted a chance to show. Yes, there's no lift here. Yeah. But that's because it's only 2 floors and it's a listed building. And that's what you'd find is that sometimes people would be going, ‘They're mad.’ What do people expect when your- Like you’re on holiday? Obviously, if you've got issues and you can't climb stairs, but who's-who's- Just lug your suitcase up there and shut up.”
“And I think, I think people sometimes need to go, ‘Am I doing this because I just need to feel better?’ And it's very bad karma sometimes. Unless you really do need to warn other-patrons. Do you need to write that? Could you be more reasonable?...Sometimes I'll tell you something that happens on Amazon-if you write a book-when you sell your book, sometimes something might go wrong with the parcel-or maybe it gets a bit ripped, you know, it's an accident, and they'll put a 1-star review on your book. Like, turns up and-the front cover's ripped, you go, I didn't rip it! And put it, in your Amazon package, sent it to you like, ‘Oh yeah, 8 quid down the drain.’”
“Roisin, Roisin would have lots to talk to you about food. Because I don't eat animals, a lot of the places we went to, obviously a lot of countries, their delicacies are horrible bits of animals. So every time we would get to a restaurant, they'd be like, ‘Okay, this is the best Georgian restaurant, um, Sara, they're not gonna be able to have anything for you.’And then I would sit there and have a nice glass of wine and they'd be bringing-her like you know, full skulls-with brains in, like lambs' heads and testicles and all of that. ‘She'd be like, oh great, okay.’”
