Jess Robinson

Komedia, Brighton

Thursday, February 21

Having started her career in panto and worked her way up, Jess Robinson found mainstream fame in 2017 when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent. Now the impressionist and comedian has a new show that is impressing in clubs across the country, having already wowed at Edinburgh Fringe. She speaks to Jamie Walker about what fans can expect from her No Filter show.

Hi Jess, how are things going?

Really good thank you, I’m still recovering from pantomime, which I was in this winter.

It’s a punishing schedule, with so many shows.

I’d been in pantos before though, maybe 13 or 14, my first-ever job was a panto, so I’m a bit more used to it.

Do you think your stand-up show is a lot like panto in the sense that it’s a fusion of acting and singing and comedy?

I know what you mean, it can be similar.

But I’m glad I don’t do three shows a day on my new tour.

Let’s talk about your tour, how much are you looking forward to it?

The tour actually kicks off fully in Brighton.

That will be the first full outing of it.

I’m really looking forward to it.

It’s based on a 60-minute show I did at the Edinburgh Fringe last year.

It’s very feelgood, a bit cheeky, it’s not for a young audience that’s for sure.

Edinburgh Fringe is another event where the schedule is quite rigorous. Do you have the same feeling coming off the back of that as you do with panto?

Yeah I do a bit.

You have devoted every day of your life for weeks to doing the same show every day.

It means you spend most of September sleeping.

Even though it’s long I’m always sad when a show finishes, so it’s always great to take it on tour.

You’ve been doing this for a while but a lot of people may only know you from your time on Britain’s Got Talent. Those outings were more family friendly than your tour, so what can people who only saw you on BGT expect from this show?

There’s a lot more stand-up and silly stories.

I’m allowed to do what I want, whereas I absolutely wasn’t on BGT.

Everything had to go through producers and be approved.

Now I can interact with the audience a lot more and make them part of the show.

They get the chance to choose a song for me to sing and the accent I do it in.

I’ve had some great mash-ups like Shirley Bassey singing “I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester”.

So is it open to any song or impression?

I think there’s 100 different combinations because I’ve got ten impressions and ten songs – just in case someone asks me to do Ozzy Osbourne, which I can’t do.

We play it like celebrity volleyball.

The audience wear celebrity face masks and they then choose from that assortment.

It must be great that the audience get to interact with yourself and the show?

Yeah it means that I get a different show every night.

I like the improvisation of not quite knowing what’s going to happen.

When you prepare these shows, how does it work in terms of what impressions to do, what songs to sing and what stand-up to incorporate?

A lot of it is topical, stuff from the news, so there’s a bit of Theresa May but not too much.

Mainly it’s pop culture and things that have been in the news from entertainment.

There’s some vintage impressions – like Judy Garland – if you want to bring your nan along.

But there’s also stuff for the younger generation – there’s a great Nicki Minaj song I do about what I imagine her day off would consist of.

It’s so much fun and there’s also some naughty stories from my teenage years.

Some bits are auto-biographical and others are just really out there.

When did you realise that impressions were something you wanted to make into a career?

That’s a funny one actually.

I started doing impressions at school to make my friends laugh but I never wanted to be an impressionist until I was already doing it professionally.

I fell into it by lying basically.

I was doing a pantomime and there was a show coming up at a nearby theatre.

I really didn’t want to go back to my day job, I was working in a windowless stock room in a clothes shop in Oxford Street.

They wanted someone who could do impressions, so I lied and said I could do them to get an audition.

They invited me in and so I was forced to practice it.

I already had a knack for it.

What impression did they ask you to do?

I had to do Billie Holiday, which is still one of my favourites, and loads of other classic ones.

After that I started doing more modern ones.

Is there an impression that you can’t do that you wish you could?

I wish I could do Nina Simone.

She’s got such a low voice.

I can’t do many men with low voices.

You’re performing at Brighton Komedia, how do you like it as a venue?

I love the Komedia.

I’m actually moving to Brighton this year, I absolutely love it there.

My fiancée lives there so I’m moving out of London to go there.

There’s something so lovely about getting back from the madness of London and walking along the beach.

It bursts the bonkers bubble.

You are free to be whoever you want in Brighton and nobody cares.

It’s a fabulous place.

What do you think makes Brighton such a great place for comedy?

Comedians like it because it’s close to London.

Because everyone is friendly and more open you’re likely to get a warmer audience. The Brighton audience is always up for a good time, they don’t take the stress of their day with them.