Entertainment

Misfit made good: Comedienne Zoe Lyons returns to Belfast today

David Roy chats to comedienne Zoe Lyons about bringing her hit stand-up show Little Misfit to Belfast today, surviving reality TV and how you know you're really funny when you can make a Dutchwoman laugh

Comedienne Zoe Lyons plays two shows at The Black Box in Belfast today
Comedienne Zoe Lyons plays two shows at The Black Box in Belfast today Comedienne Zoe Lyons plays two shows at The Black Box in Belfast today

SELF-confessed 'misfit' Zoe Lyons has established herself as one of Britain's most consistently funny stand-ups over the past 15 years. Her current Little Misfit tour launched last year with her seventh solo stint at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Brighton-based Chortle Best Comic winner has also established herself as a TV regular on the likes of Mock The Week, Live At The Apollo and The John Bishop Show.

Welsh-born Lyons (46) has also scooped a Celebrity Mastermind trophy (specialist subject: the life and works of Quentin Crisp) and has even survived a stint on reality TV – literally – having appeared on the 'desert island challenge'-based Survivor in 2001.

Then a self-described 'bar tender and actress' – Lyons studied drama at London's Poor School – she only narrowly missed out on the chance to win Survivor's grand prize of £1 million.

"It was before I started doing stand-up and I did it as kind of a bet to myself," explains Lyons, who plays two shows today at The Black Box in Belfast for the Out To Lunch Festival.

"I saw an advert in a newspaper and I thought 'I bet I can get on that'. It sort of went too far, because I actually did! I did reasonably well (she finished 10th out of 16 contestants) – and I also lost a lot of weight.

"Survivor wasn't half as popular as Big Brother was, and for that I am eternally grateful. There was no social media back then, so it meant I could do it and then slip under the radar. When I started doing stand-up about two years later, not many people recognised me. I'm still glad I did it, but I would have hated for it to taint anything later on."

Happily, things have worked out: by 2004 Lyons had won a Funny Women award and reached the finals of Channel 4's So You Think You're Funny, while her debut solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe Fight or Flight earned her a Best Newcomer nomination at the if.comedy awards' (formerly known as the Perrier Awards) in 2007.

Lyons' Little Misfit set has been loosely inspired by a feeling of 'otherness' that's been with her since her childhood – a period which found her moving around a lot, including spells living in Co Waterford and Co Tipperary (her father is Irish: "I'm a relieved owner of an Irish passport," she tells me when the subject of Brexit comes up).

Could this have helped 'train' her brain for the unpredictable world of comedy?

"I think so," agrees Lyons. "As a comedian you're constantly moving around, out of your comfort zone and performing in places you haven't been before. I lived in Ireland and the south of England, I went to school in Glasgow, university in the north of England and then I ended up in London, so I moved around an awful lot – and actually I think it does help you being in slightly uncomfortable situations.

"You get used to being a slightly odd one out and, as a comedian, you're always the odd one out –you're the one on stage. You are the weirdo.

"So this show is about not fitting in and I talk loosely about Brexit and the influences of – the fact that I have a Dutch wife and how it might affect us."

Lyons also reveals how her spouse is a useful sounding board for new material.

"The Dutch have quite a strange sense of humour," she reveals. "They're what I would diplomatically call 'reluctant laughers'. They like British humour but they don't always commit to it with a full laugh.

"So, if I try a joke out on my Dutch wife and she laughs straight away, I know it's a banker – it doesn't need any work.

"But the really nice thing is that every now and again she'll come out with an absolute corker of a joke, which I'm very proud of. I always think 'Well, you've learned that from me, love. You've been observing!'"

As mentioned, today's visit to Belfast finds Lyons bringing us both an afternoon and evening performance of Little Misfit. Hopefully, it won't be too confusing for her.

"It's always a bit weird doing two in the same day," she tells me, "because you have that moment during the second show where you go 'Have I done this already?!'"

:: Zoe Lyons, today at 1pm and 8pm, The Black Box, Belfast. Tickets priced from £6.50 via CQAF.com