CHELSEA YOUNG

 Today, we welcome rising star to the comedy scene, Chelsea Young. Having been an avid fan of stand-up comedy her whole life, her career thus far has led her to perform all around Scotland and quickly becoming a favorite act to watch. 


Great to have you here, pal! Thanks so much, let's crack right on with it. What made you want to get into stand-up comedy?

I was always really into stand-up comedy as a kid (I have an older brother who introduced me to people like Rhod Gilbert when I was a kid) and wanted to give it a go just once as a confidence-building exercise, as I was really shy growing up. I did my first open mic in November 2021 and just absolutely fell in love with being on stage performing, so decided to carry it on.

Your career so far in the industry has been nothing short of incredible, gigging all over the country, how do you manage to stay motivated whilst balancing a day job? 

I think I sort of have the mentality of 'I don't HAVE to do standup, I GET to do standup', and my day job helps to cover the cost of travel, etc, and allows me to do what I love. Also, it does help that I genuinely do really enjoy my day job. I work at Greggs as a server, which means I'm constantly chatting to customers, which really helps with the confidence side of doing standup. I have to admit, finding the motivation during the Fringe was seriously difficult, doing a morning shift at Greggs in Dundee and then traveling through to Edinburgh every day to do flyering work and hopping on lineups, and running on about 2 hours of sleep a night, but it was totally worth it in the end.

Not only do you gig a lot, you also had a busy Fringe this year. Got any plans for 2023's Festival?

I reckon for next year's Fringe I'm still mostly going to be doing 10-minute spots on lineups and flyering for comedians, but if possible I'd really love to have a split bill show with one or two other comedians, doing 20-30 minutes each. 

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given by a pro-comic? 

The best piece of advice was given to me by Mark Watson, who has always been a huge inspiration to me and a massive help when I was first starting out. His advice was to basically see the audience as a group of friends. You're essentially just there to have a laugh with them, and if you enjoy yourself on stage, there's a good chance they will also enjoy watching you, as charisma/joy is infectious.

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