Zara Gladman is a Glasgow-based comedian and writer who went viral with her TikTok sketches featuring characters like Lady Alba and everyone’s favourite West End Mum, Aileen. We caught up with Zara to talk Fringe experiences, working-class voices in comedy, and Aileen’s cunning plan to raise money for her perfect son Cameron’s gap year.
First of all, congratulations. You’re on a roll right now with the release of your very own sketch show on BBC Scotland, and Aileen is taking herself to the Fringe. It’s all happening!
Thank you!
How do we go from TikTok to the BBC?
Well, initially, The Comedy Unit followed me on Twitter, which I found very exciting because I knew that they’d made shows like Limmy’s Show, which I really am a massive fan of. So they followed me on socials because of my TikToks. From there we started chatting and they got me writing on a couple of their existing shows. We built up a rapport to the extent I was then able to invite them to see me at my show.
I wrote up a kind of pitch document, we met with the BBC in September last year, and then a few weeks later, we got the word that they were gonna give us this pilot. So then I just started writing. We filmed it in February over two days – we filmed 19 sketches in two days, which was crazy.
Plenty to be excited about, but it’s not been an easy road. Online, being well-known can have its drawbacks, especially if you’re a woman.
Sure. I mean, sadly, misogyny exists offline and online. So there’s no escaping it even if you know it’s kind of well known, historically.
In general, I find the internet to be quite a safe space. I think sometimes the algorithm finds your people, so the comments that I get on my videos are really lovely and they reach a really kind, predominantly women-biased audience. However, I have come up against trolls on a number of occasions. God, I mean I think when I first started doing online stuff for BBC The Social, which was in maybe 2017, that was the first time I had it really bad. I did raise it with the BBC at the time, because I was kind of in shock about it all. That did affect me and I was quite upset by it.
Can you give our readers an insight into how easy or difficult it has been getting to the Fringe?
This is the first time I’ve done the Fringe, so I’m very much learning as I go. I did try to do as much research as I could before committing to doing it. What I realised is that people don’t talk about it – I think everybody knows that the system’s broken, but if we don’t talk about it, how can we fix it?
I’m very fortunate in that Monkey Barrel are very ethical when it comes to the deal that they give to their artists. I’ve heard of other venues that charge lots of money up front, and I think it’s the up-front fee that is a real barrier for a lot of people because, you know, not everybody has £1500, £2000 to pay before they’ve even got to the Fringe. The artist is going to make very little money proportionate to the amount of work that they’re putting in. So it’s not great.
I live in Glasgow, I’m very close by, but I have no idea how somebody down south or, you know, further afield could afford to come and do the Fringe. I just worry about the long-term, the Fringe just becoming a monoculture of rich people who are saying the same thing, who are all the same, and there’s not any diversity because of how extortionate and inaccessible it is becoming.
What do you think the average person would spend, to be at the Fringe for maybe a two- or three-week run?
I could tell you right now how much I’ve spent to date without accommodation. It’s something like a couple of grand. You can easily burn through a couple of grand before you’ve even turned up at the festival. It’s about everyone having that opportunity regardless of their financial situation. That just shouldn’t matter. It’s sad that all these voices are missing from the Fringe who can’t afford to be there.
Which brings us to the Edinburgh show. Of all of your characters, why Aileen?
There was just something that amused me about the idea of a very privileged person coming to the Fringe and asking people for money. And I thought, let’s do something different. Let’s have members of the public donate money to a privately educated, young, straight, white man who has the full support of his mother. She wouldn’t set foot in Edinburgh otherwise. So she’s doing a service, actually. And you know, I think when Cameron [Aileen’s son] travels the world and shares his expertise and educates communities, when he parachutes into communities – literally – to educate them, it’s going to be a wonderful thing!
Any parting advice?
I mean, if you’re a woman comedian or if you are thinking about doing comedy and you’re nervous about it, then please just do it, because we need more diversity in general in comedy. I have found TikTok really empowering in that there’s no gatekeepers and you just need a phone. So that would be my advice. Just remember, we’re all going to die. Nothing matters. So you’ve got nothing to lose.
Zara Gladman’s sold-out Fringe show Aileen: Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser will run from 29th July–10th August at Hive 2, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh. Remainging tickets available here.
A limited number of ‘pay what you can’ tickets will be for sale on the door each night
Good for Her is showing now on BBC iPlayer. Available here.
Main photo credit Neil Jarvie
