When I was 15, I told some friends that I wanted to do stand-up comedy. I was given, in their words, “the biggest laugh I was going to get”.
Cut to some years later, a pandemic, and a lifelong obsession with comedy made good. I’ve had a few decent laughs since then (despite signing up for my first-ever open mic and never turning up).
Reading Festival
The moment I realised I liked comedy more than other people was very clear. I was 16, and at the Reading Festival. I had gone explicitly for the music – and the secret booze we had rolled up in our sleeping bags – but as we started looking through the programme, trying to decide our itinerary, I was amazed there was also comedy.
I couldn’t believe the incredible list of comedians who were performing. Ones I had seen on TV, watched online, and listened to on BBC Radio 4 (yes, you can be a rapper and still listen to Radio 4).
Obviously, I thought that everyone would be as excited as me and we would centre our days around this. But as I sat very happily by myself, watching hours of stand-up comedy at a music festival, I realised it might just be me.
Rebecca Need-Menear
Early inspirations
I wish I had a lightning bolt moment of how I got into rap, but I just fell in love with the form when I was younger and loved writing raps and doing rap battles.
When I first started doing stand-up, rap wasn’t something I included. However, I think it was always in the back of my mind, as there were two people in particular who were my biggest inspirations as a kid: Tim Minchin and Bo Burnham.
I listened to their albums on repeat, I knew every word and was obsessed with their use of language. I could go into detail about so many songs that shaped my own approach to comedy. One stand-out is The Pope Song by Tim Minchin. I thought it was funny, thought-provoking and naughty – the perfect trifecta.
I was way too young to be allowed to swear, but I made many emboldened speeches about this song because – sorry Mum, sorry Dad – you don’t understand. It’s art.
Rebecca Need-Menear
University
I did a lot of acting at university. My philosophy degree definitely took a back seat in those years – but to be fair, one assignment was to sit in a chair and think for two hours, so it’s not like I had a jam-packed schedule.
I spent my terms performing Shakespeare, Pinter and Molière, and my summers in student-written theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe. I know. I am incredibly sorry to have inflicted this on everyone
I remember one moment in a play in Edinburgh where I was particularly frustrated that I wasn’t ‘in’ my performance and wasn’t ‘feeling’ it. The director took me aside and said: “Did the audience understand what your character wanted? Did they get what they needed? Yes? That’s all that matters.”
She told me to read some David Mamet and, in the kindest possible way, to get over myself. To this day I think of that moment a lot.
Did the audience get it? Did they like it? Yes? You did your job. Sometimes it’s not as much about us as we’d like to think. A relief and a disappointment.
Rebecca Need-Menear
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Picture the scene: it's 26 August 2024 and you’re Amelia Hamilton. You are performing the last night of your stand-up rap work-in-progress show at the Edinburgh Fringe.
A couple of months earlier you broke up with your boyfriend and moved back home with your parents.
You’ve had the most incredible Fringe and there’s a bottle of champagne in your suitcase that has been saved for years, only to be opened at a time you feel proud of yourself.
I brought it on stage with me on that final night and shared it with the audience. It was the closest thing to magic I think I’ll experience.
I am performing my debut hour Forget Me Not at 9:45pm The Attic, Pleasance Courtyard this August at the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets via: pleasance.co.uk. My comedy album will be available from 18 July. Check my website for upcoming shows: ameliahamiltoncomedy.com
