I was living in London working in an office job when I decided to finally give comedy a whirl. I went down to an open mic night in the basement of a sticky-floored nightclub. Obviously, I totally bombed but I loved it and couldn’t wait to do more.
Early on, I met an act who told me that comedy could give you a vocation, an income and a social circle. All it required in return was sacrifice.
Sounds wise, but that man has since gone on to become a presenter for GB News, so who knows?
Rebecca Need-Menear
The audience of Norman
Amy Gledhill and I first went to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 as The Delightful Sausage, our double act. We eventually ended up having a great time at the Fringe but we’ll never forget our first audience… Norman.
That’s right, we performed to one solitary man. But please don’t think for a second that Norman was a good guy. While we performed our hearts out for what surely has to be the smallest audience in Fringe history, Norm used the light of our projector to read his paper. And he didn’t put anything in the bucket. Bad guy!
Tiredness Kills
Tiredness Kills was our lockdown baby. We roped in some of our favourite comedians and a wizard-grade sound designer to make a semi-improvised sitcom masquerading as a podcast for the late-night trucking community.
Even though it’s chaotic, hours and hours of prep went into crafting each episode. Eventually, as the world began to turn back on, the workload and intensity of making Tiredness Kills eventually caught up with us and we went fully bonkers.
I’m still really proud of it but it also taught me a great deal about the sweat that’s required to convert an idea into a tangible reality. And the skills I learnt during that project paved the way for Icklewick FM, our BBC Radio 4 sitcom.
Rebecca Need-Menear
Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination
Amy and I were lucky enough to have been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. We’d often joke that being nominated for the highest award in the kingdom gave us the confidence of a first-year Cambridge Footlights sketch group. We got to drink champagne and stock up on pastries.
To this day, I still can’t quite wrap my head around it. I look at the trophy on my mantelpiece and think, “That’s mad.” Then I have to hide it with a tea towel, otherwise I’d get nothing done.
It was a really surreal experience and I’ve not laughed so much in years.
SNL UK
My most recent adventure has been one of the wildest – being chosen as a writer for the first series of SNL UK. I had to move back down to London, once again becoming a lodger – a period of my life I thought was behind me.
Although there’s a huge social dynamic to being a comedian, you’re really on your own for huge swathes of time. That’s either writing, driving or trying to find free parking in city centres around the UK.
So, this is the first job in years where I’ve been lucky enough to work as part of a team. They’re all deranged misfits, and it’s brilliant.
It was a really surreal experience and I’ve not laughed so much in years. I mean, it is a laugh, but every Tuesday night I’ll be screaming “shitting hell” trying to make a script work at 2am.
I’ll also always remember storming around, making script changes and giving notes to Oscar-winning Riz Ahmed while dressed as a Victorian scholar.
Watch live
Rewilding will be making its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe this August. It’s on at 12.10pm at the Monkey Barrel, details here. It will then be touring the UK starting in March 2027. Also, PS, fuck you Norman! I hope wherever you are, you’re sad.
