Arabella Weir Takes the Stage

Comedian, actor and writer Arabella Weir has advised young women wanting a future in comedy to be “relentless” in order to achieve success. She has also argued that career equality between men and women can only be achieved if everybody is taught from an early age that childcare is the responsibility of both parents.

Famed for her book Does My Bum Look Big In This and her TV roles in The Fast Show and Two Doors Down, Weir will be appearing at the Wigtown Book Festival this Friday. She will be performing her show Does My Mum Loom Big in This? which is full of hilarious true stories from her dysfunctional childhood and her life as a single working mother.


Weir said: “It’s about my very tricky relationship with my very tricky mother and also a bit about being a mother myself. It is funny, shocking in parts, and thought provoking.”

The Wigtown performance is a chance to see Does My Mum Loom Big in This? in advance of a national tour starting in February 2020 and following a sell-out run in Edinburgh this summer. Ahead of the event she spoke about the challenges facing women, and mothers in particular, in their careers.

She said: “I don’t think women are treated equally in any profession - we are a long way from any platform being level for women. I think we need to start by reassigning childcare roles so that from school age kids understand that children are the equal responsibility of both parents. It all starts with seeing girls and women as equals in every field.”

And for young women hoping for a career in comedy she had some specific and practical advice: “Write your own material and make it a true and personal to yourself as possible and do as many gigs, no matter how cheesy and poorly attended, as you can - plugging relentlessly away is the only way you’ll get good at it.”