Susan Calman, the Glasgow-born comedian and author, has revealed how a career in corporate law and a lifelong struggle with depression led her to the comedy circuit, which she describes as “an industry full of weirdos” where she finally found her people. Calman, 50, who won a Scottish Bafta in 2007 for Channel 4 sketch show Blowout, is set to take her first show in a decade, Tall Tales, across the UK from 11 September to 20 November.
Reflecting on her early years, Calman recalled feeling like an outsider at a private school in Glasgow, where her eccentricity and disinterest in pop culture set her apart. She experienced depression for the first time in her teens, attributing it to isolation and loneliness. Despite knowing she was gay from a young age, she waited until she was 20 to come out, partly because her grandmother, who died shortly before, disapproved of gay people. Her parents, she said, were “absolutely super” about it.
Before finding her calling in comedy, Calman trained as a lawyer, a profession she admits she lacked the skills for. She worked on death row cases in North Carolina while studying, which she described as a shock to the system but also the start of her world expanding. After a subsequent trip to a gay resort in Provincetown, she called it “an extraordinary summer of extremes.” In corporate law, she felt out of place, with one boss telling her to stop dressing like a gardener because of her Tank Girl boots.
Calman started standup in 2006 after friends encouraged her to try it. She has since become a familiar face on TV and radio panel shows, hosted the podcast Mrs Brightside, and published two books: Cheer Up Love and Sunny Side Up: A Story of Kindness and Joy. She lives in Glasgow with her wife, Lee.
