Don’t laugh at huge waves with your mouth open

Joanna Neary here, ello

Hello my friends, I hope you are enjoying summer. We went in four different seas in Cornwall last week, one was choppy, one was deep, one was like being kicked up the bum by surprising waves and the fourth was grey skies but deceptively warm. Swimming in the sea makes me laugh, but in terms of safety it’s not ideal, laughing at huge waves with your mouth open.

Then we got back in time for Airborne which was frankly terrifying. We had a Lancaster bomber circling our home, they are such beautiful designs if you don’t think too hard about the war machine bit. Joanna NERVY more like.

Thank you to everyone who came to see my comedy show Wasp In A Cardigan at the first ever Eastbourne Fringe, it was smashing to see so many people come along to a dark wood lined theatre on a sunny July Friday night. The show is touring this year and so here I am, updating my website for the first time since about 2021. I’ve been too busy making up new voices, drawing and swimming in the sea. Admin? Badmin.

This summer I did my chancy new show at Latitude and it went really well so I’m going back next year and am developing it a bit more. All my comedy colleagues (well, most of them ) are in Edinburgh for the Fringe, if you’re up there too, I hope you are having a ball and do go and see dear old bean Robin Ince for me. I wish I could have seen his two shows this year BUT we are having him back in Eastbourne with his whole show in December (the 9th if you want to put it in your diary) so we’ll see Robin then.

The main thing I’m doing is writing a book, and I’d love to know what you think. I have three big ideas, and one of them is a book like a school annual called CELIA. It’ll have drawings, comic strips, illustrated stories, games, quizzes.. all based on my uptight housewife. What do you think? Would you like to see a book like that? I’m not trying to sell it to you, but I’d love to get an idea of whether or not an arty book that’s funny about my most popular character would be interesting and a nice thing to see. Let me know if you have a sec, I’d be most grateful.

LINKS!

In the meantime, if anyone would like to see and hear more of my shenanigans, here’s a clickable link to my Celia on Radio 4 series Wosson Cornwall 

and another to my filmed show Wife On Earth which went to Edinburgh as Wasp In A Cardigan. It got lots of great reviews, including this one from The List (****) and is available to buy as a download from the mighty Go Faster Stripe.

Finally for now = I’ll be taking part in two art exhibitions this autumn, one with Jonny Hannah in Brighton and at The White Rose Workshop in Newhaven which you can find here.

Thank you for reading to the bottom. Here is a section of my desk blotting paper, I’ve been making Folk Horror inspired prints. I do hope you are all well. Love Jo.