Tamar Broadbent brings live comedy back to Horsham

Tamar Broadbent will be offering the first live comedy at Horsham’s Capitol since lockdown when she brings Songs For The New Normal to the venue on Friday, October 2.
Tamar BroadbentTamar Broadbent
Tamar Broadbent

Is she nervous? Absolutely not. It’s pure excitement as she contemplates getting back to live performance.

“I love the theatre there. I did a show there in 2019. At that point I was living in Amsterdam for two years, working in an improv theatre. I came back to do the show in Horsham… and then I moved back to London earlier this year, just before the lockdown!

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“It was tough,” admits Tamar, who grew up in Ashtead, Surrey. “All the shows went. There have been no performances… but before that I had been performing every day for two years with just one or two days off. And I had been performing for years before that.

“And there is nothing quite like it, especially with comedy. Performing gives you a lot of adrenaline and excitement. Not having that definitely messed with my equilibrium, just not having that wonderful opportunity to make people laugh and to perform for them. It makes your heart race. It gives you endorphins. I just really missed it! Zoom performances are not the same. If you are muting people in their box on Zoom and doing a funny song, obviously you don’t get the laughs. All you can do is look at their faces. And you haven’t got a stage. You are just sitting in your bedroom. It’s just not as good. I did a couple of things on Zoom, and then I just thought I would explore other areas of creativity. I wrote the first draft of a book. I started writing sitcom scripts. I just found new ways of being creative.

“But really there is nothing like performing. There is something so special and spectacular about live performance. That’s why the Greeks built the amphitheatres. That’s why it has been around for as long we have.”

And that’s why she’s thrilled to be back at the Capitol.

“I don’t think anyone needs to be cautious. It’s a big space, and all the social distancing measures are going to be in place. In that sense, everybody can feel very relaxed and safe. I don’t feel nervous in any way. I just feel excited. It will be wonderful. It will be almost like going into a time warp and going back six months.”

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Having said that, Tamar listened to herself doing a podcast BC (Before Coronavirus): “It is just felt so odd, so different, so much has happened since.”

Inevitably she will be talking about all that has happened: “Obviously coronavirus is not funny. There is nothing funny about it. But what is funny is human behaviour. I have written a new song about having to do another Zoom quiz on a Friday night because there is nothing else.”

And though she’s not single herself, Tamar – as heard on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show and Sketchtopia and as seen on Comedy Central Online’s Ones to Watch –found a rich comedy vein in thinking about what being single during the pandemic would have been like, meeting someone over the last loo roll, wondering if it is possible to find someone attractive when they are wearing a mask...

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