Jenny Eclair is a legend, not only in her fans’ eyes, but also in those of her fellow comics. Katherine MacAlister tracks her down before her gig in Chipping Norton

JENNY Eclair is reminiscing about her early years as a comedian. “It was like doing stand up at Borstal,” she recalls when discussing the early days.

“There was one comedy club you could only get to by motorway footbridge and Jo Brand and I would always consider jumping off it, on the way there. That’s how awful it was,” she smiles.

“It’s a healthier scene now though because women are allowed to be themselves on stage. Now you can be indie and quirky but then you wouldn’t have got away with that.

“You had to get on stage and start shouting just to get them to notice you, just to get them to turn their heads in your direction. You couldn’t go on and be kookie and strange. You had to scream ‘******** listen to me’.”

It’s easy to forget that the comedy scene wasn’t always like it is today. When comedy was based around working men’s clubs, women like Jenny Eclair had to take them on at their own game.

“I would go for months without seeing another woman on the circuit because there weren’t any,” she says. “But there were lots of 18-year -old students who find they are suddenly able to shout ‘**** off’ at you and really enjoy it.”

“It was gladitorial,” she admits, “but does that make you a better comic? I don’t know. It boxes you into a comedy corner because a lot of your material aims to get attention from people I wouldn’t want to get in a lift with.”

Which does beg the question why? “I needed to do enough gigs to get good at it and earn some money. They took me on and I had to convince them. It was as simple as that.”

After years of hard graft, everything changed for Jenny when she appeared on TV’s Grumpy Old Women, capturing a whole new live comedy audience on the way.

“I discovered the grumpy audience in 2005 and it’s been really nice ever since. That changed everything. It was such a meeting of spirits,” she sighs happily.

Her appearance on I’m A Celebrity followed, but how much of a gamble was it to join the reality TV show?

“I just wanted to run away at the time because my friend had just died and I needed to get away from it all. So I didn’t think beyond the flights. I got to fly business and stay in a hotel. They didn’t even intend to use me. I was there in case Gillian McKeith bailed,” Jenny laughs. “But then they suddenly handed over the hat and the boots and the helicopter arrived and off I went. It just happened. I was in the lap of the gods. The whole thing was just very surreal.”

Which, in turn helped win her place on Loose Women, which ground to a halt after just a year.

“Yes, that made me slightly anxious financially because I was £40,000 down. But it’s all water under the bridge now and I hope the girls will come along to the London shows. And anyway, TV shows get bums on seats,” Jenny admits.

Instead she published her third novel this summer, wrote the tour and is now on the road. Pretty prolific then? “That’s my job,” she said indignantly.

“Most people I know work a damn sight harder than me. And while I have an aptitude to be an enormous sloth when I want, I can sit down and flog myself when I need to.”

Jenny Eclair might be in a reflective mood, but aged 52 and with 30 years of comedy under her belt to celebrate, she’s earned it.

In fact her new tour Eclarious delves into just that, “a rich untapped seam” as she calls it. “I spent 15 years changing my top next to the deep fat fryer in the room above the pub,” she smiles, “So yes, I’ve got a lot of content, and this tour is quite anecdotal. It’s got a hook and even my early punk poems make an appearance.”

Easy to write then?

“No,” she squeals, “while I was writing it I had a huge amount of doubt, you know, have I got anything new to say. And then I discovered that yes I have actually. And I started the tour on Saturday and am loving it, because when you’re doing work you can defend to the hilt you can have a really nice time, and I can defend this to the hilt.”

  • * Jenny Eclair is appearing at The Theatre Chipping Norton on Wednesday.
  • Call the box office on 01608 642350