After a long wait, Suzi Ruffell is finally back on tour.

The show ‘Dance Like Everyone’s Watching’ will stop at the Mills Arts Centre in Banbury on Friday, December 10.

After one and a half years pause Suzi said it feels amazing to be out on tour again.

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She said: “It's awesome, it's been really great being out on tour, the audiences have been fantastic, and it seems there's a real appetite for people to go out and laugh.

“And the tour shows have been fantastic, some of the best ones I've ever had in ten years of doing stand-up. I think there's a real excitement about being back out and people wanting to laugh and wanting to have a bit of escapism.”

Speaking about the tour, Suzi said: “It's a really upbeat and joyous show.

“It’s about celebrating life, it's about these silly mishaps that we all have, and it's just about getting out and making people laugh more than anything else.”

By turning tragedy and anxiety into cracking comedy, the comedian has made quite a name for herself, and Suzi admits she was a bit worried that she had lost her spark.

The 35-year-old comedian said she was afraid she would no longer be able to be funny now that she has found happiness.

“When I first started writing the show, I thought, ‘Oh God, am I still going to be funny if I am happy?’” Suzi said.

“There’s an old adage that comedians are secretly all depressed, and I worried that when I got happy if it meant that my career would be over.”

“But in fact, it seems that people have been loving the shows even more because I think that sort of joyfulness is contagious, and now it feels that that's been needed more than ever before.”

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Suzi has had five sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival and even landed herself a spot in the British Comedy Guide’s Best Reviewed Shows three years in a row.

In 2018, she recorded and released her show Keeping It Classy for Live From The BBC, with a clip that gained over 32 million views on Facebook.

She is also a regular on BBC Radio 4 shows including The News Quiz and The Now Show and co-hosts the hit podcast Like Minded Friends with Tom Allen.

Whilst in lockdown, Suzi has kept herself busy and even created her own podcast, ‘Out with Suzi’, where she interviewed big queer celebrities.

She said: “I wanted to create something that was very positive about the queer experience.

“Whilst there’s a lot of queer people that listen, there are actually lots of straight people that listen who are allies or who are just really interested in human stories and in stories about people overcoming things that feel like obstacles.

“But in the end, they're not obstacles, they're just sort of part of who you are and just engaging and embracing and celebrating who you are is actually how a lot of people have found real happiness, and I guess the show is in a way an extension of that.

She added: “I'll get queer people that come along to the show, but I'd say the audiences are overwhelmingly straight because I think it doesn't matter what your journey is, people are just interested in your journey.”

Coming out at the age of 21, Suzi said it was difficult for her, and it took a long time for her to accept who she was.

She said: “I spent a long time in denial and not wanting to be who I am. Initially, coming out is quite hard. I think it’s quite hard for a lot of people.”

“In the end, it's sort of the bravest thing I've ever done but also the best thing I've ever done because it means I can live my life openly and honestly and not worry about pretending to be somebody else.”

Suzi said she would often be cast in silly roles at drama school and quickly realised she wanted to become a comedian.

“Once I started, it became like an addiction for me,” she said.

“From the first time I got a laugh, I just thought, ‘this is what I want to do the rest of my life’, and now I am really privileged that that is what I do, I make a living making people laugh.”

 

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