This week on The Optimist: Unplugged, hosts Jasmine and Eloise speak to Jeanie Vowels – a woman, who after facing various trials and tribulations, finally found herself in standup comedy.
Despite describing herself as ‘quite odd’ as a child, Jeanie was very academically gifted and everyone around her, including herself, saw her pursuing a very studious lifestyle.
She says: “I was a weird girl. I was probably the only ventriloquist in the year 5 talent show, but people would keep me around because they thought I was funny.”
However – everything changed for her after her best friend died.
“My best friend died and it rocked my world,” Jeanie shares, “I just started drinking a lot and I didn’t really care about anything. I didn’t even realise that I hadn’t applied for uni.”
Instead, Jeanie was working in a kitchen – but a self-described ‘chronic job hopper’, she couldn’t keep still.
From there she went into teaching, but decided she didn’t fit in there either and would often ‘distract the kids more than the kids would distract each other.’ It’s something Jeanie attributes to her ADHD, which has often guided many of her choices.
Whilst shifting her focus to new careers, Jeanie became aware of the Edinburgh fringe festival and was immediately invested.
“It was the most amazing transformative experience of my life,” Jeanie says, “Half the comedians I saw I just thought ‘wow you’re amazing’. The other half, I thought ‘you’re not that funny.’
“That’s what gave me to push to think ‘you can do this.’”
Jeanie would go on to get in contact with someone involved at an open mic and that was the start of it – she spent the next three weeks writing her first stand-up set.
She added: “Nothing prepares you for writing your first ever stand-up set. You’re showing yourself off to the world and you’re showing everyone what you think is funny and what’s in your brain. Where do I start? Do I talk about me? Do I talk about Sainsbury’s?
As time went on, Jeanie kept performing and refining her craft. She’s played ‘absolutely awful’ shows, she’s played ‘absolutely wicked’ ones – but she’ll never forget her first ever gig:
“I froze. I have never had anxiety like that,” Jeanie shares, “I was under my duvet cover – I thought ‘I can’t do this.’ My friends basically said no and marched me to the gig.
“My best friend in the world, George, had come to see me but hadn’t told me, and he is the funniest person I know – he made me who I am. I am on stage and I look at the back of the room and see my best friend who is about to watch me potentially bomb on stage talking about North Korean Disney adults for ten minutes.”
But how has Jeanie fared in the industry since? And how proud is she of her own journey? Find out more about her and her story by tuning into the newest episode of The Optimist Unplugged!
You can watch the episode below, or listen to it on Spotify here!
