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Bristol Unpacked Archive – Jayde Adams
Priyanka Raval
Hello, it's Priyanka, editor at the Bristol cable with international women's day just gone. We're revisiting this episode from April 2022 where Neil sat down with local comedy legend Jayde Adams, a woman who went from stacking shelves at Asda Bedminster to landing her own Amazon Prime special. She is a woman truly worth celebrating. She's gone from local performer to a household name, and this year, in January, she headlined the very first Bristol Comedy Festival. This episode is both hilarious and moving. It was recorded just after Will Smith's infamous slap was making headlines worldwide. Neil and Jayde chat about all things comedy. Are there any red lines? What's it like coming back to her hometown in Bristol, having been in London, which was the subject of her BBC documentary, and crucially, why you should never underestimate someone with a Bristol accent. Here it is – the slap, Bristolian accent, grief and coming home, from the Bristol unpacked archives. Enjoy.
Neil Maggs
You are one of the few people that have sort of left the city Bristol. You were, you know, born and bred in Bedminster, and have actually become famous, and have actually become, you know, a master at the craft in which you do. You did say, blow smoke up your ass, didn't you?
Jayde Adams
So I did – say I was like, if you don't, then I'm getting off this interview. But that is such compliment. Thank you. Yeah.
Neil Maggs
But no, you are, though, and I think that actually there are so few people from Bristol that do, but you have to leave the city to kind of, I guess, find your voice or find your your path, really, didn't you?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, well, back in 2004 there wasn't really social media or anything. So if you did want to make it big anywhere, you sort of had to leave the city. So I decided to obviously go to Treforest in Wales, notorious place for, well, actually, you say we do jest. But Tom Jones is from Pontypridd where I lived in, okay?
Neil Maggs
And you can sing as well. So you could have gone in in that direction, and if you just stayed…
Jayde Adams
I think it's probably, I think the singing thing will happen at some point in my life. It's just at the moment I'm wanting to just make a name for myself. And the easiest way to do that was to open my gob and say some opinions, because that's the world we live in nowadays. So I moved to London in 2010 and I had, like, various bar jobs and waitressing jobs. Some lasted two days. I remember I got this job at this cocktail bar that was way too fancy for me, and they asked me way too many questions about the type of vodka that was used, and I ended up just not going in for my shift the next day. Yeah, I was a bit out of my depth, but I just did bits and pieces. I actually couldn't get in. I decided I wanted to be a comedian when I was in Wales, and then moved to London when I started getting more stuff in London. So at that point, I was a priest in an inflatable church at music festivals. I was dressing up in lycra leggings and doing this thing called Lost and Found at music festivals as well. We did best of all for like, five years, I thought I was just going to hang out with celebrities and be on the VIP list, but actually, especially being the priest in the inflatable church, it really geared me up to do stand up, funnily enough, because I'd be on a microphone having to improvise with a very drunk and rowdy crow.
Neil Maggs
When you say priest in, in an inflatable church, what? What do you mean? What is it kind of like a little blow up the night club in, in festival? Yeah?
Jayde Adams
Basically, yeah. It's a little blow up nightclub and festivals. That is exactly what it is. Okay? I'm not an ordained priest, although I am. I know I would. I'm thinking about getting a celebrancy so I can do celeb weddings. That's something I'm thinking for the future, because I haven't got enough on, you know, it was good to think ahead. Yeah, I'm always thinking of ways to, like, not go back to, like, call centers and stuff. That's, that's me…
Neil Maggs
That anxiety that, that anxiety stays with you, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, I got that. I've got that as well. Not that I'm, you know, kind of, I mean, name sort of, locally, but that fear of backslide. I've met people that are wealthy, you know, come from working class estates and stuff and and they're exceptionally kind of high up in what they do. And there's always that slight kind of fear, like, at any point it could all go wrong and it could slide back. Do you know what I mean? You feel that as well?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, absolutely. You just well. Because everything I always say to people, especially if I meet people in the same industry, and they're like, Oh, you're doing so well at the moment, and they feel like they're not. I always say to them, it's ebb and flow, and I'm just on a great flow at the moment, and I'm really enjoying it as it comes. But I don't put too much pressure on this being like forever. And in order to make myself not go crazy, I just have a lot of different pots boiling always, and just make sure there's lots of things to fall back on. I was always told that growing up as well, to definitely always have a fall back. And I know that there's this we're in this world right now where people get on the internet and say these crazy things, like, don't have a far back, just go for it. We're like, like, we're American, but we're not. We're we're not. You were not reaching for the stars here. That was S Club Seven. And look how well that went.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, exactly. And I think there is a thing around there is something about that, that having, yeah, just kind of, I think also you having had a life not being famous, then being famous. And, well, as you said, you know, working in, you know, you know, working in bar jobs. I think you worked in Asda, that right? Or your mum worked mum worked in Asda?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, my mum worked there and I worked there too. I worked there for six months. Mum was there for like 30 odd years. I also ran tantric jazz Cafe on corn street. Oh, yeah, I used to run that. I ended up having to be the chef there because our chef went missing, yeah, yeah. And we never found him. No one ever knew where he went. We I think he went back to Lebanon, I'll be honest, but I ended up becoming a Lebanese chef.
Neil Maggs
Did you? Yeah? So cultural appropriation?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, I think so. But this was like 2000 and it was all… you were allowed to do. Yeah, 2003 it was, I was allowed to do it by then, because there was no social media.
Neil Maggs
I would just wonder if that gives you a different perspective of that, of the the non permanence of fame, then the fact that you've worked outside, because there are some people that just become famous and have always been around that stuff, that don't know the alternative to that.
Jayde Adams
I mean, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has really supported the careers of lots of people that are privately educated, which there's no shade to that. It's just, it's just a fact that, yeah, you know, Oxbridge, yeah, they haven't really had to go and get work. They sort of leave Oxbridge, and then they end up going and getting chosen places. But I I've never really had that privilege, you know? I've got other privileges that I definitely experienced, especially from working on Alma's Not Normal on the BBC and sort of a world in which, like I come from two very loving parents, and I know some people, especially my very good pal, Sophie Willan. She was fostered when she was younger, and she was in and out of care homes when she was growing up. And I have a privilege all by myself. But in terms of this comedy industry, there is something that I don't get. And I do this thing. I don't know if you do this as well, but you see something get announced online, and then I'll go on their Wikipedia, and I always say, I'm like, oh, there it is. Yeah, there's some parent who's in the industry, or there's some there's or there's an Oxford Cambridge thing on there, or there's some Russell university educated thing. And it is, it is sort of infuriating.
Neil Maggs
I do it all the time. I get told off for doing it, and I think so in so many regards, this bit's kind of been to my detriment at times, but I can't help it. And actually I think that. And there's also a thing now where people are kind of faking their credentials a little bit, aren't they?
Jayde Adams
Or there's kind of, it's now cool to kind of dumb it down a bit, yeah. But I also like to keep a wide variety of people in my life. I've got a really close friend who went to Eton. As I said, there was no shade in the privately educated. I just think it's all about checking your privilege and making sure, making making sure it's you make it worth it, like it was so annoying when you see someone that's got loads of privilege and they're a little bit crap…
Neil Maggs
That's about being aware of it, isn't it, and owning it, right?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, yeah, yeah, rather than lying about it, you know, yeah, own it, you know, and not be afraid of it, and not not ashamed. The shame of it is, we don't say these things to shame other people. We say it because it's true to us. And you know, at the moment, the trend is, is people that have a backstory are getting pushed forward, and that's okay, because do you know what trend ebbs and flows as well?
Neil Maggs
Yeah, we'll talk about the documentary a bit later, because you talk a little bit about about Bristol, and you wander, go wandering around Bedminster, visiting some people that you used to know, go back to old school and stuff like that. But I want to talk a little bit about about what kind of shaped you and motivated you. And this was a really powerful thing in the film, something I can kind of relate to a bit around your sister. So you had a sister called Jenna, who died around 11 years ago. Yeah, and her death was obviously really had a profound impact upon you, but was also the sort of the catalyst, a little bit for, for your kind of career motivation…
Jayde Adams
Yeah, for sure, like I, you know, I've got a massive sense of responsibility within my family. And I'm sure there's a lot of people that have had therapy that'd be like, don't do it for them. Do it for you. But I do do it for me, but I also do it for them because we I've had this, like, really incredibly this really strange thing happen to it. It's strange. Is the word, having someone that is so… and it wasn't like my sister was a wallflower either. She was loud. And then all of a sudden, this tiny, loud person is no longer here anymore, you know? And and it, she was sort of ripped from us as well. It's a real, it was a real painful experience. And I just, I don't know, I just feel like with all the love and and and care and support I've had from my parents over my uh life. I just feel like, actually, if one child has to die, then the other two can smash it. You know, my brother in his world, he's smashing it too, like both of us are doing really well in our fields, and I think they're really proud…
Neil Maggs
Almost like a like, a sense of you, you kind of not, oh, it's the wrong word, but it sharpens your focus to live a life and think she's not here.
Jayde Adams
Yeah, I think a lot of people get into this industry, specifically without a focus. They just want to be not ignored anymore. But for me, it was I, I just feel like that. Well, I think also it had some there's a few things, actually, it's why I'm I'm finding it hard to vocalise one of the things, it's really specific things. So one of the things was, when Jenna was sick, she asked my mum when she was feeling a bit morbid. One day, she asked my mum to make sure no one ever forgot her. She said to me several times, you're gonna have to do this for the both of us. When she got sick and we were in the hospital for the first time, when we first discovered she had the tumour, she grabbed me and said, Can you start making everyone laugh? Because they're all looking at me like I'm about to die, and it's doing my nut in now. She was also the person that used to drag me around by my hand. I was in her shadow all the way through my childhood, and I looked up and you every single family video is me looking for my sister to find out what I need to do next.
Neil Maggs
She was younger than you?
Jayde Adams
Older, and so like those two years as well, Neil were like 25 years. She thought she was like 82 and I was five, and so she used to drag me round, and I followed to her, like my first cigarette I ever had was with my sister, and she was the one who taught me about sex and all of that stuff. So I really looked up to her. But then when she got sick, she started asking things of me, and and, and it's just sort of spiraled out of control, I'll be honest, and I think that I do it for her. I do it in spite of the situation, and I also do it, and this is very, very key. Lot of people get into this industry because they don't want to be ignored anymore. But I got into this because, and I'm not scared of it, because I've had the worst thing that's ever going to happen to me happen. So what else is there that I'm scared of?
Neil Maggs
Yeah, no, I can understand that, because it's a kind of that gives you a kind of deep strength in your core and sense of perspective.
Jayde Adams
And I think lots of people who have experienced grief also understand this. This is why I got on with grieving people or people that have lost people abruptly. I'm like, I'm feel sorry for anyone that have lost their grandparents, that are didn't raise them, but it's not the same. But if you had a grandparent that raised you and was very parental in your life, it's very different conversation. I'm not talking about that. You know, when some people lose their grandparents in their 80s and their 90s. It's not, it's a different type of grief that is, they've lived.
Neil Maggs
I think going before their time is also different than you losing a parent as well.
Jayde Adams
I think, yeah, it's I won't be the same when I when I lose my parents, even though the idea frightens the shit out of me, I… It's still not the same, like, I just won't go through this again. She was also, like I was 25 and she was 27 and so I was so young as well, and so was she. And an entire life disappeared. And not only that, possible grandchildren from my parents, my my possible nieces and nephews, an entire life and existence that I had imagined just disappears out of the world, and it's taken such a long time to get used to that.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, and I think there's something about grief or even trauma in general that it kind of tends to it's almost a fork in the road moment. Did you initially, I don't know, did you obviously struggle to come to terms with it? Did you? Did you drink more? Did you behave worse?And avoidance behaviours, until you started to allow that process to take part. Because, I mean, you know, I did. I know other people that have and then you kind of find it just takes, it takes a bloody world. I think the getting fucked up bit is part of the process, actually, probably.
Jayde Adams
Absolutely. I always say this to people. I've had some people get in touch with me who've lost siblings. I get asked people asking me advice. And I'm like, Just get fucked. Just yeah, just get drunk. Just get anything. For two years, I it was like, two, three years, because the it's you've just got, it's time you need time is the only healer when it comes to grief I feel and and those first three years are quite significant, because the first year, it's a little bit like sort of romantic, the whole idea of loss. Then the second year, everyone starts getting bored of you talking about it, because they just want to move on. And then the third year for me was the year where I realised, Oh, she's gone, oh, I've got to do this all by myself. And and I how I got through all of that is just being, I'll say it this way, I just being 26, 27 I just partied. I hung out with people. But I wouldn't say that it was anywhere near, it wasn't like a dangerous amount, it was just I was a bit freer, and I allowed myself to try and enjoy life as much as I could. Okay, I think the only destructive thing I really did around that time was is have shit boyfriends. That's what I said. The most destructive thing I've done in my life was have terrible boyfriends…
Neil Maggs
Isn't it odd? I mean, my situation, just to give some context, was I, I lost a friend. It wasn't a sibling, when we were quite young, about sort of 18, 19, and we're best friends. And kind of went that way a bit. And it's really interesting, isn't it? Because I suddenly reviewed, I suddenly started being attracted to, sort of the kind of women that I wouldn't have been before. Yeah, quite destructive relationships, people that I know that I wouldn't have to get close to. Is that, is that what you mean a little bit?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, but people that would give me very dramatic situations in which I could live in a false reality? Yeah, with them, you know, where I didn't have to experience reality, and when reality came to us in our relationship, that's when all the problems started. So, yeah, surfacing.
Neil Maggs
You know, that's almost… a psychologist would probably say that’s self medication through people, yeah?
Jayde Adams
Well, some people would refer to it as co-dependency. But I couldn't have, I couldn't have drug dependencies or alcohol dependencies, because they make you sick. And there is absolutely no way in the world that I'm allowing my parents to deal with a sick child again. There's no way I can do it.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, I think it can be anything. It can be. It can be food, it can be exercise, it can be people. It can be, it can be, you know, hardcore opiates. It can be whatever. It's avoidance behaviour, isn't it? It's just what trauma does you don't want to feel what you're feeling. I'm also interested in this, and this does come out in the in the film, and again, maybe because I sort of resonate with it. But was this thing also around spiritual element of how you talk to your sister, and I think you said stuff happens some people, some people might be cynical about that, but I will say I can 100% relate to that, and know that directly from my own personal experience…
Jayde Adams
My sister was really quite protective of me when she was alive, and I just feel like she is. And you know what? I've had three separate psychics all tell me that she sits on my right shoulder and she's with me all the time. And my mum and dad once got annoyed, because, I think it was my mum said, Oh, I we, she's, I never feel her near, because she's always with you.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, I want to talk also a bit about kind of comedy actually go on in general, like there's this whole, you know, with social media has made sort of comedy a little bit more, I don't what's the word dicey? Dicey? Yeah, that's the word dicey. We've had a couple of big incidents lately, the sort of Chris Rock Will Smith thing. For anybody who's been living under a rock, I don't need to explain what can happen. Will Smith? Yeah, everyone Chris Rock said something, and Will Smith came up and he slapped him. What was your take on that? Are you in the comedians union on Team Chris Rock, or do you have a different take on it?
Jayde Adams
I reckon anyone who's not easily manipulated by sentimentality is on Chris Rock side. I reckon that Will Smith has got a lot of stuff going on. Anyone who uses violence as a form of communication normally has some stuff that they're dealing with that has come to the surface. I feel like there was a lot of inconsistencies surrounding that entire situation, including the videos of them laughing about it afterwards.
Neil Maggs
Okay, well, said to be all a bit of a publicity stunt.
Jayde Adams
No, I don't think it was a publicity stunt. I think he genuinely got up on stage and smacked the shit out of Chris Rock. But I also feel like Will has a lot of stuff going on. He's obviously not communicating it effectively, which is why it came out in his fists. And also unfairly, he took it out on what was essentially a dad joke. Yeah, if we're going to be censoring jokes, I don't reckon a GI Jane joke is really a joke that we should…
Neil Maggs
Let me play devil's advocate, because I have been watching this over Facebook and Twitter, and some people are like, well, violence is also. Not just physical, it's variable. And actually, you know, she's had a piece, sure, and this is really sensitive, and it's really, you know, it's a sexist. It's this, you know, you disagree, obviously.
Jayde Adams
Well, no, I don't disagree. I mean, that's not a conversation I can really have. I just talking about this, the physical act of violence between will and Chris. I don't even consider Jada in this situation, because she didn't get up…
Neil Maggs
She has, wasn't it a glance? This is what some people are saying. Because he was laughing, and then she glanced, and then suddenly jumped up.
Jayde Adams
No one saw the glance that her looking over at him, though we've all just imagined that's what she's doing. Okay, right? No one it saw her look. No one saw her look over at Will to instruct him. That's interesting that people have jumped to that conclusion she's a black woman, and it's her fault, and all of that sort of stuff. We don't know what's going on in their relationship, except for what they've allowed us to see on Red Table Talk. We know that there's a some sort of thing going on. They're in an open marriage. She had sex with someone else. We know all of that stuff. We know that he often gets his performance in bed and the size of his penis are spoken at length on Red Table Talk. That's happened, but we don't know the dynamic of their relationship. And I think it is sexist and racist for us to comment on what Jada's involvement is on this, all I can discuss is that Will should not be putting his emotions out there like that for himself and all the work that he's done and all the good work he's done in his life to be who he is.
Neil Maggs
Should he have not been allowed to accept the award? Um, but I mean, what message does that send someone is physically…
Jayde Adams
Well, I think it was all too quick for the Academy to really react to it. I didn't actually watch his acceptance speech because I saw the tears, and I just felt like I shouldn't watch this breakdown of this, this, this, what I've referred to as one of my favourite actors of all time he was, I love a lot of Will Smith movies. I don't know if he should have won the Oscar for that film. No, that's another conversation. No, no.
Neil Maggs
What about the precedent it sets? I mean, first thing I would say is that Chris Rock's quite little, Will Smith’s bigger than me. Would would he have done that to other comedians? I don't know. The second thing is, and I think this is where people like Ricky Gervais and others have come out and quite strongly and just said that, you know, this sets a really dangerous precedent that now can hit comedians.
Jayde Adams
I don't believe in verbal censorship, really. I think that, I think that we should be allowed as comedians. I say this because I'm a comedian, but I don't want people trying to censor the way I speak until I've actually so I do work in progress is to work out what my opinion is on stuff, or actually not work out what my opinion is, but work out how to make something funny, because I believe you can talk about pretty much anything, as long as you have the writing ability to have a punch line at the end of it, you're
Neil Maggs
also, you're also in an interesting position to say that, because you know this, there is this whole debate around, you know, responsibility and when is freedom of speech not freedom of speech? When is it a joke, all this kind of stuff. But because you know you're not, you know you're not Jim Davidson or kind of sort of coming from that. You're somebody who's, you know, been in around progressive circles. Don't think you started off. I like not saying you're woke, but I'm not saying you're woke, but I think you're attuned enough into that…
Jayde Adams
I don't punch down. I think that is an unwritten rule. I think it should be with comedians. You shouldn't punch down. I mean, some people do, and make a lot of money from doing that, but it's not really my vibe. I don't want to like my… but the problem is just that Chris Rock wasn't really punching down. He was sort of punching across because she's a multi millionaire.
Neil Maggs
Well, yeah, what about you've worked with Jimmy Carr, haven't you one eight out of 10 cats? What did you make of his joke about when he likened about the Holocaust and he made a reference to gypsies?
Jayde Adams
I thought it was a bit lazy. I thought that that joke he wanted to do about a different demographic, but he didn't have the balls to do it, so he just chose a demographic that is silent, mostly because we don't let him speak, you know, but also at the same time, like people love Jimmy Carr and you can't like he didn't do anything illegal, but, you know, he just said a thing he shouldn't have probably said, and he probably regrets saying it in the way that he did. And was probably learned a lesson. I don't know. I don't know him that well. I worked with him. He was very nice. He was, you know, he's very professional,
Neil Maggs
And that is what he does. He is known for, you know, shock and controversial material, and we've seen it with Dave Chappelle as well, haven't we? Over this kind of trans stuff. You've seen, I think, Gervais as well, that do you feel that we are entering a kind of a time where comedians are starting to sort of self check themselves a bit, and that’s a death knell for comedy, surely…
Jayde Adams
I feel like when you're as successful and famous as Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle and all these people, I feel like you have a it's easier for you to do jokes about stuff like that. And actually, I feel like it's much cleverer to do material where you're not just doing it to create controversy, to sell what it is you're doing,
Neil Maggs
Or you're playing with a stereotype in a subtler way, in a kind of not in an overt way, which, in fact, is such a basic in terms of disability and race, and certainly did that in the Office. But some of his more recent stuff is a little bit more on the front foot, I guess, and that's what people find offensive. I mean, he's been cancelled in some circles, as has Dave Chappelle. Would you be against the notion of cancelling, period? Or would there be anything? Would there be a point where you think, well, actually, that's too far or not.
Jayde Adams
I don't agree with canceling. I don't agree with canceling people. I also don't think it's, it is possible to cancel someone. I mean, Louis CK just won a Grammy. So I, I think, I think it's easier to cancel people when they're not white straight guys who are millionaires, yeah, yeah. But I don't like cancel culture. I don't think that the way that it's happened…
Neil Maggs
…to a few though. And you know, Danny Baker, you know, lost his job, didn't he over, you know, radio five that over the picture he put up, which you could argue was a misconstrued with that there's been, there has been, you know, occasions. I just wonder whether, sort of celebrities, you know, not just comedians, are just sort of in fear of and whether that even affects how you would tweet, or anything or not.
Jayde Adams
I don't, well, I hate Twitter, which is what's in my bio. I think it's, it's awful. I don't feel like Twitter is useful whatsoever. I always hold anything I want to say, I sort of keep it in my draft folder, and then I'll say it on stage. But I I don't feel like we should be having this sort of discourse on a platform like Twitter. And I also think we need to, as a society, be okay with the word sorry. We need to allow people to apologise, but I it's, do you know what this conversation is so nuanced, I could say something, and then in a week's time, I could change my mind and I could feel differently about it, which is always why a lot of us are are sort of reticent to put our opinions across, because anyone with any intelligence knows that opinions are fleeting.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, for sure, I think that's an interesting point around forgiveness, is that that no longer, perhaps is the apology and the recognition of I made a mistake enough to save somebody.
Jayde Adams
I reckon that apologies need to be real, and they need to feel real. They need to not be a reaction to to messing up. I reckon if you're going to apologise, you need to take some time to do that and actually make it worth it.
Neil Maggs
And not like a Boris apologies. I apologise if you feel that I've offended you.
Jayde Adams
You know, like, I've had people over the pandemic who treated me badly in the past… I had an ex boyfriend of mine send me an apology email, and it took him seven years to send it, and he sent it to me over lockdown, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever read. And I immediately phoned it, and I said to him, I said, you know, of course, of course, I forgive you, and I'm sorry for what I did in the relationship as well. And it was a really lovely moment. He you know, it was important to me that someone that was in my life like he was doesn't go around hating me and and and, and it always felt bad that he did, even though he dumped me, but he apologised for his behaviour later, and actually, and I was ready to accept the apology as well, you know. And that's the thing, a good apology, one that feels real, is really easy to accept.
Neil Maggs
Maybe that's where this comes from. This sort of like you make one mistake and you're damned to Alcatraz comes from. There probably being so many slightly hollow apologies and not real ones that people have become slightly cynical about that. It's a shame, though, because I think you're right. There is some, you know, without being too hippy about it, there is some beauty in like, what you just described, when you know, there is a redemptive thing isn't there, which I think is, is, is what makes us human, and we all fuck up and make mistakes.
Jayde Adams
Favourite movies are about redemption. We love it like, you know, someone that realises the error of their ways and comes to a better understanding of themselves at the end of…
Neil Maggs
Hannibal Lecter, but Hannibal Lecter when he apologises at the end…
AD BREAK
Neil Maggs
Let's fast forward a bit to just one bit about Bristol with you coming back in the BBC film. This is We Are England, which sounds like an EDL rally just in house. I love it, it's really good. I don't want to give too much away. I want people to watch it on the iPlayer now, but in this you are coming back to Bristol. Have you moved yet, Jayde?
Jayde Adams
I've bought a house. I bought a renovation in South Bristol, and it's a big family project, the house in the documentary, and it's my dad helping me with it, and I basically say, and he helps me with the house. The rule is that I won't put him in a home. Yeah, and my brother's done all the electrics for me. So I've got the house. I just not in it yet. I've had it a year, and I'm still not in it.
Neil Maggs
And you had this thing about like, we need to go to leave Bristol, which I think maybe you don't need to so much now, perhaps now we've got Channel $ here, and sort of… the cities, 20 years. It's a bit different, but you had to leave for fame and fortune. And now it's almost like you're you're big enough not to have to live in London. Is that kind of how it works?
Jayde Adams
A bit, yeah, London was never really my bag, to be honest with you, I I sort of love the friends I've made there. I've got a great community of people like the East London drag scene are like all my best mates, and I will have them in my life forever, but in terms of what I need for my career, I just, I'm sort of ready to I just want, you know, I got a five bedroom house mate, I wouldn't have been able to buy that in London. And also, I'm close with my family, and it was just important for me to be here.
Neil Maggs
South Bristol. You're a south Bristol girl. You did say which I need to pull you up on, though, in the documentary that all posh people live in North Bristol, and Bristolians live in South Bristol. And I did tweet saying, the next documentary that Luke makes, going to take your round Southmead.
Jayde Adams
Yeah, sorry, guys. I hold my hands up. I didn't talk about Henleaze or Southmead. I'm so sorry. I realise that you guys get obliterated from the conversation in Bristol quite often. But yeah, I mean, I it was a sweeping generalisation.
Neil Maggs
Coming back to the city, and you touch on this a bit and say that, you know, things have changed. I mean, obviously Bedminster, where you're from, literally a stones throw into Southville, morphed into Bedminster that it's changed a lot in those 20 years. Are you noticing that now, not just there, but across the city?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, it's definitely there. It's definitely changed. There's a lot more coffee shops. There's loads of lovely little cafes to buy things. You can get really sort of chintzy bread you can Yeah, you know, like it's a it feels a lot safer than when I was growing up. When I was growing up, we had a curfew because there were murderers that hung out on the park wall.
Neil Maggs
And that's the kind of argument to gentrification, isn't it. I mean, I grew up in Easton and it was like, remember, there was a, you know, this whole thing about sourdough bread, and I can remember my missus saying, Well, you know, I'd rather buy sourdough bread on the corner than crack. And that's what it used to be. You know what I mean? So there's just a flip side to this. This is not a bad thing, is it? Sometimes?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, I don't think, I don't think gentrification is necessarily a bad thing. I think gentrification in Bristol is ideal because we're so good at accepting lots of different people. The problem with London is is loads of new people out of London moved to London. Think they own an area. Forget about everyone that's from it, because they leave whereas we don't really have that here in Bristol.
Neil Maggs
I don't know. I yeah, I would. If you go to parts of Easton agree, but even parts of Southville, there are a lot of Londoners moving into Bristol.
Jayde Adams
Now, I'm not saying that Londoners are coming to Bristol. I'm just. Saying, because it is not 10 years ahead. I see we're, we're still in the interim, where there are still people here from Bristol that remember old Bristol, and…
Neil Maggs
I see connection. I mean, you are, I guess, uniquely positioned, because you've, you're from Bristol, you've gone away, and then you've come back to kind of see it with fresh eyes.
Jayde Adams
No one can have a go at me, can they?
Neil Maggs
They probably will in Southmead now, but yeah…
Jayde Adams
They will. I mean, I've just, I've, I've basically created some enemies, I think…
Neil Maggs
Yeah, you need to do a stand up in this, in the community centre, in Southmead. This is just, yeah, it's the constant of flux, I think. And it's very an interesting, exciting place. I think there are other people that are moving back as well. It seems to be the the thing also, you think the pandemic as well, that people now realise that you can work, you can be anywhere, you know, to a certain degree, and work remotely as well. I know you can work remotely because you're on stage, but you know you can answer emails and communicate with me like you are now from anywhere.
Jayde Adams
Yeah, I think that now this has all happened with the pandemic changing the way that we're all working, I reckon that there's going to be a real I think there's going to be a real shift on gentrification, because I think people are going to be starting to buy in areas that they can afford in that are pretty and instead of thinking that they need to be closer to the city. So I think in the next five to 10 years, we're going to see a massive shift in the types of people that we find in London and and Bristol and to the types of people that we find in, like, other areas that are, you know, like, I reckon a lot of people are going to go Wales, because it's so gorgeous, it's beautiful,
Neil Maggs
And it's a lot cheaper as well. Yeah, yeah, in the Forest of Dean, went camping there with the kids last year. The taxi driver, we got in the taxi, and he was a bit offish with me. And I said, but what's my Oh, I thought you were one of those Bristol people that's buying houses up here like that. And he said, Oh, there's loads of them. So I think there's this off spill. Now you're in Bristol, though. Are you going to be, you know, obviously have to give away the destinations too much. But are you going to be, you know, going to the local drinking holes, and you're going to be, I don't know, sort of out and about. In the city a little bit?
Jayde Adams
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 100% I've got, I've got lots of plans to be immersing myself into Bristol culture. I have no plans on being private here. I want to be out and about having a wonderful time. The other thing that I it's really nice coming back is like, how proud everyone is of me, it's really nice walking around and people just saying such nice things to me. And I'm going to want to lap that up.
Neil Maggs
Do you know why that is, though, as well? I think you know, other than you know who you are, is also because you kept a lot of people that, you know, I said earlier that there aren't enough people that have left that have become famous in Bristol, but some of them sort of tone down the accent a bit, or kind of code switch, because you kind of maybe had to back then. But you haven't, actually, you've, in fact, you've probably done the opposite, and maybe dialled it up that, you know, fiercely pride of who you are, where you're from, and how you speak and how you conduct yourself. And I think that resonates with Bristolians.
Jayde Adams
Do you know what everyone says that to me? Have I dialled it up? I haven't I can't speak any other way, and when I try, I can do the voice, so I can do the accent, but basically I don't have the vocabulary to keep it up, so, like, I say really wild sentences in ways that will people will. I can communicate, but it can be looked down by people who are educated. Because I well, even in this interview, I mean, even that sentence was grammatically all over the place, like, you know, like people will listen to this interview and and it's quite difficult. People are so used to hearing erudite people speaking on TV shows that when someone like me comes along who communicates in a different way, they find it really hard. So I've had to really push through that. And I, I don't think I'd be judged for that.
Neil Maggs
So I think there is the stereotype of that you are either a bit thick or a bit simple. I always said that, you know, you don't see there's, there's not that sort of Huw Edwards sort of Bristolian equivalent, is there, John? I mean, we might get some comic stuff, but so, but gravitas are still lacking a bit.
Jayde Adams
I think, yeah, well, that's where I'm coming in, and I'm gonna try. Absolutely I am, yeah, I'm not just a comedian. I'm, you know, I do so many different things, and I probably won't. I will always do live shows, but I am an actor, and I will be directing at some point, and I sing opera and I wear fashion.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, you're bloody singing. But I thought it was, I thought it was a joke, like, as in, like, Oh, hahaha, comedy, opera stuff. But you can actually bloody sing.
Jayde Adams
I can bloody sing. And I will say this, Neil, I have an impeccable taste in food and fashion. I have attention to detail. I just don't communicate verbally because I'm not privately educated, and I didn't go to debate squad or whatever they did. But I am very, very clever. I'm really intelligent, but it comes out of nowhere, because you don't think I am because of the accent, but it's, it's not. The case, and so we can officially say you have gravitas. Then, is that word, massive gravitas? Huge gravitas?
Neil Maggs
Okay, great, great. What do you think, though, when you see sort of, you know, the sort of the Vicky Pollard sort of stereotype?
Jayde Adams
I actually enjoyed Vicky Pollard, I wouldn't you know it was of a time, and I always made a joke that he must have interested behind me and a news agent, because that's exactly what I was like when I was… I spoke to Matt Lucas about this, and we've worked out it could, it could have happened, that it could have been me, because I used to wear a green Adidas, no, a green Kappa cagoule, and I used to wear my hair like that, and I used to speak like that. So there is a chance that stood behind me in a shop near his university, listening to me order a packet of Lambert and Butler.
Neil Maggs
He has got some stick for it, though, I think. And I wonder whether, if that happened now, it would be received slightly differently.
Jayde Adams
It wouldn't be made now, this thing, like, there's lots of things that were of a time, and now we've changed, and that's okay. I don't find Vicky Pollard offensive. I think it's funny, and I think Matt Lucas does the character he's bang on. Let's be honest. We've all met her.
Neil Maggs
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jayde Adams
It's not, you know, there are, there are people like that. It's absolutely fine. And I know loads of people back at that time used to feel, we didn't feel triggered by it. I thought it was me.
Neil Maggs
Right. Let's talk about what's coming up for you. You've got, like, a big, big, ridiculously long tour only,
Jayde Adams
yes, so I've just announced my brand new show that I am going on tour with. I'm doing a 61 date tour across 61 days.
Neil Maggs
61 dates. What in a row?
Jayde Adams
Sort of it's over… So I'm previewing it June, July, and then basically from August until November. I be I think, yeah, no, actually, the last date is on the eighth of December, so August till December, I'm going to be doing 61 dates over that time. We're all over the UK. Yeah, all over the UK. And I think there's going to be a plan to do some stuff in Ireland.
Neil Maggs
You've done other tours before, but anything on this scale, which is the biggest tour you've done?
Jayde Adams
This is the biggest one I've done. I did I toured twice with the last show that was on Amazon Prime my Serious Black Jumper / The Ballad of Carly Jenner's Old Face show. And I toured all over the UK with that. It went really well. Loved it, and so now we've just decided to up the ante and get more. So we're doing another two dates at Bristol Old Vic, which I'm excited about. That's on the 23rd of October. I'm going to be doing a matinee in an evening show, sold out last time. Get your tickets quick. But the biggest, most exciting one I've got is my London date is at the Hackney Empire. Wow, excellent. So that's really exciting. I'm I'm very excited about that. I've got lots of plans to sort of make that show.
Neil Maggs
I think it's the purest, it's the purest form of what's the word I'm looking for, the most naked form of communication, or the most naked art form, comedy. I think, do you know what I particularly, if you you're particularly if you're yours, you're yourself, and you're giving of your of your heart and soul. It must be the most I don't know…
Jayde Adams
Can I let you in on a secret one? It's all crap. It's all bullshit. Okay, yeah, whenever you see a comedian on stage smashing it, they have, they have loads of experience under their belt, and a show that looks like it's improvised isn't improvised. It's only naked when you see someone at the very early stages of it, and still they have sat and they've written jokes down. I would say that the most naked form of art, and the only form of art there is that you cannot hide behind, is singing. Okay, which is what you do as well, yeah, because if you mess up when you're singing, there's nowhere to go. But if you're a stand up and you mess up and you you and something doesn't land, you have, like, an arsenal of 25 things to get yourself out of those sticky spots – in singing, there's nowhere to go.
Neil Maggs
What, so if you die on your arse, it's gonna be it's worse if you're singing?
Jayde Adams
Well, in the early stages, you… Honestly, I haven't really died. I've had things that haven't gone well, but I don't really die on my arse.
Neil Maggs
There's never been… because lots of comedian say when they first started, oh my God, it was just horrendous. And you have to go through that process a bit…
Jayde Adams
Well, I didn't start stand up like the others. I got into stand up through being a drag queen. I was an Adele impersonator, and I was the inflatable church. And I'd been on stage since I was five years old, whereas lots of stand ups, their first five minutes they do is the first time they ever get on stage. So I had loads of stage craft behind me. I just had no jokes, which, I'll be honest, is how. A little bit of snobbery about it as well, because I've always been able to do jazz hands…
Neil Maggs
But it must be. It must be like, I don't know. Don't you get nervous at all.
Jayde Adams
No, I get nervous. But it's not for, it isn't for writing a new show I know, like, I know this new show that I'm writing. I know that I'm on to something, and I know it's an interesting subject.
Neil Maggs
Can you give a little? Are you able to give a tiny little?
Jayde Adams
Yeah, so it's called Men, I Can Save You. It's my love letter to men. Okay, because men have been having a terrible time recently, being told left, right and centre that they're they're bad people, and so like all comedians like myself, like Russell Brand, did it once as well. I'm having my Jesus moment, where I'm going to basically put myself in front of these men as the Messiah, and I'm going to show them the way in this new world. But obviously I'm taking the piss, and it's going to feature contemporary dance at the end. Loads of jokes. Think I'm even going to probably have a little conversation about the whole Will Smith, Chris Rock. I mean, I'm still developing at the moment, I've only done previews so far. I do 25 previews before the show's ready So Work in Progress shows, so shows that I charge a fiver for… so, like Michael McIntyre, will have loads of warm up shows. That's what they're called, and that's how I write them. It's exciting then, yeah, I love it. It's my it's the most thrilling part of this, this entire, entire situation is, is this bit is where I know that I've got a point, and I know that I've got a beginning, a middle and an end, and now I'm just trying to find all of the through lines and the narratives.
Neil Maggs
You also do acting as well. You popped up in a little cameo in Stephen Merchants the Outlaws, didn't you?
Jayde Adams
I'd auditioned for it, and I didn't get the part, so I auditioned for the corrections officer, and then the casting director came up to me on the first read through, and she said to me, I have never been more harassed about putting someone in something in my life, and that's from people saying that you should be in the Outlaws. So I just want to say now thank you to everyone who did that.
Neil Maggs
Well, no, I was one of them, actually, yeah, it was, yeah, not just you, a couple of other ones as well. Because I was a little bit, you know, obviously Stephen Merchant’s a legend, you know, the local boy and all that kind of stuff. But I was a little bit like, oh, there aren't many Bristolians in this are there, and they sort of tenuous link with a couple of them. And then, yeah, and then you popped up. I think you were in series two, when you're at the back end, yeah,
Jayde Adams
No, I'm in series one, and series two, I'm in both.
Neil Maggs
Right, okay, but it was quite a small role, wasn’t it? I actually did think, you know, and I think she did a good job. In fairness, I'm not, I'm not digging her out, but I thought you were perfect for exactly, for that role. Funny, you said that the probation officer, because I have a thing about people pretending to be Bristolian, the accent is always wrong. I was a bit like, of all the directors that should have got that right for me would have was Stephen Merchant.
Jayde Adams
Well, it's the thing that the Bristolian accent is so difficult to do, isn't it? I'm at the moment in the middle of making the Take That movie, and I'm northern for it, and it's it's much easier to do, not to do like a Yorkshire accent.
Neil Maggs
I just think we like to see a bit more representation, I think, and particularly now you've got the Bottle Yard and you've got lots of people coming in to make things in the city, there are thriving production crews, but also young actors and stuff in the city, you know, that could do it a bit of a push. So I sort of see my role as being and pain in the arse doing that a bit.
Jayde Adams
So I'm in the processes of writing things that are set in Bristol and and they don't worry, I'm going to be very hot on this accent thing for sure.
Neil Maggs
Good to hear. Good to hear. Who is your favourite comedian yourself? Do you have one who inspired you as well?
Jayde Adams
I don't really have one person I like everything of but I have things that people did that I specifically love, obviously, with regards to being a comedic actress and being funny in that world and sketch and stuff, it's obviously my good, very good friends, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. I was very influenced by Dawn French growing up being that she was obviously a larger lady as well. Very much. Seeing myself on television was very helpful from for me to believe I could do it. I've also worked with both of them separately, and they're absolute legends, as you could imagine. I in stand up. I love George Carlin. I love Bill Hicks. I also love Bill Burr and Joe Rogan.
Neil Maggs
Not enough people are on Bill Burr over here, though, are they?
Jayde Adams
Oh, Bill's very popular in comedy, like we all love him. I love Wanda Sykes as well. I love Amy Poehler. I love Tina Fey. Oh. I love Kristen Wiig, she's fantastic. Lot of American stuff. I do like a lot of American comedy. To be fair, I find British comedy. It's just. A bit like safe and posh.
Neil Maggs
So the Fifth Amendment, whether it's called that, they seem to be like I watched some of these roasts. So I know you've been on the the English, British version of aren't you? But it's nowhere near as hardcore as the ones in America. They seem to be able to do and say anything.
Jayde Adams
Yeah, they do. I The roast that I had here as well. He wanted to go close to the knuckle with regards to my sister, but I sort of said he couldn't do stuff about her, just because I my parents watch all the things I mean, and they don't really need to see my sister being roasted on a TV show. And also, I don't want to make money out of that, but Americans do. I like I enjoy watching it, but I don't really like this whole roasting culture either i It's not really. I don't want to be mean to people. I want to make people laugh. I don't know why I need to be mean to someone to do that, you know?
Neil Maggs
And sometimes it's easy, isn't it, to do… it's harder to be sort of subtle.
Jayde Adams
Or like Sean Lock, and that observation comedy. I really like Sean Lock, he’s someone that I absolutely love. Kevin Bridges is fantastic. I love Kerry Godliman man as well. Sarah Millican…
Neil Maggs
Did you use to watch 15 stories high? It’s one of my favourite sitcoms. And yet again, it's sort of under the radar, but isn't it? What a sensational series. That was just genius. Yeah, it's just genius. And anyway, they went… the BBC wouldn't commission a second series, would they? Which is, I think they regret that. But can you… who don't you like? Or would you not say,
Jayde Adams
Yeah, who do I not like? Oh, I don't know. I just like funny. I just, I don't like people who aren't funny. I don't like clapter, you know when I don't like comedians that invoke clapter from people you know, when they say stuff that makes the audience whoop rather than laugh. I'm not into that, yeah.
Neil Maggs
Like, what? Like, grand standing on something and an issue?
Jayde Adams
I like to be shook in my core. I like to be thrown out of my seat with a a pithy line and a witty, some witty repartee. I'm not really into the whole like, here's an opinion I have, and why this group of people are bad and this group of people are good, and we're gonna triumph over adversity. Wahey! I'm not into that.
Neil Maggs
But you won't tell me who you don't like?
Jayde Adams
Oh God no, because, I would never say anything about those people, because they come at you on the internet. And I don't want to be… this is the thing I if you go at people, then you get shoved into this group that's like, anti this. And I don't want to be in that group either. I want to be in the middle being like a Trojan horse of liberalism. That's what you got to do. I don't want to, like, stand on a platform and, like, tell people that they're wrong and they should be living this way. I want to make people laugh. I don't need to put myself on a platform above people in order to do the job I'm doing. You know, I want to talk about the absurdities of life, make them laugh and give people a little bit of escapism, because life's quite hard at the moment, especially with all the fuel prices going up, and at this time, what we need are funny comedians.
Neil Maggs
Amen. That's a great way to end. There you go. I usually try and find something to disagree with, but no, I've agreed with quite a lot of that. I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Old Vic, definitely, And people from Bristol look forward to seeing you staggering from pub to pub on North Street!
Jayde Adams
Yeah, North Street, you'll see me. I go to Mother's Ruin a lot. I love Corn Street at the moment? I think that's a real vibe. I Yeah, I'm loving Bristol. I'm really looking forward to getting to know it this summer as well. And, oh, I can't wait for getting pissed on a boat somewhere in the good weather. That's what I want. Amazing.
Neil Maggs
Well, welcome back. I'd say on behalf of the whole of Bristol.
Jayde Adams
Thank you. I bloody love it here, and I'm sorry I had to leave, but now I'm back and I ain't going nowhere.