Bethany Black

As the UK’s foremost goth, lesbian, post-op transsexual stand-up, Bethany Black worries about being pigeonholed. So it’s a ‘recovering alcoholic, drug addict and love addict too’ who will be showcasing material from her forthcoming Fringe show this fortnight. After an admission of two botched suicide attempts in her debut, Beth Becomes Her, it’s reassuring to know that Love and a Colt 45 doesn’t presage ‘lucky’ number three but an American malt lager favoured by the comic in her youth. Her debut recalled Black’s transformation from Ben Horsley in intimate, sometimes queasy, detail and she explains that ‘because that show was really personal, I thought I’d go with something a bit more accessible this time, about all the stupid things I’ve done because of love and alcohol.’

Sober for three years and happily engaged – ‘no matter how homophobic or transphobic a crowd gets, I mention that and people applaud!’ – she’s finally confronted her problems. ‘I was on my way back from a friend’s funeral,’ she explains, ‘and my car was seized for having no tax and insurance, because my life was still unmanageable then. Two days later I broke into a massive panic when I remembered there was quite a substantial amount of drugs in it. So that’s the middle part of my show, overcoming the drugs problem I never particularly realised I had.’ After having Omid Djalili open for her in Helsinki no less, her career is picking up too and Black is currently developing a television version of Beth Becomes Her with the BBC’s Paul Schlesinger, producer of People Like Us and Absolute Power. On this occasion, she’s happy to be typecast. ‘I’ll be playing me, yes. I don’t think there’s anyone else who could do it.’

The Stand, Edinburgh, Tue 2, Thu 4–Sat 6 Jun; The Stand, Glasgow, Wed 3 Jun

More: Comedy, Bethany Black, Goth, Lesbian, post-op transexual, Previews, Stand-up, the stand

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