Culture That Made Me: Alison Spittle on Bridesmaids, Kathy Burke, and Ballroom of Romance
Alison Spittle has a show at Dublin Fringe Festival. Picture: Karla Gowlett
Alison Spittle, 34, was born in London, but spent most of her childhood growing up in Co Westmeath.
Her television credits include Nowhere Fast and Republic of Telly. She will perform her stand-up comedy show, Soup, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, Smock Alley Theatre, 13-17 September.
- See: www.fringefest.com
I loved The Fast Show growing up. It's probably like a predecessor to TikTok and Vine and all these social media sketch shows. What made it different from other TV shows at the time was there was nothing really connecting the sketches. It's all very quick. Also there was no rhyme or reason to it. It could be something built on cat trays, say, or then it could be a weird character build with no punchlines in it, but still incredibly funny.
The actress Kathy Burke was a big hero of mine when I was younger. She was so cool. She was amazing in the film Nil by Mouth. She's very funny. She doesn't seem like she takes stuff seriously. Her work is impeccable. I like the way her career has gone now, where she's directing plays or selecting TV shows she wants to do. When she brings out a documentary on, say, women, I'm going to watch it because it’s Kathy Burke doing something she's passionate about, not someone doing something because they're asked to do it. She seems like a precise and decisive person.
When I was in college everyone quoted The Simpsons to each other. I treated The Simpsons almost like Newgrange, as in you knew when the seasons were, judging by whether it was dark outside when The Simpsons was on. I had The Simpsons encyclopaedia. I was obsessed with it. My favourite Simpsons line is when Wolfcastle, an actor portraying the superhero Radioactive Man, is in nuclear waste and they put goggles on him, and he screams: “The goggles do nothing!” I say it all the time.
Bridesmaids is very funny. It spoke to me at the time I first saw it. I rewatch it now when I get older. It’s impeccable. The set pieces are brilliant. The actors in it are brilliant – Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd, Kristen Wiig, everyone involved in it. I will watch anything Melissa McCarthy is in. She’s fantastic. It’s the perfect film.
Peter Serafinowicz had a series on BBC television around 2007 that I loved. It didn't make a massive impact, but loads of people I know who’ve seen it love it. It has this character called Brian Butterfield who is an entrepreneur but not a good one. He also does these weird impressions of The Beatles and stuff. He’s a gifted impressionist, probably the best TV impressionist I’ve seen.
Maria Bamford is an amazing stand-up comedian from America. When I first got into stand-up comedy, I listened to a lot of comedians on Spotify. Maria Bamford has some of the best comedy albums of all the time. I remember where I was hearing one joke. I was cleaning up a sink while listening to her joke about if The Secret was a real thing, then what does it mean for poor people in developing world countries? Have they not just not manifested abundance for themselves? She's very funny.
Liza Treyger has the best stand-up show I've seen on a streaming platform. It’s part of a series called The Degenerates. It’s supposed to be this hard-hitting, no holds-barred, anti-cancel culture type of TV show. It has six comedians. They apparently “go there,” as they say. I can definitely see that the audience has been in the same room for all of the recordings. They must have watched six hours’ worth of comedy. She’s incredible. She talks about a thing called the orgasm deficit, which is that women do not orgasm as much as men, and men don't give a sh*t. You should see the faces on the men in the crowd. They do not like it. I love her so much. She’s electric to watch.
The Florida Project is an incredible film. It’s directed by Sean Baker. It came out about six years ago. It's about a little girl who lives in a hotel outside of Disneyland, Florida with her mother and her mother becomes a sex worker. All of the camera shots are done from a child's height. So anytime you see an adult, the camera is pointed upwards. Sean Baker is a special director. He gets people that aren't actors and films them with professional actors. William Defoe was in The Florida Project. It’s a special film that makes me cry.
There's a play I watched in the Dublin Fringe Festival at Smock Alley Theatre a few years ago. It was called Lex Talionis: A Tale of Vengeance & Feathers, by Liam Heylin. It was young women from Cork playing birds. It was about a fight between birds. They were having a big row. They all had massive Cork accents. I loved it. I loved the costumes. It was so good.
You’re Wrong About is a podcast about stuff you thought about when you were a kid like, say, fentanyl, but were mistaken about. There’s a great episode about Sinead O'Connor. You hear about her from an American’s point of view. It's excellent. It's really enjoyable. It's a way to take in information from a host that is as curious as you are about a topic. It's not too serious. It's nice and empathetic. I love it.
If Books Could Kill is a podcast series about “airport books” that you pick up that could be about lifestyle change or economics like, say, Rich Dad, Poor Dad or The Secret. All these books that are supposed to change your life. They basically debunk loads of them. It's very good.
I read The Ballroom of Romance on holiday. It’s a short story by William Trevor. Maybe it's because I'm in my thirties now, I’ve become aware of my worth as a woman, by my age and my viability to have children, from being asked about them in interviews. Barely anything happens in it, but you’re on tenterhooks reading it. You get flashes of these different characters within the village. Growing up in a village, I could relate to a lot of people in the story. It felt so real and visceral, it had to be based in real life in some respects. It definitely hit me. It’s an amazing story.
