The new wave of comedian mothers: 'I did shows with my baby girl strapped to me'

Some lied. Some hid it. And a few even mined it for jokes. Becoming a mum used to be near-fatal to a comedian’s career. Rachael Healy meets the new wave taking on taboos 

Comedian Josie Long performs at the Save the Children's Child Refugee Crisis Appeal charity concert at Clyde Auditorium on November 2, 2015 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Gilmore/Redferns)

‘Before I had kids, I swam in an ocean of time,” says Josie Long, who has been doing standup since she was a teenager. “I did a lot of touring and was away for long periods. If I wanted, I could write all night. I slept in all the time.” Now she has two children and has just about managed to carve out three days a week for work.

The comedian’s recent shows have featured material about motherhood, including a beautiful account of the birth of her first daughter. “When I started in comedy,” she says, “I was on the sharp end of a lot of sexist stuff. I was told over and over that women’s bodies are disgusting and women’s experiences are niche. So it was wonderfully liberating to do a story about childbirth.”