Canterbury comedian Maddie Campion has a penchant for all things fashion - a hilarious seamstress of humour, hemming and hosiery

It is not often you find the funny in fashion, perhaps with the exception of films such as Zoolander and The Devil Wears Prada. However, merging stand-up comedy with fashion isn’t something I’ve come across before on the UK comedy circuit. Until I discovered the Canterbury born stand-up, Maddie Campion (@fashiongurumaddie).

For she manages to do just that: marry comedy with fashion in her hilarious online videos, which show her blending her intricate dress-making skills with her acerbic, offbeat wit seamlessly. Pun intended. (Aren’t all puns always intended?). In one of her videos, she even dissects the way women become more primal in Primark, by analysing a T-shirt display before and after a sale. The dishevelled, messy remnants are nothing but animalistic, highlighting what all good comedy seeks to expose: the sheer absurdity of life and the plight of the human condition. When most comedians are talking about their nether regions (myself included), Campion much prefers to talk about where she gets her knickers from and how they are made, highlighting stuff of Marxist philosophy, capitalism, commercialisation and the ethics of the clothes industry. She even manages to showcase the philosophical concept of expectation versus result in fashion where she tries on her ASOS deliveries, comparing what she has on with what she saw online.

But unlike her ASOS deliveries, seeing her online versus seeing her live on stage, Campion is just as funny.

To call her kooky would do her a disservice. For ‘kooky’ has become the adjective used to describe any funny woman under the age of 35 who is auditioning to play the groan-inducing ‘kooky best friend’ that in recent years has become a cliché film trope. The word ‘kooky’ is now synonymous with ‘endearingly weird in the most formatted way’ akin to Zooey Deschanel in New Girl.

“DERRY GIRLS REALLY IS THE HIGHEST TIER OF COMEDY. IT SHOULD PROBABLY GET A NOBEL PRIZE, TO BE HONEST, SHOULDN’T IT?”

— Maddie Campion

The ‘kooky’ girl, or if she’s the lead in an indie film, can also be described as the ‘mad pixie dream girl’. They wear bright and elaborate clothing (tick), have a whimsical look in their eyes (tick) and a geekiness for some obscure subject (tick), but Campion is so much more than textbook offbeat kook. And as a female stand-up comedian myself, I feel at odds making comments on her look and what she is wearing, but I feel it’s warranted here as her comedy engulfs fashion and her aloofness (which is a much less reductive word than ‘kooky’) is so much a part of why she’s funny.

Her live stand-up and online videos take you into her abstract mind, with one hilarious video teaching you how to look like Richard III in the style of those infamous YouTube hair and make-up tutorials.

She’s Phoebe Buffet from Friends, if instead of writing Smelly Cat she pontificated on the best way to wash cheap lingerie and instead of strumming on a guitar she hemmed on a sewing machine.

I sat down with her on a train from Canterbury to St Pancras, where we were to have brunch with six other female stand-up comedians, and chatted about clothes, comedy and, err, the commercialisation of the cosmetics industry. (How we are both outraged that Superdrug is now selling Botox for 99 quid)… and she even offered to sew back the broken button onto my vintage blazer for me for no extra price. What a champion, or should I say Campion?

1. Describe your comedy in three words:

Confessional, slightly awkward.

2. Who are you the comedy love child of?
(name two comics who could be your parents)

Kermit and Miss Piggy (they’re actually quite similar to my actual parents, only gender roles reversed, less glamorous and, as far as I’m aware, human).

3. Why did you get into comedy?

I liked making people laugh, needed a challenge and wanted the opportunity to spend hours in a lot of weird, dark pub basements.

4. Who are your inspirations?

Derry Girls really is the highest tier of comedy. It should probably get a Nobel Prize, to be honest, shouldn’t it? What other work has communicated an important, complex part of modern history with a plot line about a big bowl?

5. What’s been your best gig to date and why?

I actually really enjoyed a gig in Hythe I played when pandemic restrictions were ending. Kent has a reputation among comedians for being the worst place in the UK to gig, and on occasion it does earn that. I had some friends in the crowd and didn’t want them to not enjoy themselves, but Ribs Norman had put together a great line-up!

6. What’s been your worst gig to date and why?

I did a high-stakes, mixed-bill radio recording in front of an audience who’d been queuing outside on the hottest day of the year for two hours. I went on first and my self-esteem has never recovered.

7. When did you realise you were funny and could make people laugh?

When I started primary school, a boy walked up and asked me my name. I said “Mr Nobody” - he ran and got his brother and said “You’ve got to meet this girl, she’s really funny”.

8. Are you waiting for the question about what it’s like being a woman in comedy?

Should I be? To be honest, I think anyone in comedy who doesn’t fit a cookie-cutter mould of what people expect a comedian to be will have a harder task in clubs. If you’re a woman in comedy who resembles Joan Rivers, Jo Brand or Dawn French, you’ll have an easier time than perhaps a man or woman in comedy who doesn’t sound or resemble what audiences expect a comedian to be.

9. Are you frustrated that people are still obsessed with asking female comedians why people don’t think women are funny?

Yeah, man. If you can watch Mean Girls and not laugh once, that’s on you. Go see a therapist and learn to enjoy life.

10. Your online work on TikTok and Instagram is superb. I particularly enjoy how you combine comedy with fashion - does this create a niche audience, are your followers comedy lovers or fashionistas?

Thank you! I think they’re a bit of both. If we dig deep, we’ll find they just have great taste.

11. What’s your relationship with social media and do you prefer posting online or performing live?

Social media is a fun way to explore comedy, but performing live has an addictive quality. I wouldn’t recommend either to someone who wanted a nice, balanced, mentally-healthy life, though.

12. What are your 2023 comedy plans?

I’m doing Leicester Comedy Festival (25th February) and Brighton Fringe. I’m also working on a sitcom pilot script and, like everyone, hoping to launch a podcast.

13. What’s funny about Kent?

People in Kent are so horny. If you’ve only ever lived in Kent and think everyone operates at the Kent level of horny, they don’t. I don’t know if it’s the proximity to France, the air, or old relics of Tudor England, but it could be studied in a lab.

ABOUT ZAHRA BARRI

@zahra.barri.comedy

Zahra Barri is an Egyptian/Irish writer and stand up comedian who loves writing and talking about taboo subjects in a light-hearted and funny style.

She has featured on Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 2, BBC Asian Network and BBC Period Dramas online. Her debut Novel won Runner Up for the Comedy Women In Print Unpublished prize 2020. She is currently doing a PhD in Creative Writing and moved to Rochester over Lockdown.

She has grown up in Saudi Arabia, but also Bracknell. Due to her mixed heritage background, she has attended both Muslim schools in Saudi and Catholic schools in the UK which gives her comedy a unique perspective.