‘Attacking trans people in your comedy is lazy humour’

I think James Barr needs rest. Yes, he’s awake every morning at 6am. It’s a hit for breakfast on the radio Alongside Will Best and Fleur East, for everything that happens in between.

Every week he has chart toppings and a recent Webby Award-winning podcast Gay and non-gaywas hosted alongside his straightforward companion, Dan Hudson. Plus, his ongoing stand-up comedy show Sorry, I hurt your son (my ex told my mother)about surviving the abusive relationship he has played for the past year and writing for so long.

“I’m probably writing it until it sells out on palladium and Netflix,” he jokes today, but I feel he’s serious. “But you know, until then, I think it’ll still be a work that’s ongoing. Show up!” He has also brought a show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August for the second year in a row.

Somehow, in that, he carves out the time to become a judge in this year’s LGBTQ+ new Comedian of the Year competition. June 10th. How does he manage it all? “That’s a great question. I’m really struggling with it at the moment,” he confesses. He says he is trying to tell himself that his workload will be easier to manage by “creating sensations and moods” all of his work. “I don’t know if I believe the answer,” he backtracks with a laugh. “Do you think it’s true? Do you think that’s how I manage it?”

The contest hosted by Comedy Bluemars will watch a queer comedy rookie fight it for the LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year title. The bar is Zoe Lions and Drag Race UK Winner Tia Kofi, oddly enough, he still feels like the newcomer himself. “It could be fraud syndrome,” he says. Sorry, but I’ll hurt your son.

“I used to be a joke about Dick, but now I’m doing trauma because Beyoncé is doing the country and we’re all diversified,” he says. But I really think that’s something I’ve never done before. So every time I did it it was a new experience. “And I think he’s always a new performer because he performs to a variety of people every night.

James Barr began his radio career, but was eventually fired (“Who is laughing now?” It’s a hit for breakfast on the radio studio every morning). A friend suggested that comedy might be a way to help him rediscover his voice, so he tried to improvise. He chose to try a stand-up comedy course in London in 2016, as he freely admitted that it was “awful” in that case. Thirst trap At the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Sorry, but I’ll hurt your son It’s interesting despite its much darker subject matter. The summary describes the show as everything the bar’s ex-boyfriend did to him.

“It certainly wasn’t easy. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says of constantly shaking the experience. “I think it was the most transformative and powerful thing I’ve ever done for myself.” But the collaborative efforts he made to protect the identity of the “non-named person” provided some distance. “It’s not mine anymore,” he explains. “If that makes sense, I can feel some distance on it while tapping on the truth of it. I’m lucky enough to go and look at it. “I’m monetizing the trauma. I’m not making any money yet.”

All about positive reviews and feedback – Doctor Who Author Russell T. Davis – made me regret wasting “scary” time writing the show. His advice to his young self, and the comedians in the LGBTQ+ new comedian of the year contest, is, “Don’t worry about what people are thinking that much. [I’d] Tell yourself that it will happen forever and it will never go away, [so] Just work on that.”

He actually has a lot of advice for newcomers in queer comedy. “If you’re punching down, make sure the person making the punch is evil or inherently wrong,” he laughs. Piers Morgan, Bar Once a sparring partnermaybe someone’s example. “I think it’s okay to punch back. That’s how I put it…but in general I try to punch up. Why do you want to attack vulnerable minorities like trance as a comedian? That’s the lazy humor I feel.”

That being said, he hopes that the finalists in the comedy contest will surprise him. “I want to be a monkey agged. I want to question whether they can get away with it. I think that’s my favorite type of comedy. [which] It really burns the room. ”

The number of queer performers has grown exponentially in recent years, but even so, Barr says that in some lineups only the weirdest people from “diversity employment” are featured. He sees the contest as a space to prove why it should have a platform for more strange comics.

And for those who whine about it being a strange contest? Well, “It’s like asking why there’s no straight flag,” says Barr. “There are so many platforms for straight people across all forms of entertainment, and we got breadcrumbs.” Comedy Bloomers may even be open to welcoming straight cisgender people. “But they’ll all be booked and busy,” he says. And at the final wise crack he’s off. Rather, on. Always on and always working.

The 2025 LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year Finals will be held at Clapham Grand in London on June 10th. Tickets are available now.

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