The events of the last two years are enough to make most on the left of the political spectrum want to crawl under a rock and stay there. Not Josie Long. She is setting off on a 2-month tour of the UK with her new show, Something Better, in an attempt to spread her infectious optimism. Her philosophy? “Basically people have an obligation to, you know, not be a twat”.

It feels wrong to begin an interview with someone so positive by asking them about the likes of Trump and Brexit, but Long has been able to take the turbulent political climate and turn it into something equally hilarious and comforting. Noting the activist nature of her stand-up, I ask whether she thinks that comedians have a duty to talk about politics, or if she has simply found that her personal interests marry well with her creative outlet. Long admits that, for her, comedy is a “companion” which becomes a way to interpret and understand the world around her – whether it is the struggle to be a functioning adult or the rise of the far right in Europe.

Having always admired her for how she has used her platform to promote kindness and equality, it surprises me when Long talks about her struggle to be as good a person as possible. Noting her despair at the 2015 General Election result, she mentions how she felt “intensely and desperately urgent” to talk about politics, for fear of “letting everyone down”, including her children – which, she adds – do not even exist. She used to be angry when she saw other comedians ignoring the real world in their work, but now, it does not bother her: after all, she admits, “we need every flavour of ice-cream in the pack”.

Long’s attitude is refreshing for a comedian just coming to terms with 2016. “The only obligation is to be real”, she says of the role of the comedian, pointing out that it is great that some people use their platform to talk about important issues, “but we also need someone who will empty yoghurt over their head”. And she is, in my experience, the perfect cross-section of these two styles of comedy.

Long has certainly established a crowd who keep coming back for more, leaving it easy to think she is one of a number of political comedians simply preaching to the choir rather than changing the world. Yet, for her, “political comedy isn’t changing minds and winning elections. Or, at least, it hasn’t changed enough minds, from what last year showed”. 

She recognises that her crowd know what they’re in for – “most of the time”, she adds with a laugh – but prefers to think of her comedy as having a consoling, healing effect for those who feel alone in a world which, too often, feels riddled with hatred and worry. “If my stand-up can help people keep going to do better things… that’s the best thing in the world,” she says.

“Basically people have an obligation to, you know, not be a twat”

Josie Long

It feels an apt time to mention that, having seen her stand-up in 2012, a card she handed out at the end of the show about not feeling limited by class had been pinned over my desk for 4 years and had served as inspiration to work hard and achieve goals.

Seeming genuinely touched by this, she reflects on her time at Oxford University: in 2010, she told The Independent her biggest regret was not ‘having done better’ in her degree, and I ask her if this feeling has changed with age. It is surprising, and a little disheartening, to hear someone so interesting and successful talk about the stresses of feeling academically inadequate, but Long admits that the “attainment mentality” promoted by Oxbridge, and many secondary schools, is “intense” and difficult to get over, even for people in their 30s.

Nonetheless, Long is still able to put a positive spin on a feeling all too familiar to Oxbridge students, noting she went to Oxford with a plan to find her “crowd”, engage with her subject and learn to read critically – and managed to do just that. She is comfortingly frank, explaining how she “had an amazing time” but cannot help the negative feelings which come from the academic side of things.

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I turn the conversation towards women in comedy, and ask her whether she thinks women comedians can come out of 2016 stronger than ever. Long talks passionately about the pride she feels as her contemporaries, such as Bridget Christie and Isy Suttie, continue to break the glass ceiling. “The thing is”, she says, “women comedians are like the canary in the mine for sexism”. 

Comedy, according to her, reflects society as a whole; there are a few at the top who make millions, there is a small wedge who can get by, and there’s the majority at the bottom of the pile, struggling. And there is sexism. “They don’t like your voice, the attention you get or the opinions you have. But stand-up isn’t the exception”, she notes, highlighting the problems for women in STEM and the music industry too. “Change is slow and incremental”, she points out, “but it’s happening”.

Long’s optimistic view of the future is the perfect remedy for anyone hoping to leave 2016 in the past. Her show promises to inspire, educate, and maybe, just maybe, put another crack in that glass ceiling.

Josie Long will be performing her new stand-up show, Something Better, at 8pm on Wednesday 8th February at the Cambridge Junction. Student tickets cost £13.50 and are available here