Profiles

When Sarah Millican was named best newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe she was determined to keep level-headed.

She Googled herself and found the comment 'I don't like her face it makes me feel sick'. So that did the trick.

"You need to level it off. It's been going really well but on a high is the wrong way to put it," she said.

"I didn't allow myself to get like that. I wouldn't want to get lazy."

Sarah with her If.comedy award

Young Thora Hird

You can't imagine her ever becoming too showbiz - her prize for winning the Edinburgh award was £4,000 which she used to pay off her car loan.

Her award-winning show, Sarah Millican's Not Nice, came after her divorce and looks at the questions people ask themselves when they split up with someone.

In her reviews, much has been made of the contrast between her image - descriptions have included a young Thora Hird or Deirdre Barlow - and her material, but she said that had not been intentional.

She laughed saying she will definitely be using the Deirdre Barlow line and liked that it was specifically a young Deirdre Barlow.

She said: "I got up on stage wearing something I was comfortable with. There was quite a contrast between a flowery top and talking about quite dark stuff.

"But it was purely organic. I always wanted to keep sort of feminine but not girly.

"I never want to look sexy or flirty, I always want to look a bit like your sister so people don't find you threatening."

And that is certainly the impression that comes across on stage. You can feel the audience warm to her and most are happy to answer her potentially embarrassing questions about their relationships.

'Best job in the world'

She said she doesn't believe it is any harder being a woman in comedy and if anything it made her stand out. When things don't work out she doesn't think that is anything to do with her gender.

Sarah enjoys doing North East gigs

She said there might be elements to put people off such as spending a lot of time on your own driving to gigs which might not be everyone's cup of tea.

She joked: "I am quite happy to spend time on my own because I am ace and really good company!"

But she thinks maybe the whole process of writing and trying out new material might be more of a male thing.

She said: "You have got to be quite pedantic. You do your material, record it, listen back to it. I think that's quite a male trait. You have to pay a lot of attention to detail."

Sarah said while winning the award was great, audiences don't really care about it, although she said it has definitely raised her profile.

"Some people who wouldn't have thought of you come and see you. There are so many people doing stuff so if you have got an extra little tick," she said.

She appeared on Have I Got News for You in December and is doing lots of radio work.

Sarah describes being a stand-up comedian as "the best job in the world".

She said: "I love the immediacy of stand-up. You can do a gag you have written that afternoon."

North East gigs

But she also enjoys writing and is currently working on a play for the Live Theatre, in Newcastle, and also likes working in radio.

Sarah also writes for television and radio

Sarah moved from South Shields to Manchester a few years ago because it is more central for the comedy circuit but she likes to come back and play gigs in the North East.

Her first gig was in front of a tough audience at the Cumberland Arms, in Newcastle.

She said: "The last time I had performed was when I was the narrator in a nativity when I was 12."

She said she felt it was a "prove yourself" atmosphere and admits she "tanked" to start with but things picked up in the second half and that was "so exciting".

Sarah said it was lovely to do gigs in the North East although she thinks she has to work a bit harder.

She said in other parts of the country she might get a laugh just from saying something like "champion", which she just says as part of her normal speech, whereas a North East audience wouldn't really notice.

Sarah is now writing new material which she is due to debut in February 2009 and she is also going to explore other avenues of writing for television and radio.

She said: "Just to get better is always the aim. It must be quite easy to just stop. There is always head room, always a place to go."