Kennedy On Stage

The Guardian‘s Stephanie Merritt reveals that novelist AL Kennedy has taken up stand-up comedy.

The novelist’s chief advantage is that she rarely has to face her audience; aside from reviews and the odd book-fair appearance, there is no way of knowing whether a funny line bombed or made the reader laugh out loud, but in the absence of empirical evidence, she can sit at home fondly imagining the latter. So why would a novelist exchange that safe distance for the immediacy of a late-night comedy club, particularly a novelist as seemingly sensitive to criticism as Kennedy, whose website dissects reviews of all her books with occasionally chippy retorts to the reviewer?

The act is made of darkly comic stories rather than jokes. When is she bringing it to the U.S.? That’s what I’d like to know.