Susie McCabe
Published: Friday 10th July 2026
It was the first of times, it was the worst of times.
This time we welcome Susie McCabe, who is gearing up for a busy run at the Edinburgh Fringe throughout August, with the show Coming of Rage. It's been an even more eventful than usual couple of years for the Glaswegian comic, including a major health situation - so how does McCabe feel about including serious stuff in her shows?
"Yeah, I think a show is mainly funny," she says. "However, how you set up those jokes is a bit like going through the gears, and I love taking it down and building it back up. When you're fortunate enough to do a show I think you should always try and make a point. But you have one hour and you can drive that show like the conductor of an orchestra."
Good analogy. Now, let's head back to when the conductor was still tuning up.
First gig?
18/01/2011 - a day that changed my life. 12 performers from a comedy class and 100 people in the audience. That eight minutes on stage made me realise I wanted to be a stand-up.
Favourite show, ever?
26th of March 2022. This show should have been 28th March 2020. Covid delayed it by two years: my first time playing the King's in Glasgow. Even thinking about it makes me emotional, a full King's Theatre, 1,650 people who kept their tickets.
That roar walking into that stage will live with me until my dying day.
Worst gig?
A corporate where the speakers didn't work!
Horrendous.
The longest 20 minutes of my life!!!
Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?
Janey Godley - she advised me, she made me laugh and she would slap me around the back of my head when I needed it. If Janey never done what she done I don't think I would be doing what I do.
I miss her, I miss her on stage, I miss her in the green room and I miss her laugh.
And who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?
I have had a few. Normally white, heterosexual men... two in particular.
One told me I would never be a good stand-up or in fact full time. I was only doing well at gigs because the audience had gay people in it. Just for reference he is no longer full time; works for a living.
Another told me I would never get on TV because of:
1. The way I look
2. How I sound
I have done considerably more TV than him. In fact I am not sure he has done anything.
Is there one routine/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?
Nah not really, I can't think of anything that was in any way offensive to an audience or that they went to the bother to tell me.
Have you changed the way you do Edinburgh, and touring, since the health scare?
Yeah I now stay in Edinburgh as opposed to commuting. When touring I try and get a hotel with a gym and eat a healthy breakfast.
On tour this year I was sat in a hotel in Inverness and my Glasgow-based PT came up to me while I was at breakfast having yoghurt and fruit, I have never felt more vindicated.
Any reviews, heckles or post-gig reactions still resonate?
Och, I always used to get at least two reviews about my accent and being unapologetically Glaswegian / Scottish / working class. So I done a bit in the following year's show talking about it and pointing out I never realised that I had to apologise for these things.
No one from Shropshire or Norfolk will ever get that, but if you're working class with an accent and if you're a woman you will 100% get that nonsense thrown at you and I just think... maybe your ears need to be attuned to my voice.
How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?
I am really happy, I think if you can make a living from this and pay your bills by doing this magnificent job where you can entertain people and connect with them you are incredibly privileged.
I would love to write more and do more but we are living in a time when TV is not what it once was and we have different ways of consuming our media. I will never complain (well I will moan).
But to wake up every day knowing this is your job, you can travel , meet and work with your heroes ... WHAT A JOB AND WHAT A LIFE.
Susie McCabe: Coming of Rage is at Assembly George Square from 5 to 30 August, part of the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets
Support British Comedy Guide and help fund more great content like this by joining BCG Club.
