Lorna-Rose Treen ‘Now That’s What I Call Characters’ Interview

Do you find yourself watching films and TV differently now because you’re constantly spotting characters or tropes you could parody?

Yes firstly, I can’t watch comedy any more to relax and I haven’t been able to since I started being a fulltime comedian. I like watching harrowing documentaries to relax. I am a big Adam Curtis fan because he numbs my insides with concern and nice beats.

But also I take SO much of my inspiration from films of different genres and stealing tropes - especially where the women are underserved - the sexy secretary, the waitress at the back of a diner in a heist film - and make those side characters the protagonists. Why not spend time with the niece of the banker who’s in the back of the car with her headphones on? I also love being like ‘cool this is the male trope for X, what if it just happened to be woman’? For example, I play a Cowboy who has guns for hands ala Edward Scissorhands. The great thing about being a woman is there’s so much media we haven’t been allowed to do, so I’m getting to do it all.

Your street interviews have reached millions of people online. What’s the strangest reaction you’ve ever had from someone who didn’t realise you were playing a character?

Quite often I’ll get people commenting a massive paragraph on a video thinking its real journalism. And then moments later they post “deleted paragraph lol”. I love it when that happens. Sometimes people watch 10 seconds of the video and then nothing else, and write a really angry comment, which makes other people comment on their comment telling them to watch the whole video, but stubbornly they won’t and that’s really funny because we literally have one life on this Earth and that’s how people are wasting time

Is there a particular celebrity or pop culture figure you’re desperate to create a character around?

Not necessarily a pop culture figure but I would love to make a sitcom about the am dram group I was part of when I was a teenager because the drama (outside of the actual plays) involved was honestly INSANE. I love small towns and I love Redditch - my home town. I exist on extremes - either writing about Redditch or WW2 spies.

You’ve built a huge audience on TikTok and Instagram. Do characters that work online always work in a live room, or are they completely different worlds?

No I think online stuff is always undercharged when it is simply replicated live. Live comedy is theatre and needs to be more connected to you and your body, or you could just watch it online. Live is much free-er because you can do whatever your want live, but online it has to work well in the algorithm. 

Nostalgia runs through a lot of your comedy. What era of British culture would you happily go back and live in for a week?

I think going back in time as a woman is realllllyyyy risky because even though we are underappreciated and overlooked now it is still a lot better than it has ever been. BUT I would maybe go back to 2011 Center Parcs and go on the water rapids because they’re so good and  Center Parcs was cheaper then.

Lorna Rose Treen: Now That's What I Call Characters at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from the 17^th to 23^rd August. For tickets and more information visit: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/lorna-rose-treen-now-that-s-what-i-call-characters