Please, just call me wobbly

Rod McPhee talks to comedian Francesca Martinez

VERY few performers boast an act which intertwines their personal life and their career quite so closely.

And the fact that comedian Francesca Martinez, who was born with cerebral palsy, has christened her current show What the **** is Normal?, couldn’t reflect this more.

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From the moment she realised she was different to most girls her age, she used comedy to make her way in a world of conformity.

“From a very young age I had this terrible fear of being pitied,” says Francesca, now 33, “I was brought up in a very loving family, so I was a very cheeky happy kid. But fairly early on I realised that people felt sorry for me and I absolutely hated that.

“I always had a big personality and I realised that if I could make people laugh and be cheeky and say things you’re not meant to say then people wouldn’t pity me. If you’re a cute wobbly girl then you can get away with murder too.”

“Wobbly” is her euphemism of choice, one born out of a hatred of the medical term, cerebral palsy. “It makes you sound like you’re an alien from another planet!” she laughs. “So one day I decided I wanted to adopt my own word and I remember the kids next door to my house used to call me ‘the wobbly lady’ and I loved it because it’s just a description, it’s not really judgemental in any way.”

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But Francesca wasn’t always so phlegmatic about her disability. Not surprisingly, by the time she’d reached adolescence it became more of an issue.

“Being born wobbly I was haunted by the idea of normality, especially in my teenage years,” she says “It really reached a climax about that time and I desperately wanted to be normal. As a result I became very unhappy and insecure.”

But around this time Francesca also had an epiphany when she met a bloke in a pub who made her realise an important maxim: no-one is really normal.

She says: “It dawned on me: ‘What am I doing wasting my life wanting to be something that doesn’t exist?’ It was a total revelation for me.”

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It was also another motivation in pursuing a comedy career 13 years ago, (she’d previously tried acting, when, from 1994 to 1999, she played a disabled girl, Rachel Burns, in the BBC children’s show, Grange Hill.) Since then she’s become one of the most high-profile disabled people in Britain, with stand-out appearances on the likes of Extras with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and The Frank Skinner Show.

This remarkable ascent forms the basis of the touring What the **** is Normal? show which stops off in Yorkshire on four dates, starting on Saturday. But her story is just a starting point.

She says: “This is my attempt to give the audience that same realisation I had. Life is a one-off amazing gift, yet so many of us waste so much of it worrying about the shape of our nose or our legs or something.”

This positive mental attitude has taken Francesca a long way. As well as enjoying a successful comedy career, she’s been with her partner, Kevin Hely, for five years and looks forward to starting a family. But she admits having kids will have to wait until she can bear to give up the other love of her life: comedy.

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“I’m not in love with the process itself, I love where comedy can take you.” she says. “You can discuss some really serious issues by having a laugh and being open with an audience. Do I ever get heckled? Sometimes, but it’s good to be kept on your toes, even if you are a bit wobbly.”

Francesca, At a theatre near you...

Francesca Martinez appears in What the **** is Normal? on: Saturday, Doncaster Civic Theatre, Waterdale, 8pm. 01302 342349. doncastercivic.co.uk, September 28, The Alhambra, Morley Street, 7.30pm. 01274 432000 bradford-theatres.co.uk, October 17, Harrogate Theatre Studio, Oxford St, 8pm. 01423 50216 harrogatetheatre.co.uk and October 18, Sheffield City Hall, Barkers Pool, 7.30pm. 01142 789789 sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

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