by Jayde Adams began her career in drag bars in Britain with an uncanny Adele impersonation. Her comedy career has gone big across the pond since her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2016, and now she joins a group of Brits with specials on Amazon Prime.
As I wrote previously:
Why so serious, anyhow?
Adams reveals that her previous production, and much of her young life, was full of glitz and glamour, or as least disco balls and bright colors. She used to tour small towns as a child with her sister, freestyle disco dancing. She thought if she pulled out all the stops as an adult, show business would take notice. Instead, “I made minus 3,500 pounds” and the phone stopped ringing with gig offers, Adams said. She wondered what she might do to be taken more seriously as a stand-up; enter one black turtleneck.
Adams jokes it off, of course: “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to stand-up in this day and age. But basically, stand-up isn’t stand-up unless unless you’re trying to inflict change upon your audience.”
But she also strives to find a middle road between what she called the “Spice Girls” wave of feminism and this current, intersectional, #MeToo movement. In doing so, she realized that if a beautiful skinny actress such as The Good Place‘s Jameela Jamil could position herself as a spokeswoman for body positivity, then why couldn’t Adams take it on, or any other issue she wanted to, for that matter.
Because it’s all a confidence game, Adams confides to us.
