Comedian Sarah Keyworth is taking over Dublin stages twice this November, ready to give their audiences a fun evening with their smart and witty, brand-new show My Eyes Are Up Here. Sarah is performing live at Vicar Street on November 27 and at Liberty Hall on November 29.
After emerging as a runner-up at the 2015 Funny Women, Keyworth went from gig to gig winning over audiences all across the UK and beyond with their amazing comedy. In 2020, they created Are You a Boy or a Girl?, a four-part comedy series for BBC Radio 4 exploring gender fluidity and androgyny.
Now they are returning with new material, and ahead of the Dublin gigs, GCN had a chat with Sarah Keyworth to get a feel for what My Eyes Are Up Here promises to be, covering family and acceptance, top surgery, ADHD, being non-binary, navigating their 30s and more.
“I should stress that it’s funny, happy and very light-hearted”, the 31-year-old said. “It’s not a show that has any kind of trauma or sadness. It’s a really positive story, and that was important for me. I think that often in entertainment with queer people featured, there’s a sad bit like where someone rejects them, and that’s not this. You won’t leave feeling bummed out.”
Despite growing queer representation in comedy, the industry still seems to remain quite male-dominated and largely heteronormative, with LGBTQ+ and non-binary themes like top surgery rarely present. Sarah shared that these exact circumstances are even more reason for them to bring the topics on stage and to the mainstream.
“I think I’ve always felt like comedy is a really useful tool to normalise things. If you can make someone laugh about something that they don’t understand in the right way, then it can kind of stand to level the playing field and show that there’s just human beings on either side of this conversation”, the comedian explained.
Speaking about the difficulty of progress, Sarah assumed that for people who never had to question how things are and are comfortable with the world they know, being told that their thoughts are rather regressive can feel confronting. It can leave them feeling offended because they might think the other person is implying that they are “stupid” or “basic”.
“Whereas, if you can make it light and fun, then I think people don’t feel like they’re being lectured or preached at but like they’re having a nice time. Next time they meet someone who’s thinking about having top surgery, or has had top surgery, or just looks like me, they might go: ‘Oh yeah, I kind of know something about that. I saw this show and they were talking about that.’ That has slightly moved the dial, possibly.”
Talking about the show’s content, Sarah continued: “First and foremost, it’s just a comedy show that happens to be about me as a person who exists as part of a family in quite a normal context, who’s just been through something that somebody might relate to or might not relate to.”
For those who do relate, Sarah thinks hearing it is important, too. Especially during harder days. Even if only one person at their show needed to see content featuring non-binary representation, that’s worth it for the comedian.
They shared that 17-year-old Sarah Keyworth would have found seeing a show like theirs amazing – learning that there were other people like them out there. Now Sarah can do this for others by getting on that stage themselves.
“I am just putting my work out there, hoping that it brings enough joy to the people who need it, and then maybe a little bit of information to the people who want to understand it.” Sarah thinks that with every moment of progression, there is always also a backswing. “My response is just to keep showing up.”
The British comedian is probably well known to many through TikTok and Instagram reels, where Sarah’s amazing crowd work makes both live and online audiences cry with laughter. Not only are they selling out shows everywhere they go, their social media clips are also getting watched and liked by thousands, if not millions, of people.
“To have a resource like TikTok or Instagram, where you can go online and just see people who look like you, talking about things that you relate to, has been amazing. When I went to uni over 10 years ago, I truly felt like I was the only gay person on the planet at times. I met gay men at uni, but I didn’t feel like I was meeting people like me”, the 31-year-old admitted.
They hope their social media appearances are a two-way street of advantages, allowing them to find their audience and their audience to find them. “People coming up to me at shows and saying: ‘I found you on TikTok, and I’m having top surgery, or my child has had top surgery, and I wanted to hear your story.’ That’s been incredible”, they shared, noting how grateful they are for such positive feedback.
Apart from that, the show also explores Sarah’s inattentive ADHD diagnosis. “I’d find focusing on a task really challenging”, they explained, “and for years, I just thought I was real stupid or kind of useless. So, it was nice to just find this piece of information.”
Referencing comedian Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special Look At You, in which she talks about getting a diagnosis of bipolar, Sarah agreed with Tomlinson’s view of a diagnosis not as something bad but as a “piece of information about yourself that you can use to help yourself”.
“It’s so good to have that to understand how your mind works and what you need to help you function. I’m never going to be the sort of person that sits down at a desk at nine o’clock in the morning and works for three hours, then has a lunch break and then works for four hours.”
While navigating each day with ADHD, Sarah also just started navigating life in their 30s, which they enthusiastically admitted to loving a lot more than their 20s. “There is a little bit of you that stops giving a shit. It depends on person to person, where you are at in your life. Sometimes it can feel quite daunting for some people, but for me, I found my 20s quite difficult.”
They explained that this feeling has come with a shift in their life, with everything in their career feeling more comfortable now and them feeling “more in control”. This is a feeling many queer people can relate to, for whom their 20s might still be a time to figure out who they are.
“Things have levelled out. There is this calm, where you’re like: ‘I have a sense of who I am now. I can make my own choices about things.’ I hope that everybody feels that way when they turn 30”, the comedian wished.
Alongside their “lovely biological family”, Sarah has established a chosen family of “the most incredible group of friends” who have all left behind “the chaos” of their 20s.
“All those sitcoms you see about groups of friends in their 30s. You’re like: How come they’re always in their 30s? Because that’s the point where they can be good friends. I suppose that’s when friendships really start to settle. And you look at your friends and realise what’s important in relationships and in friendships to you.”
With Sarah Keyworth’s two highly popular Dublin shows coming up, the comedian shared fond memories of a gig in Ireland they once did. “It must have been when you were having the referendum on abortion rights”, they recalled.
“There was this big fundraiser. Alison Spittle was there, David O’Doherty, Catherine Bohart was on, and I was the only English person on the lineup. I was so nervous, because this was such an Irish night, and it felt really important”, they shared. But despite the nervousness, they retold having a very funny and almost comically silly evening alongside their Irish colleagues.
However, Sarah got even more excited about coming back to Dublin when they thought of one of their favourite things: Avoca. “I know that’s so sad. That’s such an in your 30s answer, isn’t it as well?”, they laughed. “I f*cking love an Avoca. I love the homeware, I love the garden centre. I love the lunches they do.”
So, on their day off between shows, Sarah Keyworth might be spotted somewhere between houseplants and teapot shelves in Dublin city centre. “Lock up your Avocas, I’m coming to town!” they joked.
Regarding what people can expect from the shows, Sarah Keyworth assured audiences that they don’t need to be too worried about getting picked out for a session of their incredible crowd work. “I post a lot of crowd work online, but this tour is not very crowd work heavy,” they said. “It’s a written show. There’s a couple of moments where I’ll go into the audience, or if something happens, I’ll address it. But for the most part, it’s me just talking.”
However, Sarah also said that given their reputation, Dublin crowds might be more fearless when engaging with comedians on stage. “I don’t think the audiences at my show will be shy”, they said with a smile. “Just have a nice time and have fun.”
Sarah Keyworth is performing in Dublin at Vicar Street on November 27 and at Liberty Hall on November 29. Get your tickets here.
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