12th March 2006
GOD-ESS OF LAUGHTER
by Anvar Khan
I'm sitting in a cab in Glasgow with Janey Godley when she suddenly whips out a snap of herself with Jake Gyllenhall at the BAFTAs She stifles a giggle as she reveals how she approached the star while he toyed with his best supporting actor award for Brokeback Mountain. "I asked him if I could stroke it, and he went 'OK', and I said, 'Not the BAFTA - that!' And he erupted, opened his coat and let me have a feel. "I had a quick grope - he's got a body like a wee fridge. He said 'Oh I LOVE comedy' and he talked about it for ages and then" - she breaks off and sighs - “I got quite bored.” It's a great tale
- but then Janey is no stranger to drama. Comedian, author
and actor, she was sexually abused as a child and eventually married
into a family of Glasgow gangsters. Her colourful life is freely discussed
in her stand-up routine. She admits “ I was always a storyteller. I had middle class Oxford types making social commentary who'd never had to live on just an Oxo cube, so I thought, 'Why not?'" We're having a drink in the East End's Calton Bar, which she used to own. It's smoky and loud and grown men are shouting at a puppy. |
“Because I was raised in a male-dominated environment there were no female parameters I was bound by," she says. "I
don't get up and be girly. I still get called a tough barmaid. Women
are tough and men are assertive. I'm not really a rough bird.” I suppose some
of Janey's fans are almost virtual tourists of Glasgow. They want to
hear about people she knew who OD'd on heroin; some authenticity; real
life in a hard place. She says, “What
I would have perceived to be my core audience - rough and tumble people
- are actually middle class people from Guildford.” Despite her past, she's not a victim. She has “a great sex life”, is still married after 25 years, and is immensely proud of her daughter Ashley, of whom she says,“She's never had to show the crack of her a**e to get men to listen to her.” She's ferociously
funny and ad-libs her way through an unscripted act every night. “A woman has to be funny very quickly," she says. "We have to be quicker with punch lines whereas men can tell bigger stories. If I was a guy they'd go. 'Oh different every night' and compare me to Ross Noble. But because I'm a woman they think it's just Alzheimer's.". |