Susan Calman
Susan Calman is a Scottish comedian and a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4 topical shows The News Quiz and I Guess That's Why They Call It The News. She has appeared in Channel 4 sketch shows[1] and covers for Fred MacAulay on his BBC Radio Scotland show.[2] She has also appeared in Rab C. Nesbitt. Other television work includes presenting the CBBC programme Extreme School[3] and providing the comic voiceover on the CBBC series Disaster Chefs. Calman is a regular performer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at The Stand Comedy Club.
Education and legal career
Calman went to The High School of Glasgow[4] and then went on to study law at Glasgow University, winning a Judge Brennan scholarship and a three-month stint in North Carolina working with criminals on death row.[5] She gradually became dissatisfied with working as a specialist in freedom of information and data protection and developed her stand-up comedy during evenings, eventually giving up her job with Dundas & Wilson to develop a career in comedy.[5]
Comedy career
She reached the semi-finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2005 and was a finalist in the Funny Women competition in 2006.[5] Along with the rest of the cast of Channel 4’s sketch show Blowout, she won a Scottish BAFTA in 2007, and in 2009 she was awarded the Best New Scottish Comedian at the Real Radio Variety Awards.[5]
Personal life
Calman is the daughter of Anne Wilkie and Sir Kenneth Calman, chancellor of Glasgow University and former chief medical officer for England and Scotland.[5] She has a sister and brother.
Calman came out as a lesbian at the age of 19 and has spoken of her difficulties growing up gay in Glasgow.
- "It wasn't easy, not at all. Glasgow is a lovely city, but when I was growing up there was one lesbian bar, and there was a club for men, but there was no internet, there was no way of finding out [about other people]."[6] After nine years together Calman and her partner (a fellow lawyer) had their civil partnership ceremony in 2012.[6]
Image
The Times commented that Calman's "status as a diminutive lesbian — she is 4ft 11in — gives a certain grist to her mill but, her Hobbit-like stature aside, what strikes you about her is her chirpy, optimistic level-headedness."[5]
References
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/mar/06/comedy-previews-the-guide James Kettle "This week's comedy previews" The Guardian '6 March 2010'
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x0xqz "Susan Calman sits in" BBC Radio Scotland
- ↑ http://www.suchsmallportions.com/news/susan-calman-present-cbbcs-extreme-schools?page=2
- ↑ http://m.scotsman.com/news/so-would-you-heckle-a-lawyer-1-1128535
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/comedy/article6727493.ece Gillian Bowditch "Susan Calman: the lawyer who became our pint-sized new comic pin-up" The Times '26 July 2009
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/mar/03/susan-calman-saturday-interview Emine Saner "Saturday interview: comedian Susan Calman" The Guardian 3 March 2012
