Comedian Sophie Duker on what she learned going to therapy with her dad-Graeme Green-Entertainment – Metro

The comic talks her new stand-up show, going to therapy with her father and why sometimes she just wants to be delulu (Picture: Sarah Harry-Issacs)

For some, embracing the unrealistic and unhinged can be the best coping mechanism. It certainly works for British comic Sophie Duker.

Already be a familiar face to fans of Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, The Festive Pottery Throw Down and Taskmaster – which she won in Series 13 -Sophie is now wowing audiences at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

In this weekend’s 60 Seconds, the 34-year-old talks about endurance licking, dressing like a tampon and her new stand-up show, But Daddy I Love Her.

What’s your Edinburgh Fringe show about?

Delusion and daddy issues. I love the concept of ‘delulu’ [of holding unrealistic beliefs]. Reality at the moment is really s***. It feels like having joy and happiness is to defy reality. Being unrealistic, chaotic and unhinged is fun. In the show, there’s a sort of bratty response to having to deal with trauma, grief or grown-up weird stuff. And in all of that is the fact I did therapy with my dad.

Therapy with a parent would be many people’s worst nightmare…


There’s the whole Larkin thing: ‘They f*** you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.’ When you become an adult, you realise with your parents, ‘Oh no, you’re not like a superhero or infallible. You’re just a sort of equally chaotic or repressed or messed-up human being.’

A bit of the journey of the show is me being confronted with my parents being actual people, rather than concepts.

(Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images)

Any specific issue you work through in the new show?

My mum and dad are divorced. They separated when I was seven. My dad left the UK and moved far away. I had an inconsistent relationship with him. When you’re younger, you want that fairy-tale relationship with your parents – there are loads of ways parents don’t live up to that.

What else do you talk about?

Queer people and also people across my generation, when we meet up or go on a date, we trauma-dump from the jump – we overshare immediately.

It’s only a successful birthday party if three people have been crying. Queer dating, or any dating, is people trying to find out what’s wrong with you, having a rifle through your trauma CV.

A lot of people have come to my comedy through political commentary, with BBC shows like The Now Show or Frankie Boyle. I went to a very fancy university. The thing people want me to be sometimes is smart, educated and giving hot takes, but really I just want to have a soft life, be a hot girl, and be delulu.

Sophie Duker studied French and English at Oxford University (Picture: Supplied)

Do you hang out with other comics at Edinburgh Fringe, or focus on work?

I don’t think it’s possible to go ‘monk’ and not see anyone. I’ve loved Edinburgh for so long. I can’t throw myself into the unbridled hedonism of my early Edinburghs but the capacity for something weird, unexpected and transformative in that city at that time of year still remains.

Are you proud of winning Taskmaster?

I’m so proud. The sort of all-consuming competitiveness that possessed me during that show really feels vindicated by the fact I won it. I was also in Champion Of Champions this year, which sadly I lost by one point to Dara Ó Briain. I’m hoping something bad happens to him before Champion Of Champion Of Champions.

What was your craziest task?

Alex Horne is Greg Davies’ assistant in Task Master (Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images)

Any task where you get to ride Alex Horne is fun – such a brilliant, genius, charming man. My most memorable task, though, was when I had to lick things for an exceedingly long time. I still get messages about it because of the amount of saliva.

You’ve also won Celebrity Mastermind, Pointless, House Of Games…

I live in a one-bedroom flat. But I’d quite like a trophy room on the way to the toilet.

Your stage outfits are often bold and colourful…

People are into ‘dopamine dressing’ at the moment – as the world gets more bleak and genocidal, the more you dress with sequins to counteract the existential dread. When I was a little girl, I was painfully aware that I didn’t fit in and I didn’t think there was a place for me. Showing up and not looking like anyone else means I’ve sort of overcome or transcended that.

That’s one way of dealing with the dread of existence (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Have you ever watched something back and thought, ‘What were you thinking?’

I went on Sara Pascoe’s show Comedians Giving Lectures, and when I watched it back I thought, ‘Yes, I am dressed like a tampon.’ And for some reason I once went commando for a gig. When I bent over, the slit in my skirt got bigger. I thought I’d have to show my arse completely unintentionally. Sometimes I look bad. It’s all part of the fun.

But Daddy I Love Her is at Pleasance Courtyard Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, until Aug 25 then touring, including Soho Theatre, London in Oct and dates around the UK into next year, sophieduker.com

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