The award-winning comedian talks mid-life changes, mortality and laughter as light relief
“I realised that I really needed to love myself,” award-winning comedian Laura Smyth tells me as she reflects on the stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis that exploded her world at the age of 40. “Before, I was very stressed – very hard on myself – and I always had stuff to prove. Cancer taught me how to really take care of myself. My hope is that other people don’t have to wait until they get a diagnosis to understand this.”
Deliciously unpretentious and hailing from a working-class east London family, Smyth discovered a world of restorative yoga and cranial osteopathy. “Cancer made me middle-class!” she has quipped.
But as a mother of three children, the gravity of her situation forced her to take her wellbeing seriously. “I thought, if I’m fighting for my life, I want it to be a life worth fighting for,” she tells me. And gratitude formed a central part of this. “In the early days of my diagnosis, things felt so bleak. And then I started writing a gratitude list. It sounds cheesy, but I describe it as like a rope that pulled me out of a dark well.”
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Smyth’s reflections reveal a vulnerability that fans may not associate with her comedy. It is a career that has been long in the making, but meteoric in its rise. After many years working as an English teacher, just six months after her first gig, Smyth won the prestigious Funny Women Awards in 2019 – a renowned competition that counts giants of the comedy world such as Katherine Ryan, Jayde Adams and Zoe Lyon among its previous winners.
Her sharp and relatable gags quickly made her a hit, with appearances on comedy panel shows such as Richard Osman’s House of Games, QI and Would I Lie to You? as well as Celebrity Mastermind (specialist subject: the films of Baz Luhrmann).
Her 2024 debut tour, Living My Best Life, was extended due to phenomenal demand – and just two weeks after finishing treatment for cancer, she achieved her dream of stepping out on stage at Live at the Apollo. It was far from an overnight success, however.
“I had my first child when I was quite young,” she says. “I was living in temporary accommodation. I had a housing officer.” A chance interaction with her old English teacher prompted her to study for a degree in English.
A 10-year teaching career and a husband followed, along with two more children. “There was a lot of scrabbling just to reach ‘normalcy’,” she says. “And, in a weird way, when things felt ‘safe’, it felt like time to go and risk it all.”
Smyth’s reflections reveal a vulnerability that fans may not associate with her comedy (Photo: Trevor Leighton)
Her husband bought her a one-day comedy masterclass as a wedding gift. “This inspired me to think, ‘Maybe I’m brave enough to do a full comedy course.’ But it was incremental. I think a lot of people think that change has to be this big leap: ‘I’m going to run off and join the circus.’ But just admitting to my husband that I’d always wanted to be a stand-up was a start.”
Entering the comedy world at any age is not for the fearless, but imposter syndrome wasn’t something Smyth struggled with.
“I’ve always been funny,” she says. “My family is funny – everyone I know is. ‘If you’re not bringing funny to a conversation, why are you talking?’ is very much how I was brought up. And I think comedy can be so kind – I’ve used it in the classroom, in meetings – I love the breaking of tension.”
Smyth’s age is something she believes was a help, rather than a hindrance. “I know who I am,” she smiles. “It’s a superpower. And women in their fifties and sixties say it just gets better. A much younger comedian might have to work that out for 10 years on the stage, even if they’re great comics. But I think I came fully formed.”
Her second tour, Born Aggy, begins in September, and asks the question: what if all your dreams come true and you’ve still got the hump? “She’s even beaten cancer; she’s done all the alternative healing shit you could shake a stick at – and she still thinks everyone’s a dickhead,” reads the synopsis. Does she really think so? “Yeah, I do – and I 100 per cent include myself in that,” she laughs.
“Everyone’s so polarised and it’s very easy to demonise other people when you think you’re on the right side of history, when we’re all just these fallible, unevolved children that do really shitty things. But you’ve got to handle yourself and others with grace, because getting on your soapbox and saying everyone else is the problem, ain’t the one.”
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It is against the backdrop of our fraught political climate that she launched her weekly podcast Shouldn’t Laugh But… in August 2025. She and her best friend, Carmen, discuss everything from relationships to celebrities with brutal honesty and humour; Smyth’s description of one sex position as “a f**k-load of admin” illustrates that very little is off limits.
“It’s intentional that we’re being very light and silly, because most of the time on social media you’re just despairing,” she notes. “Having a laugh about inconsequential nonsense is not our way of dismissing the real things in the world, but giving yourself a break from it.”
Laura Smyth tours the UK with ‘Born Aggy’ from 24 September (laurasmyth.com). ‘Shouldn’t Laugh But…’ is available on Global Player and all major podcast platforms.
