Josie Long chats ahead of Birmingham show

And fans at Birmingham's Old Rep can see what all the fuss is about when she headlines the theatre tonight.

Josie Long has enjoyed an international sell-out success with her last show Cara Josephine, which toured across the UK, Europe, in Australia and New York.

She is the star of BBC Radio 4's Romance and Adventure, All of the Planet's Wonders and presenter of Short Cuts.

And now she's back doing what she does best – stand-up – with her eighth solo stand-up show.

Josie's 34. She thought by now that she would have children, and be in love, and have a country that didn't vote with the far right parties to march us all off a cliff. And that she would be able to do all the awesome stuff that activists do. She thought we would have won by now. Oh, and she wanted to be taller and better looking.

"I decided to call it Something Better. That way people could say, 'what are you going to see?' 'I'm going to see Something Better'."

The show is about optimism and hopefulness, about looking for people and finding things to look up to. It's about wanting more from life than it might be up for giving out.

It's about struggling with realising what you are, who you are and what you can't change about yourself, and about really feeling like an outsider for the first time. It's a bit about having faith in younger people, and friendship, and activism, and solidarity.

Josie has been busy interviewing activists about what they do and why, so it's also about politics and making things happen. And there's probably a bit where she pretends to be a push-button shower, so it should be silly and fun too, with a few exciting bits in it.

"It's a political show, I guess, but it's kind of about how I wanted to write something really joyful about politics, and about people that I felt had inspired me, who were cool and fun and doing progressive and political things.

"And then Brexit happened, and it kind of knocked the stuffing out of me. So it's kind of about trying to get back to a positive place after Brexit and about trying to embody something a bit less divisive. But it's also about the fact that I'm 34 and I want to have kids but I don't have them yet, and how I feel a lot of pressures. But it's all quite silly.

"A lot of my friends are in couples, and I'm not really yet. I'm just feeling a little bit like I'm not quite adhering with the people I went to school with.

"And then politically, I'm definitely feeling like an outsider. There was this YouGov survey that said only 10 per cent of people in the UK identified as left wing and I was suddenly thinking, gosh I didn't think I was niche."

As well as stand-up, Josie is busy with Radio 4's popular short documentary series Short Cuts, which is also one of the top downloaded podcasts. She regularly writes for the Guardian and has recently appeared on The Island (Channel 4), The Superhuman's Show (Channel 4), Russell Howards Stand Up Central (Comedy Central) and Dara O'Briain's video gaming gameshow Go 8 Bit on Dave.

She remains one of comedy's most optimistic performers.

"I think it's been a real challenge, last summer in particular," she adds. "It's been really hard because I feel like the wind has been knocked out of my sails and no-one feels the way I do about these things. I think whether or not you're an optimistic or a cynical person is partly down to your temperament.

"So I feel quite blessed I can just wake up and think, oh cool, brilliant, let's give it a go! And on top of that I just have this theory that even if everything is messed up and terrible, you might as well have an optimistic attitude and try and work with a bit of hope. You're going to have more fun and more of a laugh if you try and be optimistic about things."

Long began performing stand-up comedy at 14, winning the BBC New Comedy Awards at the age of 17. Josie then attended Michael Knighton's comedy course in Beckenham, Kent. At 18 she gave up stand-up while attending Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, though she ran experimental comedy clubs, and graduated with a degree in English.

By Andy Richardson