Interview
Stuck In A Lift
Emma Doran once shared a car with Paul Rudd’s omelette
The comedian chats hungover run-ins with celebrities, Teen Mom as a specialist subject, and why she was at her best as her twelve-year-old self
Emma Doran has been touring her show Emmaculate across the UK and Ireland for the past couple of years, but hometown shows in Dublin are still some of her favourites – although they present unique hazards.
“I’m from Dublin,” she says, “so the people in Dublin, I think, were the first to get on board with me. I don’t have to think about anything I’m saying. I know that they’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. I love gigging in Dublin. Sometimes you do have that thing where you go downstage and you see someone in the front row, and you’re like, “Oh, we went to school together. How did everything go after the confirmation?” There’s a bit of that, but I do love it.”
She does edit stories sometimes, she says, but often people don’t realise when they’re being spoken about. “I have some stuff about my mom in Emmaculate which is verbatim. Like, I might as well have recorded her. But she saw the show, and she said, “Oh, I love the character that you’ve created for me on stage. It’s so funny.” And I was like, “That’s you.” Even when you name and shame the people, they still don’t recognise themselves, so you get away with a good bit, I think.”
Thankfully, like many others, her mum’s a fan of Emmaculate, which explores the trials and tribulations of Doran’s blended family. “I’m getting away with it so far. Touch wood.” Fans too are The Guardian, The Evening Standard, and fellow comics Bruce Dessau, Joanne McNally and Brett Goldstein, among many others. Ahead of her UK tour dates in February 2027 – including a stop at the London Palladium – we caught up with Doran to discuss reacting unsolicited advice, getting recognised whilst washing pans, and the time she accidentally escorted Paul Rudd’s omelette. What else are you going to do when you’re stuck in a lift?
Who would you most want to be stuck in a lift with?
Oh, do you know who I’d love to be stuck in a lift with? I’d love to be stuck in a lift with Colin Farrell because I’ve talked about him a bit over the years, and there’s not that many Hollywood stars that keep private. You know, you’re not going to see Colin posting on social media. I’d love to be stuck in a lift with him. I actually met him when I was about 18, I think, and I just feel like it’s time for me to meet Colin again. And it would have to be us trapped in a lift.
Who would you least want to be stuck in a lift with?
Myself. That’s the person I know the most about and is the least interesting to me, so I think myself would be pretty boring. Somebody new who I haven’t chatted to before? Brilliant.
Are you generally pretty happy making small talk with strangers?
I actually am. My family give out to me. I’ll go up and talk to somebody with a dog and stuff, and they’re like, “He really didn’t want to talk to you about his dog,” and I’m like, “He looked lonely.” I think that everyone wants to chat. I meet the audience after most of my shows. I do like small talk, but then I do love when somebody tells me something outrageous. I love the people that are able to just bypass the small talk and get into mad stuff straight away. I do I always appreciate that.
I imagine that would be a little bit trickier with the London audiences?
You’d be surprised. I think after a gig people have had a couple of drinks, and you’ve told them so much about you… You get good gossip off people after shows. They’re vulnerable. Their guard is down. Now, if I bumped into them in the corner shop the next day…
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve ever had with a famous person?
Baz Ashmawy lives kind of around my area, and I bumped into him one morning. I was so hungover I thought that we’d already met. So, I went over to him. I said, “Baz, how have you been?” And he’s like, “I’m good, I’m good.” And I was like, “Great to see you.” and all this, and then I walked away and I was like, “Oh my god, I’ve never met that man before.” And he was so nice, but I was absolutely mortified. He’s one person I wouldn’t be stuck in a lift with because I was that was my first interaction with him and it was so bad.
Oh, and Paul Rudd. I was doing this film, Power Ballad. I was doing a little part in that, and I was like, “Ooh, Paul Rudd, wow!” Like you know, he’s a big star. And then I was getting taken to set, and I could see all these people on walkie-talkies, and they were going “Paul Rudd, Paul Rudd,” and I was like, “Oh my god, I’m going to get in the car with Paul Rudd.” So I was trying to prep myself to just play it cool: just say, “Oh hey,” don’t be starstruck or whatever. Then I got onto the car, and then what happened was I wasn’t getting in the car with Paul Rudd. I was getting in the car with Paul Rudd’s omelette. So that wasn’t an interaction with Paul Rudd, but his omelette. Does that count? Probably not.
Why was his omelette in the car without him?
Because I think he had requested an omelette. I think that’s what happens when you’re a master star, you can request an omelette. What I can tell you is I think it was just a very light omelette, nothing crazy, and that’s all I know.
What’s the worst advice you’ve been given?
I think any unsolicited advice is quite annoying. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear any advice straight after a gig. The second you come off stage – I don’t think that’s the best time for advice. If you saw maybe an add-on or a little word change or something in a joke, maybe say to the person the next day, but let them get settled. Let them go to the toilet. Let them get a drink of water or whatever it is. I probably do it a bit, but I try not to because I know it’s not the best time.
What would you say is your nichest area of expertise?
I would say 2000s music, like chart music. There are some songs that are embedded in me. Also, I would say probably Teen Mom. I could do that, like as a specialist subject. Is there anything else? No, you know what it is. I kind of get hyper fixated on things, and that will be my thing for the week. Or like, I’ll have a song that I will play on repeat. Sometimes I can get two or three weeks out of one song. It depends on the week and what that buzz is. Like last week, I could have told you exactly how much protein you needed to be consuming a day, given your body weight. But this week we’ve moved on. I’m not interested in it this week, so it’s already fleeting.
You’re gathering a lot of knowledge along the way, though, in that case.
Yeah, but I think it’s leaving as quick as it’s coming in. I’m not really retaining it. I’m not a great person on a quiz. I’m the person on the quiz where I might know one really obscure question, and I won’t even know how I know it, but now I’m useless.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Oh, I’ve had so many bad jobs. I think the one that springs to mind straight away is I was a kitchen porter at one point. I was doing standup at the same time, and I was finding it very hard to get a job. Now, my theory is it was because they were googling me. That’s what I like to think. They were googling me and going, “Oh, this one is a comedian…”
I was trying to buy a house and the bank aren’t that a big fan of being self-employed, so I just needed to get something to get me going. So, I got a job as a kitchen porter. I’d done restaurants and pubs and all that before, but they wouldn’t let me go out onto the floor. They would only let me stay in the kitchen washing pots. I was low. I was like, “Okay, well, just go with it Emma, it’s work.” One day they let me go out on the floor to collect plates because they were so busy, and I went out, and I’d been washing pots for hours, and a guy said to me, he was like, “Oh, are you Emma Doran?” I was like, “Yeah.” He said, “Oh, you make videos with Jen Hatton,” who was the girl I was doing sketches with. I was like, “Yeah.” He asked for a selfie, and I was so embarrassed because I was covered in grease, like manky. But then I didn’t want to be snotty either, you know. So, I was like, “Oh, I think maybe later.” He was really insistent that it had to be now. I was like, “Okay, okay.” Then, as he took the picture, he said to me, “Can we get more ketchup when you get a chance?” I was like, “I need to figure something out.”
What’s your most controversial food opinion?
My most controversial food opinion… I eat tinned sardines, and most people think that is absolutely manky. I also would be partial to eggs with onion, so that just tells people I have no respect for my fellow human beings.
What’s the last gig or show you went to?
Probably Imelda May on Vicky Street. She was doing a songs and stories gig, and so she was doing like some of her new stuff, some of her old stuff, and I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was brilliant. It felt really intimate. I’d never seen her live. I went with my mom. When I lived at home, we used to listen to Imelda May all the time, so that was kind of nice.
Do you have any superstitions?
Not really. Sometimes I try to pretend that I do. People ask, like, “What’s your prep before a gig?” It’s scrolling on my phone. It’s not a superstition, but I do think if you think positively, positive things are more likely to happen. But I don’t mind seeing a magpie or stepping on cracks or anything like that.
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
You see, that’s the problem. This week, it would be Chris Rainbow, ‘Be Like A Woman To Me.’ That’s been the song for the last two weeks, and I’ve probably listened to it about eight times a day. It’s probably at the end of its life now, for me, but that’s the song I’m picking today.
What did your twelve-year-old self think that you’d be doing now?
My twelve-year-old self… I think she would have thought: Hollywood. I think twelve is just on the cusp before the realisation of actual life takes hold. So, I think twelve-year-old me would have been reaching for the stars, absolutely. I kept a diary when I was twelve, and I think it was pure, like, “I’m going to be famous.” She’d be good for a pep talk. Her boobs had just come in. The world was her oyster. I think I was probably at my best when I was twelve, to be honest with you.
