Music
Interview
Rachel Fairburn does not believe in ghosts
We get to know the Mancunian comic ahead of new character comedy show, Vexy Beasts, touring in 2026
Having once worked in a library, Rachel Fairburn is no stranger to people watching. In fact, it was there among the neo-Gothic halls of the John Rylands Library in her native Manchester where she would work on new material in her head as she began making her first steps into comedy in the late 2000s.
Perhaps this access to a constant but varied stream of visitors helped to foster or enhance the down-to-earth, relatable style that landed as Fairburn’s popularity grew in the 2010s with lauded Edinburgh Fringe shows and a hit true crime podcast, All Killa No Filla, alongside friend and co-host Kitty Pritchard-McLean. “My stand up draws on my everyday life,” says Fairburn, “so there’s flashes of character in there from my mum to my sister and even bits of myself I don’t necessarily show everyone. I do keep a note of hilarious things my family and friends have said, I also love overhearing strangers. It all goes in my little note book.”
But however long everyday characters have been an influence, it took until the 2024 Fringe for Fairburn to take the next step and to embody them. Loosely tied to the theme of the seven deadly sins, Side Eye was a smash as she flexed an array of accents and personalities with her cast of connected characters. “It made me more confident in my acting ability and made me loosen up a bit more,” she reflects. “It also made me appreciate stand up in a new way too. Doing character was so new to me that the familiarity of stand up was like a lovely warm blanket.”
The Guardian‘s Rachael Healy concluded that Side Eye “may be Fairburn’s first foray into character comedy, but I hope it’s not her last.” Critics and fans alike will be happy to learn, then, that Vexy Beasts, a new stand up and character comedy show, will hit theatres and comedy clubs in 2026.
But before all of that, we get to know Fairburn a little better by asking the questions that count…
Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
This is difficult, because I will tell you now, I didn’t go in a lift until I was in my mid 20s because I had a phobia of them. I watched an episode of Bergerac with John Nettles when I was really small, and all I remember was there was a fire in a lift, and it really frightened me. So I never go in a lift. I do go in them now because, you know, life’s too short to take the stairs mate. I don’t think I’d like to be stuck in a lift with a comedian. I think that would drive me insane. I think I’d like to be stuck in a lift with Danny Dyer. I think he’d be really funny. I think it’d he’d really calm the situation as well. And also, I do have a bit of a crush on him, so that’s quite nice. So I think national treasure Danny Dyer, because I just think he’d really take control of the situation, and I think you’d have a good laugh with him. And you know what? I think you’d end up going to the pub with him afterwards.
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Okay, I’m gonna say it. Miriam Margolyes, oh my god, I can’t cope. I don’t like being like this. but I find it very stressful, and I think she’d be in absolute pain in the neck. So yeah, I would say Miriam Margolyes, no thank you.
There is the chance she’d eat a raw onion in there…
Miriam?
Yeah she loves eating an onion like it’s an apple.
Do you know who else used to do that? Fred West. That is genuinely true. Fred West used to eat onions like apples and if Miriam does that… I’m not saying… but there you go. I’m a good judge of character.
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve had with a famous person?
Years and years ago, my boyfriend at the time was was was a comedian who was doing very well. We went to the got invited to the Q Awards. So I went. I was like, oh, this is exciting. And I was just quite a new comedian at the time. I worked in a library, so I took a couple of days off and went to London for the Q Awards. Anyway, a few things happened. But you know, the leading singer of Crowded House, Neil Finn? This is how long ago that was. I had a digital camera, and I took it with me for the day, you know. And my boyfriend at the time, wanted his picture taken with him, because he was a big fan of Crowded House. And my stood there for about three minutes. My camera wouldn’t work. It was really deeply embarrassing. So that is probably the weirdest interaction, and he was very patient, Neil Finn. I’m not really a fan of Crowded House, but if I pop on the radio and hear them, I’m like ergh. It was really awkward, me not being able to use this camera, being slightly drunk, you know, and them posing together for ages and it didn’t work. This is where it like was like before, the days when you had a bloody phone in your pocket with a camera on. It still makes me cringe a bit to this day.
What’s on your rider?
The thing is, you pay for them. So whatever you’re ordering, if you think you’re dead rock and roll, going “Oh, can I have six bottles of Jack Daniels?” You’re paying for it. All I ask for is a kettle, tea bags and milk and coffee. I drink about 10 cups of tea a day, constantly drinking tea. I like to have a black coffee before a gig, because I don’t really drink before I go on stage, but, yeah, just the kettle and tea and coffee and milk, that is literally it.
Do you ever overdo it and get too much of a caffeine buzz and heart palpitations on stage?
I think because I drink so much tea consistently throughout the day, I don’t think caffeine as much of an effect on me. I can have a black coffee before I go to bed, it doesn’t affect me in the way that I’d like it to, you know, it never affects my sleep or anything like that. So no, I do like, as I say, give me a black coffee before I go on stage and I’m happy.
What work of yours didn’t get the attention that it deserved?
I did a podcast two years ago. It was it came out for Halloween, and it was a ghost podcast, because I’m really into the supernatural. It was called Ghoul Guide, and I sort of went around to all these different haunted places in the UK. And there was what the premise of it was. I get told three ghost stories, and only one of them is true, and through investigating the area we’re staying overnight, I have to decide which story is the true one. And you know what? I really loved it. I thought it was really different to anything I done before. I thought it was, you know, I actually thought to myself, it’s nice that my nieces and my nephew could listen to – if they wanted to, which they don’t – but I felt like it was a bit more gentle and interesting from other stuff that I’ve done. People really enjoyed it, but I was hoping we’d get to make another series, and we didn’t, but I’m very, very proud of it, and it’s still out there.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
I’m quite lucky, because I only take advice off people that I really trust, so the first person I will go to is my mum. She’s just such a realist, she will give you the best advice. What I have learned is that you can’t just wing it. You know when people say, Oh, don’t mind if you’ve not got any material, just go up there and see what happens. No, that is terrible. You can’t do that. And if you do do that, you’re mad. I think people like to just pretend that they’re like, “Hey, I just get up there and I just do whatever, I’m a free spirit!” That is the worst advice. You always need something to fall back on. Also, don’t waste people’s was time. People want to be entertained, they don’t want you to be floundering and trying stuff out.
What did 12-year-old you imagine that you’d be doing now?
Oh, so 12 year old me massively into Oasis. I was really shy growing up, which is what my other show, show girl was about. I was really, really shy. I don’t know, I always like to think. I thought I’d never get over shyness. So, like, you know, when you’re that age at your awkward just getting into your teenage years, and you’re dead nervous. I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do. I wanted to be a jockey, for some weird reason, that was always on my mind. And then when I really got into music, I liked to think that I would become some sort of rock star, despite not being very confident and having zero musical ability. So I did think that I work in music in some way, but I didn’t. I think a lot of comedians would have liked to have worked in music, but they think, well I’ve got no musical talent, so they end up being stand up comedians.
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
Ugh, what a question! ‘Rock N’ Roll Star’ by Oasis. Can you imagine? That’d be so funny. I don’t play that for my walkout song because that’d be absolutely arrogant to do that. Because I’m from Manchester venues will often play The Stone Roses or a bit of Oasis. The one that gets me – and I’m a fan of the band – is Happy Mondays. The amount of times that ‘Step On’ by Happy Mondays comes on, I’m like, “Can you not?” It just reminds me of when you’re watching TV and it’s set in Manchester and you hear that “Ding ding ding.” It sounds so cliché.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Well, I left school at 16. I went straight into the world of work and I’ve never been to college or university. It’s so it’s really difficult, because there’s been jobs that I hated, but I’ve always made really good mates at the jobs, you know? But I think the worst, I worked in a library for many, many years, and it was a rare books library, which sounds a brilliant job. I wasn’t a librarian, I did admin and stuff in the library. And I loved the building, I loved a lot of the people I worked with, but one of the bosses was on the worst people I ever met. To this day, I still think about her and go, God, she was horrible weren’t she?! I’ve been lucky enough to never have a job that I really, really hated because I always had good mates. But I think I’ll say the library, because I didn’t like my boss, and it was when my stand up was starting to really take off. So I was always doing gigs late, getting the Megabus back and going to work, you know, straight at seven in the morning. So it was hard days.
What’s the skill that no one else knows that you’re great at?
Organising things. I’m very organised. I’m never late. I’m either insanely early or bang on time. Bang on time to me is late. So I’m very organised to the degree of insanity sometimes. I think people sometimes expect comedians to be quite bit free and easy. Listen, if I’m going away for a few days, I’ve got everything I need. I’ve never, you know, I’m always where I’m meant to be. There’s no, yeah, there’s no room for tardiness, I will say so.
What film have you most re-watched?
An American Werewolf in London. It’s my favourite film.
That scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.
It’s still scary now! Now I live in London, I love it. Sometimes you’re on the underground at night and I always think of that scene at the tube station.
You seem to have a taste for the macabre, don’t you? Have you always liked spooky things?
All my life. Some people sit down and go, “Oh, I’m gonna put a nice rom-com on.” I don’t want anything light hearted, from the minute the film’s on I want brooding. I want misery. I want something terrible to happen. I don’t want happy endings, I just want dark. That’s what I love, I always hace since was a kid. My granddad was really into the macabre and the spooky. He really encouraged my delight in it all. He’d buy me books of ghost stories and stuff like that. He’d say, “Oh, you’ll like this horror film”, so we really bonded over that. My family find it very funny that I’m into spooky stuff because I’m also terrified of it. I’m constantly frightened. Like, sometimes I’ll come to a hotel and when I ring me mum, I’m like, “I frightened myself by reading these ghost stories.” She’s like, “Don’t Rachel, I haven’t got time for this.” So I still get frightened by it, but I absolutely love it.
At the beginning of the All Killa No Filla podcast episodes you start with a disclaimer reminding listeners that the subject’s sensitive nature might not be for everyone. Has it been easy getting the balance right as you make light of darkness?
It’s quite interesting. The humour in All Killa No Filla always comes from Kiri and I interacting with each other. We’re not the kind of people that would ever make fun of anyone who’s been murdered. Obviously, I think you can take the piss out somebody who is a serial killer, because there are stupid things that happen along the way, but it’s never anything to do with the murder or anything like that. I would say I’m very proud of the fact that we do keep it factual, respectful, very aware of the subject matter that we’re talking about and we never take the piss out of anything.
I listen to some true crime podcasts, and I’m a bit like, this is a bit distasteful. I don’t like the way they’re talking about things, you know? We get as much information about the victim as we possibly can, which is quite difficult sometimes, because a lot of them are just sort of forgotten about, but I think that’s why it’s successful, because the humour comes from us talking about our lives. To be honest, I think All Killa No Filla is more like a bit of a mini soap opera about Kiri and I more than it is about serial killers now. The only things I ever regret are maybe stories I’ve told about my own life, things like I used to joke about my sister quite a lot. I kind of regret a little bit of that, yeah, but that’s just life innit?
What’s your controversial food opinion?
I don’t eat anything from the sea. Anything that’s from water, either. I won’t eat a duck or a geese because it’s been on water. No thank you. If it’s from the sea, it’s not for me. I don’t know how people can eat it. I don’t know how people can sit there and eat something that has been dredged from the ocean. When I see people eating muscles or oysters I’m like, what are you doooooing?! Look, I’ll tell you what. If someone’s been to the chippy and they’ve got fish and chips, I’ll have a little bit of batter off the cod. But anything on or out of water: put it back. I’m not having it.
Do you have any superstitions?
Well, I have got OCD, so like I’ll add up number plates to get a yes or no answer. So a yes answer would be an even number off the number plate, or a no would be odd. But it doesn’t work, because all I do is just add it up until I get an even one and get the answer I want. So I do little weird, ritualistic things around OCD, but I try to steer clear of superstitions, I just think you can really sort of make yourself mad, can’t you? But I always do salute at a magpie if I see one on its own. I definitely do that all the time.
Someone would be forgiven for thinking you would be superstitious, as the host of shows like Ghoul Guide…
No, you see the thing is that I don’t think I believe in ghosts. I don’t. I think we imagine a lot of stuff. My grandma used to say to me, “When I die, I’m gonna come back and to prove to you that there is an afterlife.” She had really long, glamorous nails, and she said, “When you’re in bed one night, I’ll just grab your feet.” That’s never happened, and I think she’d love to frighten me, so she that’s why I don’t believe in it. I just love everything about it. I love the idea of it. I do believe in reincarnation, though. There you go.
One for another time, perhaps.
Rachel Fairburn tours her new show Vexy Beasts in October & November 2026 – find tickets here
