Jamie D’Souza: “I’ve been watching live comedy since the age of fourteen and I just thought I could do it”.
I find Jamie D’Souza in a boujee bar called The Cavendish Arms in Vauxhall. He’s invited me to a stand-up night called “Comedy Virgins”; it will be the first time I’ve seen him perform live instead of watching his sets on YouTube. The 24 year old is wearing his trademark outfit of a white and blue striped t-shirt and skinny jeans, we awkwardly hug. Is he nervous for his upcoming set? “Not really”, he replies, “I’ve been in this scene for years, I’ve pretty much seen everything you could think of”.
Originally from Shepperton in Surrey, Jamie started performing when he was 21 whilst he was at Cardiff University. However, he has been around the scene for a long time: “My parents used to sneak me into comedy clubs when I was 14, and I always used to get picked on during performances. You see so much during a performance, I started to think ‘yeah I could do that’”.
Jamie is quick-witted and can easily think on his feet. His deadpan and nostalgic humour is incredibly intelligent and something his audience will always relate too. During this performance that night, he starts saying that his current girlfriend bought him a £10 Amazon gift card for Christmas when a woman shouts “sounds like something you would get your cousin”, to which Jamie instantly replies: “oh that’s funny because she actually is”. The audience is in hysterics.
Comedy Virgins at The Cavendish Arms is an open mic night which welcomes all comedians, whether they have been performing for years like Jamie, or have never stepped on stage before. The audience is encouraged by the host, Twix, to show support for anyone performing and if the audience enjoys their set, Twix will buy the comedian a drink as a form of payment.
One of the first acts, a shy man originally from Canada performs stand-up for the first time ever. He is clearly scared and probably been massively encouraged by his wife who is watching him in the audience. Some of his jokes don’t land properly but that’s okay, encouragement is given by the audience, which is one of the most supportive communities I have ever been in. Twix and her audience make me feel like I could do it myself — I then remember that I’m not funny and the idea quickly fades.
Jamie first went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, when he made the finals of the “So You Think You’re Funny” competition. This year he will be returning for the third time, appearing in another final for a comedy competition. Jamie is proud of his achievements yet seems to be embarrassed to say he was a finalist and now part of the alumni of other finalists and winners such as Jack Whitehall, Rob Beckett and Aisling Bea.
In his 2018 Edinburgh Fringe appearance, he performed his own show with two other friends. “It was really fun. The main thing you lead up to when you’re performing at Edinburgh is performing for a whole hour. Last year I only performed for 20 minutes, so it was low pressure. This year I am performing for half an hour, will probably perform 40 minutes next year and will aim for the full hour in 2021”. He will be onto bigger and better things as the years progress.
Comedy isn’t Jamie’s day job. The 24-year-old currently works as a data analyst at Sainsbury’s which he describes as “the most boring 9 to 5 job, ever”. He seems a little exhausted when he explains that he needs to juggle work and his love and explains how tough it is because he needs a lot of time off “Edinburgh is a month, I have a gig in Glasgow in a couple months’ time”. He says yes to every opportunity he is offered which sometimes can cause some anxiety for him: “There are so many mitigating factors in life — but if you’re good enough, you can still rise” and it’s clear he wants too.
During the three years of his comedy career, Jamie has performed at well-known clubs. In 2018 he performed at the Camden Comedy Club, the Top Secret Comedy Club and the Comedy Store, performing alongside famous names such as Nish Kumar and James Acaster. As well as So You Think You’re Funny, Jamie has also competed in the Musical Comedy Awards and the Chortle Student Comedy Awards where he was a finalist for both competitions in 2017.
Comedy is a cut-throat business. Like the rest of the entertainment industry, it is difficult not to be jealous of other people you know in the sector: “There’s no point, it’s pretty hard not to be jealous sometimes but at the same time you’re not actually against them. There is room for everyone”.
Despite the highs, there have also been of course the lows whilst performing. Jamie was telling me about the worst show he’s ever performed which was in Bristol: “A promoter said to me, we’re doing a gig in Bristol to promote a brewery company and you’ll get a free crate of beer if you perform. I would, and did, absolutely take a half day off work for that”.
Not knowing what he was getting into, Jamie arrived in the middle of the day to find that he was performing outside of a tent that somehow fit a small bar in it. “It turns out it was in the centre of Bristol where everyone was walking past”. He laughs whilst cringes as he tells me: “I had to then stand next to the tent with a microphone and just talk to people walking past, with no audience. You can imagine the sort of people you will attract in the middle of the day giving out pints — they’re not comedy fans, they’re all homeless”. Obviously, the brewery didn’t want this type of publicity around their small makeshift bar: “They just gave them a pint and told them to leave. But I was annoyed with the company and started to misbehave. I started having down off competitions with them”.
Jamie stature is slightly awkward yet calm, and he comes across as a low maintenance kind of guy; I didn’t think he had a mischievous side. Turns out, I was wrong: “The people walking past didn’t want to watch me do comedy, so I just went ‘here mate, let’s have a down off’ and we necked three pints. The people in charge asked me to stop and eventually the guy I was drinking with left. But just before he did, he grabbed the microphone from me, dropped the ‘N bomb’ and left”.
Unsurprisingly, Jamie didn’t get the free crate of beer.
Jamie is performing at the Comedy Store on the 30th of March 2019. You can also check him out on Twitter at @Jamie_DSouza for any updates.
