I think James Barr needs a rest. Yes, because he wakes up the nation every morning at 6am on Hits Radio Breakfast alongside Will Best and Fleur East, but also because of everything that happens in between.
There’s his weekly, chart-topping and recent Webby Award-winning podcast A Gay and a Non-Gay, hosted alongside his straight pal, Dan Hudson. Plus his ongoing stand-up comedy show Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum), about surviving an abusive relationship, which he’s been performing for the past year, and writing for much longer.
“I’ll probably still be writing it until it’s selling out the Palladium and on Netflix,” he jokes today, though I feel he’s serious. “But, you know, until that point, I think it will still be a work in progress. Manifesting!” He’s also bringing the show to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August for the second year in a row.
Somehow, amongst it all, he’s carved out time to be a judge at this year’s LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year competition, the final of which takes place on 10 June. How does he manage it all? “That’s a great question. I’m really struggling with that at the moment,” he confesses. He says he tries to tell himself that his jobs are all the same thing – “creating a feeling or mood” – which makes his workload easier to manage. “I don’t know if I believe that answer,” he backtracks with a laugh. “I think it’s true? I think that’s how I’m managing it?”
The contest, hosted by Comedy Bloomers, sees an array of queer comedy newcomers battle it out for the title of LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year. Barr is a judge alongside fellow celebrity comics including Zoe Lyons and Drag Race UK winner Tia Kofi but strangely, he still feels like a newcomer himself. “That could be imposter syndrome,” he says, or it could be the fact that his comedy style has changed drastically with Sorry I Hurt Your Son.
“Previously I was just doing dick jokes, but now I’m doing trauma. And that’s okay because, like, Beyoncé is doing country and we’re all diversifying,” he quips. But I think truly that has been something I’ve never really done before. So it’s been a new experience every single time I’ve performed it.” Plus, he reasons, he’s performing to different people every night, so he’s always a new performer to someone. “I think that should probably help up-and-coming comedians feel better about the situation,” he offers. “You’re doing it right already.”
James Barr started his career in radio, but was ultimately sacked (“Who’s laughing now?” he probably thinks as he taxis to the Hits Radio Breakfast studio every morning). A friend suggested comedy might be an avenue to help him re-discover his voice, so he tried improv. He was “terrible” at it, he admits freely, and so opted to try a stand-up comedy course in London in 2016. In 2019, with a few years under his belt, he took his debut show Thirst Trap to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. “I dressed as an avocado because I wanted a man to ‘smash me’. And that really was the only joke in my entire hour-long show,” he deadpans.
Sorry I Hurt Your Son is funnier, despite the far darker subject matter. A synopsis describes the show as being about all the things Barr’s ex-boyfriend did to him, “including a pushy-wushy down the stairsy-wairsy”.
“It’s certainly not been easy. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says of pawing over the experience constantly. “I think it’s been the most transformative, powerful thing I’ve ever done for myself.” Yet the concerted effort he’s gone to to protect the identity of “he who shall not be named” has provided some sense of distance. “It’s almost not mine anymore,” he explains. “I can feel some distance to it whilst also tapping into the truth of it if that makes sense. I’m luckily enough able now to look at it and go, ‘Oh well, God, that’s f**ked up but that will be a really great moment in the show’,” he says. “I’m monetizing trauma. I just haven’t made the money yet.”
All of the positive reviews and feedback – including from Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies – has made him regret wasting so much time being “scared” to write the show. His advice for his younger self, and also the comedians at the LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year contest, is to not be so “worried about what people think so much – I think if I could [I’d] tell myself that that will happen forever and that’s never going to go away, [so] just get on with it”.
He’s got plenty of advice for queer comedy newcomers, actually. “If you’re punching down, make sure the person you’re punching is evil or inherently wrong,” he laughs. Piers Morgan, Barr’s one-time sparring partner, might be an example of someone it’s OK to bite back at. “I think it’s OK to punch back, that’s how I would put it… but in general I try to punch up. Why would you want to attack a vulnerable minority like a trans person as a comedian? That’s just lazy humour I feel.”
With that said, he hopes the finalists at the comedy contest will surprise him. “I want to be gagged. I want to be questioning if they could get away with that. I think that’s my favorite type of comedy, that [which] really sets a room on fire.”
The number of queer performers has increased exponentially in recent years, sure, but still today Barr says some line-ups will only feature one, “diversity hire” queer person. He sees the contest as a space to prove why more queer comics should have a platform.
And for anyone who whinges about it being a queer-only contest? Well, “it’s like asking why there’s no straight flag,” Barr says. “There’s so many platforms for straight people across every single form of entertainment and we just get crumbs.” Comedy Bloomers might even be open to welcoming in a straight, cisgender person, “but they’re probably all booked and busy,” he says, his lips thinning into a sardonic smile. And with one last wisecrack, he’s off. Or rather, on. Always on, and always working.
The LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year 2025 final takes place at the Clapham Grand in London on 10 June. Tickets available now.
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