Harriet Dyer is Easily Distra…

Kicking off on Fri 5 Sept in Leek, award-winning comedian, writer, and actor Harriet Dyer is heading out on tour this autumn.

Harriet captured the nation’s heart during her recent appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, where she shared the fact that she didn’t realise she was deaf until the pandemic hit and everyone began wearing face masks, making lipreading impossible.  

Harriet also made her Live At The Apollo debut on BBC Two earlier this year and has previously appeared on Rosie Jones’ Disability Comedy Extravaganza, Comedy Central Live, and The Russell Howard Hour.

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Easily Distra… promises the very best of the best of Harriet Dyer; a captivating performer with chaotically crafted comedic skill, this show promises to deliver an evening audiences won’t forget. It’s offers a new blancmange of whimsy from the Dyer’s somewhat fizzy mind, featuring hot topics such as wearing a wetsuit on a bus, jaunty social commentary on why couples don’t talk to each other anymore, and trying to get a cow to lick the top of your head.

Harriet wrote for both seasons of Comedy Central’s Channel Hopping with Jon Richardson, and she also wrote for and starred in Dave’s Meet the Richardsons. She was awarded the Neurodivergent Representation Award at Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, and most recently she won the prestigious Channel 4 Sean Lock Comedy Award in 2024.

As this accomplished comedian prepares for her first “proper” tour, we asked about mums, staying focused, and using comedy as a force for change:

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I’m thinking of bringing my mum to see Easily Distra… How should I describe it to her?

Does your mum have joy in her heart? If so, she’ll like my show! It is a tornado of whimsy hilarity.  

What’s your approach to touring? It can be quite a strain, both physically and mentally, so have you adopted some good strategies for the relentless travel?

When you do comedy, you think; one day I hope I can do my own gigs and I don’t have to spend time with the people you see all the time when you’re doing bits on the circuit. But then you get a tour, or something like the few bits I’ve done before this, and realise it can actually be quite lonely.  

So I make the effort to talk to people after the shows, sometimes bring my partner, or I have always wanted a pet frog so maybe bring a frog along for company. But if I don’t get an emotional support frog, then I’ll encourage myself to talk to people after and bring my partner along.  

You’re an accomplished comedy writer, but is it a different set of pressures when you’re the one performing the work? Or is that something you thrive upon?

What I get from comedy is mostly due to the performance element of it - that’s what I love. I enjoy writing, but thrive on performing. I really noticed during lockdown that I just wasn’t right because I hadn’t been on stage for so long and hadn’t been able to do what I love. It really felt like a part of me was stunted. You also get so much from live comedy that you don’t get from the telly; it’s a lot more in the moment.  

You won a couple of awards last year. Have these brought accompanying opportunities, or was it just a nice bit of recognition for your work?

The Channel 4 Sean Lock award in particular has really helped me. A lot of respect has come from people after winning that and that’s been great. As a result, I’m working on a sitcom, I got to do writing for The Last Leg and have had some really wonderful opportunities.  

Also because comedy is generally a solo thing, when it’s just you sometimes, you find yourself wondering, ‘am I even doing this right?’ So ,it’s nice to know that you’re not just bumbling along and you’re actually moving in the right direction.  

If you weren’t involved in the creative arts, what would you be doing?

Well, my mum always said that she thought I’d be a nurse because I was very caring. But, I think through doing comedy I’m not as caring anymore! So to be honest, I really can’t imagine doing anything other than comedy. I’m quite unemployable I think. But, I do love crabfishing, so if I could make a living out of crabfishing, I’d do that.  

Despite modern life throwing up ever more distractions every day, is it possible that most things are becoming less interesting or meaningful?

I think in this world at the moment, there’s definitely so much coming at us from all directions all the time but I don’t know that things are becoming less interesting or meaningful. I think if anything people’s brains are just imploding with options as there’s so much going on.  

Have you got any top tips for staying focused?

I am the worst person to try and answer this question! I do find that if I wake up in the morning and scroll on my phone then the day is a lot more difficult to pin down. My brain is then in that ‘what’s next? What’s next?’ mode, whereas if I wake up and avoid my phone and make myself sit down and do some writing and other things I need to get done, I have a much more productive day. So, my advice would be: read before bed as I think that does something to help your brain and you wake up more ready to work and just try and stop with the scrolling. It is difficult though, isn’t it.  

Can comedy be used as a vehicle to prompt wider conversations?

100%. It’s a lot of what I do - just bearing my soul a lot. My first solo show that I did about my journey with mental illness and neurodiversity led to people coming up to me afterwards and sharing their stories. After a show, one girl spoke to me about how she suffers from mental health problems, and she felt like she hadn’t been able to bring it up with her sister. But, had come with her that, and it opened up that line of communication. I think it’s only natural that people will want to talk about things after seeing a show about them. So it’s good to be open and honest in comedy.  

What’s the best bit of advice someone has given you? (Or you’ve claimed as your own..?)

When I was new to comedy, just starting out, and I wasn’t very good, someone said to me - and I have also given this advice as my own - ‘everyone else is already taken, so just be yourself,’ or something like that. I was always told I was weird, but now in my career the more I am myself on stage, the better things are. So everyone should just be themselves.  

Harriet Dyer brings Easily Distra… to Brighton’s Komedia on Thu 2 Oct, Bromley’s Churchill Theatre on Sat 4 Oct, G Live in Guildford on Wed 8 Oct, and Dorking Halls Studio on Thu 27 Nov, as part of a 2025 UK tour.

Get tickets and more information at: www.harrietdyer.com  

All images by Andy Hollingworth

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