Brenda Monk is Funny - Couverture souple

Brenda Monk is a true hardcore stand-up, it's itching under her skin; bubbling up. She's addicted to being on stage, looking out at expectant faces, waiting for the first laugh to hit. She sees potential material in everything and gets sweaty-palmed if she hasn't been on stage in more than 48 hours. It doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter when. No distance is too great, no slot too late.

But she wasn't always this way. The on-off girlfriend of a successful comedian who spends weekends hundreds of miles away telling gags about their relationship, she realises his best stage material consists of recycled versions of her own restless, smart-arsed energy and decides she might be better off keeping her jokes for herself. Before long she makes her very first walk to the mark on stage in front of a bare brick wall, with just a spotlight and a PA system for cover.

As much about the thrill of performance as it is about what goes on when the microphone is switched off, Brenda Monk is Funny is a whip-smart, devastatingly candid snapshot of the reality, the brutality and fragility of the comedy industry from an exciting new voice in fiction. It's enough to give anyone butterflies.

Katy Brand is a writer, comedian, actor and journalist. In 2008 Katy won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards and she has since appeared in numerous films (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Svengali, Good Arrows), TV shows (Peep Show, Have I Got News For You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, Psychobitches, Strictly Come Dancing), radio programmes (Mouth Trap, Infinite Monkey Cage, The Time Traveller's Guide) and live events (Ealing Live! Victoria Wood's Angina Monologues, The Twitter Joke Trial Benefit Gig). Between 2007 and 2009 Katy wrote and performed her own ITV sketch show Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, taking it out on a live UK tour in 2010. Katy was a columnist for Reveal magazine for three years, and she currently writes a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph. Katy also once dressed up as Beyonce on national television and very nearly got away with it -