Zara Gladman is a comedian, writer, and presenter known for her online sketch comedy and musical parodies, including Lady Alba, and Glaswegian ‘West End Mum’ Aileen. The latter Zara is bring to the Fringe for her debut hour in ‘Zara Gladman is… Aileen in: Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser’. A sketch show special, ‘Good For Her’ is also about to screen on BBC Scotland and iPlayer. We spoke to Zara about the character, her fondness for collaborating with other talented Scottish performers, and the freedom in producing comedy online.

Can you tell us about ‘Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser?’

The show mainly focuses on a character called Aileen, who is a woman from the West End of Glasgow, which, if you don’t know it, is a very affluent area of the city. The things she’s most passionate about are her son and his achievements, and she feels very strongly that he should spread his talents worldwide. So she’s coming to Edinburgh to raise money to send her son, Cameron on his gap year.

It’s like any community fundraiser; there’s going to be a raffle. So you’ll get a free raffle ticket when you come in the door. There’s musical entertainment, there’s drama – petty, kind of parochial drama. That’s the gist of it. It’s mostly Aileen, although I do make an appearance as myself as well.

And where did the character of Aileen come from? Who are the influences and the inspirations for her?

So I have lived and worked in the West End of Glasgow for years now. I work at the University of Glasgow, so there are Aileens everywhere. So it’s not actually any one person. It’s just a kind of a mash up of different things that I’ve heard on Byres Road and different women that I’ve come across and have kind of manifested into this one character called Aileen.

And for those who’d be might be unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your your comedy and your your approach to performance? 

So my approach [is] very much character driven, and so my comedy, most of the time, is observations that I’ve made that tell the truth about the kind of people that you see in your community. So hopefully it’s relatable comedy. It’s also very silly. The priority is fun, and I hope people will come and have a good time.

And I would say it’s also ‘small-P’ political as well. Before Aileen, I’ve done a lot of satirical comedy in the past, and that’s something that I’m quite passionate about in my personal life, too. So there’s definitely, although it’s a very silly show, and the comedy I do is very fun I hope, it is underpinned by values. And there are points that I am trying to make around inequality, gender, feminism, and all of these things, but hopefully I’m doing it in a non-preachy way, and it’s a kind of subversive approach I take.

You’re known for your online comedy – Aileen began during lockdown. What adjustments did you have to make to bring that to a live context?

Well, I was lucky. I had done a little bit of stand-up years and years ago. I’ve been really inconsistent in my comedy. I tried stand-up in 2011 and then I did nothing for years, and then I came back to in 2014. so I had a little bit of stage experience, which was really helpful. So it wasn’t a brand new thing to go on stage, but having said that it was the first time I’d gone on stage as a character.

So doing comedy online, the way to game the algorithm is to do short-form content. So, you know, one minute-long videos, which I think are a great way to test characters and to see what sticks and to play around. But obviously a one hour show is a very different format. So I think I’ve actually really enjoyed having a whole hour to carve out, you know, an arc and to build a full story. It’s a different skill set for sure, but I think the seeds of the character that that I tested online really helped me when I was trying to develop Aileen. So without the TikTok there would be no one hour story to tell.

A couple of years ago, you wrote in a piece in Chortle about ‘Tiktok comedians’ how it’s almost been used as a derogatory term by some of the old guard. It’s interesting that so many women comedians have gained some success that way. Do you think it’s helped, or is helping, to make comedy more of an even playing field?

I think definitely. I think it’s democratised access by performers, but also access by audiences. You know, there’s so many comedy clubs that are in the basement of buildings that a lot of people can’t access if you’re not able-bodied or or if you don’t feel comfortable in that environment. And the same for the acts as well. So I think there’s no gatekeepers. You don’t have to deal with anybody.

And also you can do it any time of day. I’ve got a friend who’s a single parent, and every time she wants to do a live comedy gig, she has to consider child care, and that costs money. She’s on a low income. Whereas to do a TikTok you just need a phone, you can do it any time of day. You’re fully in control and I think that’s great.

And I think it’s not coincidence that as a result of TikTok, we have such a diversity of people that you don’t see in the mainstream. And I think it’s a real positive, actually, because I’m not saying everybody is going to transition to doing live comedy – [although] many people have – but I think it’s about that the entry point, and it’s creating a new entry point for people coming into comedy which I think is very positive,

Your sketch show special is being released in a couple of days, can you tell us about that?

Yes, it’s called ‘Good For Her‘. It’s going to be on BBC Scotland, and also on the iPlayer. And it kind of grew from some of the characters that I developed on Tiktok. So thanks again to Tiktok! I got the attention of some comedy producers at the BBC and it’s been an amazing experience, a completely new experience for me. I’ve never worked with a TV crew. Again, I do everything myself on my phone. So it was amazing having an art department, and a professional camera setup and a set. It was so cool and really exciting.

And it’s not just me, there’s also Kim Blythe, Sophie Rose McCabe, Stuart Cromarty, who are all really funny. I met both Sophie and Kim – again, I keep banging on about TikTok – but I met them online, and Stuart was an old friend who is also a musician, so it’s a great cast.

I’ve also got a couple of celebrity cameos as well. I wrote a sketch with Kirsty Wark in mind, and amazingly, she said yes to doing it. And I’ve also got a sketch with Aidan Moffatt from Arab Strap, who was brilliant as well. So I’m just really excited for it to finally be on TV, because it’s it was last September that we pitched the idea. So it’s finally out!

And good timing with a couple of weeks to the Fringe as well.

Yes, I know! Hopefully it’ll help shift some tickets. Or people will be like, ‘No, I want a refund!’

Apart from ‘Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser’, is there anything else you’re particularly looking forward to – or dreading – about the Fringe?

I think I’m looking forward to just this new challenge of doing the show every day. I’ve never done the show consecutively, so I think that’s going to be a new, interesting experience. I’m looking forward to just feeling a part of the comedy community, and just being around lots of other performers that I love. So hopefully I will get to see some shows at the same time. I’m very excited about getting a pass for the Monkey Barrel, so I will be seeing as much as I can.

In terms of what I’m treading, I am nervous about my voice, actually, because some of the show is quite vocally challenging. There’s some musical theatre moments. But I’ve bought a vocal steamer, so I’m going to try that, and maybe not drink for the two weeks that I’m doing [the show]. Because I’m only doing the two weeks, it means I can enjoy the last week, hopefully – have a drink and let my hair down.

But yeah, I’m nervous about getting ill and keeping keeping myself together, physically and mentally. And I know that stuff will go wrong as well, which does scare me, because I’m very much a control freak. So I think getting used to technical hiccups and things like that, that will happen, is probably going to be really good for me to learn and get used to and handle.

And besides the show, can we expect to see you performing elsewhere during August? 

I’m doing a show which is happening in Leith at the Leith Depot after my run, which is with Vic Galloway, the music journalist, and Siobhan Wilson, the musician. It’s a series that Siobhan’s production company are running called ‘Live Music and Chats‘, which is kind of as it sounds.

It’s basically a celebration of Scottish indie music, because I’m a massive music fan as well as being into comedy. And actually, there’s a lot of music in my show, and I like the idea of collaborating with people outside of comedy as well. I’ve collaborated with Siobhan Wilson, who, if you don’t know, is an amazing musician on comedy events before.

The idea is that I’ll chat about comedy with Vic but also my passion for Scottish music. And then we’ll hear some some Franz Ferdinand and some other Scottish indie bands that I’m a big fan of. That is on Friday the 15th of August. And I’ll probably end up doing some spots at other nights as well. But I’ve not got very organized yet on that.

Are there any other acts at the Fringe that you would recommend the audiences see that perhaps don’t get the recognition that they should?

Sophie Rose McCabe is in my sketch show, and she’s a really brilliant character comedian. She has an acting background, and she does some really, really cool stuff, and she’s doing a very short run so it’s definitely worth trying to squeeze her in if you can.

Kate Hammer. I’m a huge fan of her. She’s a Canadian act, but based in Glasgow, and she’s just so impressive. She can turn her hand to anything. So she’s, she’s got a work in progress.

Susan Riddell and Amanda Dwyer are fantastic, and they may or may not have little cameos in my show as well. So plug for that, but they’re so supportive as well. They run a night called ‘Material, Girl‘, which is an all women lineup, because women are still very underrepresented in stand-up. So they they’ve done an amazing amount for the scene, and they’re both very funny in their own way as well. Amanda’s very, very deadpan and Susan is just has this cozy relatable, energy which I love.

‘…Aileen: Cameron’s Gap Year Fundraiser‘ is at Monkey Barrel Comedy – The Hive 2 from Tue 29 Jul to Sun 10 Aug 2025 at 19:35