Comedian and self-titled Romantic Comedy scholar Sarah Bradley tells us she wants to build the ultimate story, with the help of her Glasgow Comedy Festival audience.

While growing her online following by quantifying ways celebrities are attractive and cultivating an audience who feel passionately about following romantic storylines as she is, ‘How to Write a Romcom’ could be seen as Sarah’s PhD thesis to officially qualify her as a scholar. This is in line with Sarah as a person, who admits that she always likes to bring a thought-out conclusion while telling any anecdote about herself. It’s also fitting because she says she’s, ‘Always open to a peer review’. However, if you ask Sarah, this show is less message-focused than her debut hour ‘Just Like Other Girls‘, which ran at Gilded Balloon at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

There are continuations in themes from that show, like taking ‘trivial’ things very seriously and the heart-warming tone she brings to building connection with her audiences over common interests. But Sarah thinks of this show as more of a fun celebration of what she considers to be a great art form – the Romantic Comedy. From the undervalued romance at the heart of The 40-year-old Virgin, to the astronomical rise of Heated Rivalry, there is a lot to celebrate. After all, look at Shakespeare! As Sarah says, ‘People don’t raise him up enough as a romcom king!’

You’re planning a lot more audience interaction with ‘How to Write a Romcom’. Is this something you knew you wanted to do after your first hour?

Audience connection definitely was the highlight. I knew I wanted to speak to people, it was all about building community around the concept… Performing the last show for a whole fringe run helped me run the gamut of different reactions. So by the last times I was performing that, I kind of knew when people were going to be reacting and adding in little moments.

The whole point of it was connection. [While still being a stand-up show predominantly, it] is a lot looser, this structure, I suppose, and I’m going to be having to wrangle people, but luckily I’ve been told I have the demeanour of a high school teacher! But I’m a cool teacher.

And this will be your first time doing it with a Glasgow audience?

It’s my first time doing [this concept] for a full-length hour. I’ve taken my ‘hot people’ theory and done some really fun five-minute sets [in Glasgow], where I just lay out the theory and then just ask for suggestions from the audience, seeing what information I can pull up about this hot celebrity.

What make a Glasgow audience special?

I think warmth, really. I mean, I find this about Scotland in general, I really appreciate the genuine warmth. They’ll tell you what they think in a way that is completely beautiful. I’ve had some raucous experiences with Glasgow crowds and I’m hoping that will be the energy. But obviously I’m running a tight ship.

(Side note: I had to include that Sarah said during the interview, ‘I want Glasgow to give me full mouth.’ If you want context for that, you’d better go see her show!) 

What do you want your audience to take away from this show?

I think my motivation going in was mostly to just do something really fun because I love talking about this stuff and when I do stand-up… I wanted to create an opportunity for myself to do that more. But it’s also the celebration of the art form and storytelling. So hopefully people come away with an appreciation for that, unpicking the tropes of a genre that people use as a reason to detract from it, instead seeing how it can be a springboard for creativity.

I have to ask then – do you have a favourite and least favourite Romcom trope?

I’ve taken this principled position of trying to uplift and not detract… I really make a distinction between best and worst vs. favourite and not favourite. There are broader tropes and more narrow tropes, they all bring something different. I do have a least favourite, might be controversial… I’m really over fake dating. Have you ever heard of anyone fake dating, ever? My suspension of disbelief is really getting strained with all of this fake dating.

Let’s stay positive then, what are your favourite Rom-com films?

90% say, When Harry Met Sally and that is my favourite. I recently saw While You Were Sleeping for the first time – I was blown away by it. I was concerned it was going to be a predatory concept but it was very sweet and is a great Christmas film. Sandra Bullock is delightful and it’s got this undercurrent of family and connection and I think that’s the best thing in any good romcom, celebrating the best of humanity and choosing connection. Being vulnerable as a source of strength.

Sum up your show in five words?

Joyful, informative, creative, fun, heartfelt.

Sarah Bradley’s show, ‘How to Write a Romcom‘ is at Gael & Grain on Sun 22 Mar 2026 at 15:30 as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.