Sara Pascoe: ‘Last One Laughing kept a big secret from contestants’
Sara chats to Metro about the hit Amazon show and where she wants to be in 20 years.
Last One Laughing is just the latest string in Sara Pascoe’s decades-long comedy bow.
Having performed her first show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010, Sara, 43, established herself as one of the UK’s most beloved comedians through various TV appearances in the years that followed, including Live At The Apollo, QI, and Would I Lie To You?
After Sara’s many tours, gags, chuckles, over-shares, and two kids later (Theodore is three and Albie still a baby), 15 years on the comedian is content – and starring in everyone’s favourite new comedy show.
There’s Taskmaster giggles, then Last One Laughing belly roars. The Amazon Prime hit sees some of the country’s best comedians ever – in what is a truly astonishing line up – attempt to hold in smiles and laughter, while trying to make each other laugh.
The comedian has done many gigs and TV appearances in her decades in the industry (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images)To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
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Previous Page Next PageIt’s the perfect giddy antidote to the current dour news cycle: it’s got Bob Mortimer serenading Daisy May Cooper; Lou Sanders doing interpretive dance; Richard Ayoade being Richard Ayoade; Joe Wilkinson doing an RNLI weather report and Judi Love crumbling into fits of giggles.
The best moment? According to Sara, that came when the real Alison Hammond was found in a fridge. Yes, that happened.
‘I think Alison Hammond is one of the funniest people in the world, and also one of the most glorious human beings, you know, she’s sunshine, so the idea of her surprising you… That big mega watt smile inside a fridge, who’s going to be able to control themselves?’ Sara tells Metro.
Last One Laughing is pure comedy gold, and Sara said being on the show was as fun as it looks (Picture: Amazon Content Services. All Rights Reserved) Her funniest moment was seeing Alison Hammond chilling out in a fridge (Picture: Amazon Prime/Prime Video)The beauty of the show is in its spontaneity. While we’re used to seeing comedians perform well-rehearsed sets, it’s rare TV comedies are so unscripted.
‘It was an amazing group of people,’ Sara says, revealing the big secret Amazon kept from the contestants before they entered.
‘They didn’t want us to know who the others were. So a couple of us knew a couple of people because we’d mentioned it to friends. But no one knew the actual extent of how good the line-up was,’ she says.
Sara explains: ‘What they really wanted was this air of us being unprepared, on the back foot. If we’d known the line-up perhaps it would have lost some of the magic.’
It was magic to watch. It’s such a relatable feeling, attempting to hush that mischievous delight as it rises in your stomach. It’s also a feeling some of us perhaps haven’t had much since our school days.
Sara, however, still experiences this internal battle well into adulthood…
She was part of a star-studded line up which was kept secret from the comedians before the show (Picture: Amazon Prime/Prime Video) Spoiler alert – Sara didn’t last very long… (Picture: Amazon)‘Of course when someone’s telling you terrible news, you know, they’re saying, “Oh, things have been really hard for me lately, my uncle died,” you are from then on fighting a nervous reaction.
‘It’s not because you think it’s funny. It’s because something about the overwhelm of emotions makes you want to giggle, to release it.
‘I’ve laughed through a lot of very serious plays at the National Theatre just sort of chuckling at the back.
‘Oh, and whenever I’ve been invited to a celebrity event – and I don’t often get invited back. Once I went to the GQ Awards and was too drunk and laughing when you’re supposed to be sort of sitting there and clapping.’
Sniggering at awards shows aside, Sara has to be careful about what she says on stage these days – not because of that cancel culture myth (or reality, depending who you talk to), but because her content gets everywhere. Even to the girl from school she just slagged off. Awkward.
‘When I was just playing in small rooms above and below pubs, I could say whatever I wanted,’ she says.
‘Once I started being on the radio, and then, even more when I started to be on TV, then I began getting in trouble because of the content I was doing.
She was quickly booted out for laughing and sent to watch the action unfold with host Jimmy Carr, and fellow comedian Joe Lycett (pictured) (Picture: Amazon Prime/Prime Video) Sara doesn’t want any Oscars – but would like to still be performing 20 years from now (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images)‘Now because of clips, things get absolutely everywhere. So you might think, “Oh, that person is in Timbuktu, they’ll never find out that I’m telling that story.”
‘Yes, they will. They’ll hear it on a podcast or something. Technology means that everything is everywhere now.’
Specifically…?
‘I went on a girls’ holiday with someone in 1999 and that’s such a long time ago that you think you’re completely safe to say it,’ Sara says.
‘But of course, the people who you met in Ibiza still exist, and probably they remember you now because they’ve seen you on something and gone, “That’s that girl from Ibiza.” So I have learnt to try and disguise things a lot more.’
But Sara doesn’t regret anything she has said in the name of comedy.
‘I definitely have moments I think, “Well, that wasn’t my finest moment,” but quite often you take those opportunities and you do your best, and you learn a lot from them,’ she says.
Comedians are a breed of overachievers, Sara thinks. While Beyonce can get up on stage and whap out her 2003 banger Crazy In Love as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, comedians have only their current material.
‘We always have to start from scratch. So no matter how big you get, you’re still saying brand new stuff to an audience, so that the risk of failure is huge,’ she says.
Just look at Bob Mortimer.
Bob Mortimer is the perfect example of how comedians are over-achievers without egos, Sara thinks (Picture: Jeff Spicer – Getty Images)‘There are very few egos in comedy,’ Sara observes. ‘He’s the most adorable man. His books are best-sellers. He’s a cult comedian, as well as being a household name.
‘That’s so rare, and yet, he’s just a normal, really nice guy. He doesn’t have a massive ego. He’s not here asking for his special protein smoothie.
‘He is very self-effacing, and it’s almost unbelievable, but that’s what comedy does to people. It keeps telling you you’re not better than anyone else, and actually you’re not very good.’
As for Sara, she’s done reaching for the sky.
‘In 20 years if I was able to do a new show every two years, and some people were coming to it, and I was able to sculpt my job around my family life, that to me would just feel like I was absolutely smashing it,’ she says.
‘Even if you’re like, “Oh, Sarah, you’ll never get an Oscar.” It’s like, I don’t think that was ever really on the cards.’
Last One Laughing is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Sara Pascoe will tour the UK and Ireland with all new show, I Am A Strange Gloop in 2025/26. Tickets: sarapascoe.co.uk.
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