If you are looking for a reason to head to Hilarities’ Fourth Street Theatre this spring, look no further than the arrival of one of North America’s most sharp-witted and versatile comedic talents. From April 2 to April 4, Cleveland will be treated to the hilarious stylings of Sophie Buddle, a comedian whose trajectory has been nothing short of meteoric. Whether you know her from her standout sets on The Tonight Show or The Late Late Show with James Corden, her podcast Obsessed with Sophie Buddle, or her tenure as the head writer for the late-night hit After Midnight, one thing is certain: Buddle is a force to be felt.
A stand-up, TV writer, and podcaster extraordinaire, Buddle has spent the last 17 years honing a voice that is as “easy listening” as it is intellectually provocative. Interestingly, that “easy listening” label isn’t just a metaphor. When she released her debut album, Lil Bit Of Buddle, in 2019, she handled the release herself. Due to a small clerical error on her part, the album appeared on iTunes under the genre “easy listening” rather than “comedy.” While it was a mistake, Buddle takes it in stride, noting that it is actually quite easy to listen to. The industry clearly agreed; in 2020, that very album made history.
Winning a Juno Award—the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy—is the pinnacle of achievement for a Canadian artist. For Buddle, the win was not only historic, making her the first female comic to take home the Best Comedy Album of the Year award, but it was also uniquely surreal due to the timing of the global pandemic.
“In Canada, it’s the most prestigious thing you can get,” Buddle explains, reflecting on the cultural weight of the trophy. “In America, you have to be like, ‘Well, it’s like an American Grammy, but also it’s not…’ There’s so much translation of stuff that has to happen when you move.”
The story of her win is one for the history books—or at least a very funny memoir. “I won when the pandemic first first started and I was boarding my flight,” she recalls. “I was in line to board my flight to the Juno awards. I was going to fly and go find out if I won or not. And while I was in line for the plane, I got a phone call from one of the producers and they said, ‘Don’t get on the plane. We’re about to cancel the whole thing for COVID.’”
Instead of a high-glamour evening in Toronto, Buddle found herself experiencing the greatest moment of her career from the confines of her apartment. “It was literally the day that the shutdown started that was supposed to be the Junos. I was home alone in my apartment during lockdown and we did a Zoom awards ceremony. It’s crazy, because they just said my name and then I was just sitting there in my pajamas and it was crazy. Then they mailed the trophy to you and it was just such a perfect moment in time.”
The loss of the red carpet moment still stings just a little bit, given how rare those opportunities are for Canadian stand-ups. “Oh my God, totally. I bought my little outfit. I wanted to do a red carpet. Canadian comedians do not get to do red carpets. That just doesn’t happen. That part of it was too good to be true. All I’ve ever wanted is to walk a red carpet. I was so gutted.”
While she may have missed her red carpet, Buddle’s talent eventually spoke loud enough to catch the attention of the American entertainment industry. However, making the transition from a Canadian mainstay—featured on CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CTV’s Roast Battle, and a three-time runner-up for SiriusXM Top Comic—to a U.S.-based performer wasn’t as simple as crossing a bridge.
Buddle candidly discusses the hurdles of the U.S. immigration system, specifically the daunting task of proving one’s worth to the government. “It’s really hard for comedians to get their paperwork to move to the States because you have to prove that you are an exceptional talent. That’s like the name of the visa, it’s called Exceptional Person. And with standup, it’s pretty hard because first of all, comedy is so subjective. Even if somebody is the best stand up to one person, it could be the worst of somebody else. I was kind of worried that the border guards would just watch a five-minute tape and decide if they like it or not!”
Fortunately, the “Exceptional Person” designation stuck. With a resume that includes delivering the 2022 Canadian Keynote Address on Comedy and appearing at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Buddle has proven herself to be exactly that.
When fans settle into their seats at Hilarities this April, what can they expect from a Buddle set? It’s a mix of the personal, the political, and the delightfully observational. She isn’t a high-energy comic who paces the stage until she’s out of breath; instead, she wins the audience over with the sheer strength of her perspective.
“I’m kind of edgy; kind of political. I do some dating and tech stuff. I tell some stories about my family. I’m kind of low key. I’m not running around the stage or anything. I think I’m very ideas-based. I have a lot of schemes and premises and pitches for society,” Buddle says.
This “difficult to pin down” quality is something she embraces. “Some people are like, ‘Oh, she’s too edgy for me.’ And then some people are like, ‘Oh, she’s not edgy at all.’ And I like that. I like that it’s kind of difficult to pin down and put into a box. I’m definitely not telling people what to think, which I think usually is what makes people feel sensitive or makes people feel like their backstep against the wall is when they’re being told what to think or if they’re being told that what they think is wrong. I’m not really interested in doing that. I like a lot of global politics and world politics and stuff that isn’t necessarily related to America.”
Beyond the stand-up stage, Buddle has made a significant mark behind the scenes. Most recently, she served as the head monologue writer for After Midnight, the late-night series hosted by the powerhouse Taylor Tomlinson. The two share a deep professional bond, with Buddle frequently opening for Tomlinson on the road.
“I was the head monologue writer, and so I was just writing the monologues. I wasn’t writing the games or anything like that,” Buddle notes. “Taylor is so funny. I love working for her. I open for her a lot in standup too on the road. It definitely was hard because she’s so funny, you don’t want to give her anything that’s too below her pay grade, which obviously does happen sometimes when you’re writing a five-minute monologue every day for two years. There’s going to be some jokes that are really not up to her standup chop.”
Despite the pressure of writing for a comedian of Tomlinson’s caliber, the experience was a career highlight. “One of the things that’s helpful is that she always had joke ideas too, and she would make stuff so funny. And it’s way more fun to write for someone that’s too funny to write for than to write for someone that’s not funny. It really was a very cool job. It was a very fun show and the writer’s room was so great and I’ve always wanted to work late night, and so this was really a dream come true.”
When asked if she ever hoarded her best jokes for her own stand-up sets instead of giving them to Tomlinson, Buddle laughs. “That’s a great question. I don’t think so because everything was about internet trends and very, very topical stuff. I’m pretty sure everything that we did was like, it would take too much context to steal it for myself for my own standup, but honestly, I should revisit it because the show’s off the air now. Maybe if there is something that stands alone, that could be some nice free material. I do like to steal from myself. In standup, when you remember an old joke that you used to do that you just forgot about, it does feel like feeling when you just start doing it again. I think that’s a good idea, actually, if I need to mine for more material.”
Having been in the industry for nearly two decades, Buddle has witnessed a tectonic shift in how female comedians are perceived and treated. Starting out 17 years ago meant navigating an “old school” landscape that was often overtly exclusionary.
“So much has changed,” Buddle reflects. “When I started, it still was very old school. It still was very much like people would tell me just completely blankly, ‘No, we already have a girl on this show. We don’t need another one.’ There were no female headliners. It used to be obvious, culturally, people would just say women aren’t funny. It’s been really indicative of how far women have come honestly in society.”
She attributes much of this progress to the democratization of the industry through the internet. “I think part of it is the internet where, not even just women, but anybody that was kind of more niche before, was able to find their audience online so that when they’re touring a comedy club, the people that are maybe not going to the comedy club regularly will come out and see it. Everybody likes to laugh and for everybody to be able to find a comedian that makes them laugh really hard, I think it’s so good.”
Of course, with a large online presence comes the inevitable downside of modern fame: the trolls. For female comedians, this often manifests as a specific brand of vitriolic misogyny. Buddle, however, has developed a thick skin and a savvy way of looking at the negativity.
“On social media, obviously it’s insane. I’m glad that other people are seeing it too, because female comics talk about it all the time,” Buddle says. “When men see a woman that’s a professional comedian, that is professionally funny, is making a living, being funny, I think that they just feel threatened and they just feel annoyed that that’s not them. Also, just with misogyny, you can’t laugh at somebody’s point of view if you don’t value them as a person.”
Rather than letting the comments get her down, Buddle has learned to see the “silver lining” in the digital noise. “It’s good for algorithms. And sometimes, you get into a bad algorithm where it’s all these guys that are commenting all this crazy stuff, you are going to accrue some views, you are going to get some likes and comments and stuff. If you have the stomach to withstand these trolls online, you’re going to be fine. It happens to female comics at every level, and it’s unfortunately just part of the job. Other people have much harder jobs and cyber bullying type stuff is hard on the psyche, but I think if you can find a way to not be too discouraged by it, then it’s the right career path for you.”
Whether she is tackling the complexities of American politics, the genius of Beyoncé, or the anxiety of checking if the front door is locked on her popular podcast, Obsessed with Sophie Buddle, her perspective is always fresh and undeniably funny.
Cleveland has a rare opportunity to see a master of the craft at the peak of her powers. From her “easy listening” Juno-winning roots to her high-stakes late-night writing, Sophie Buddle has proven that she isn’t just an “Exceptional Person” on a visa application—she’s an exceptional talent on the stage.
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