Samantha Hannah on HOW TO FIND HAPPINESS IN A YEAR

BWW catches up with Samantha Hannah to chat about her show How To Find Happiness In A Year which is now streaming on Nextup Comedy.

Tell us a bit about your show How to Find Happiness in a Year.

In 2018 I wrote How to Find a Husband in a Year and this show follows on from that. In my last show I wanted to show how ridiculous the notion is to expect women to have found a life partner by a certain time. Then (plot twist) I accidentally met my current partner through researching that show - 12000 miles away via Tinder. Having felt all this pressure to meet someone, I liked to joke that as soon as you met 'the one' any pressure would finally stop. I think we all know though - the pressure never really stops. So I started to think - what comes after finding a husband?

Once you meet someone, people want to know when you're getting engaged, then married, then when kids - it just keeps going. I also think there's a real pressure these days to be happy as well. There are so many books telling us how to achieve happiness. I wanted to explore what happened if you fully tried to become truly happy. How to Find Happiness in a Year is what happened on that journey.

What was the plan for 2020?

The plan was to fully go for it in comedy. Last year I had a full-time job and was in a fortunate position where the company I work for gave me August off for Edinburgh and were fully supportive of my side comedy career too. I was dropping down to 2 days a week for them in a new role, had raised over £3000 in a Crowdfunder for my new Edinburgh fringe show back in January and was working away writing it. My plan was to focus fully on Edinburgh with the new show then to use that as a springboard to take it elsewhere. Then when everything stopped - comedy, festivals, my job (was furloughed three days in) I decided to film my lockdown special to give me something to focus on.

Where can people watch How to Find Happiness in a Year?

My show now happily lives on https://nextupcomedy.com/samanthahannah/ here you can stream it alongside loads of other great comedy hours from comedians that I really look up to.

What do you hope people take away from the show?

I hope people watch it and just feel a little bit better about the world or about themselves. One of the things I learned is everyone is going through a lot and we need to stop being so hard on ourselves. It's all fine. Things will get better. They will also get worse. As Ronan Keating says - Life is a rollercoaster, you just got to ride it. What a wise man he is.

What has been able to get this out to audiences meant to you?

I'm a relatively unknown comedian in the industry who is starting out again after a massive 7-year break. So to be able to reach new people and audiences at a time where there are few live performances happening is amazing. I was nervous about putting myself out there but the messages I've had from people saying how much they enjoyed the show has made it worth it.

Have the events of 2020 changed your show idea for next years Fringe?

If anything - it's intensified it. My 2020 show was planned as yet another follow on called How to Win @ Life. I wanted to go one step further than happiness - looking at how we game the system and ultimately leave this mortal coil having 'nailed' life (but not nailed - because that's an aggressive-success term - something anyone who has watched the show will know I am not a fan of). If anything, I think 2020 has just further highlighted how ridiculous that is. Do any of us really win? Probably not - so we should all just chill the eff out and make the most of it while we can. Oh.. and try have a few laughs in the process, too.

How To Find Happiness In A Year is now streaming on Nextup Comedy.

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