Coming up: Jess Robinson and finding your voice

Jess Robinson 0:00

I found that I was very being a very good girl, I was very small, I was not challenging unfair things, I was not standing up for myself, I lost my own voice. And so I turned to my impressions because I realized that instead of hiding behind them, I could borrow instead of a voice, a quality that I admired in someone else. I've come up with a sort of a three-step um programme, which is borrow, repeat, become, as in BRB. You're you're making yourself smaller to make somebody else more comfortable. Or you're you're keeping the, I say I, you know, I keep the peace at the expense of my own. Yes. And that that is that's really hard on your body.

Andy Coley 0:43

How did you get that one? How did you land there?

Jess Robinson 0:46

Um, I lied. I was a lot of my career has stemmed from this lie of just saying, Oh yes, I can do that. There have been a few times in my life, but one of the biggest moments was when a producer said to me, I hope you're not. Well, what a thing to say.

Title 1:04

This is the TEDx Northern Quarter Podcast.

Welcome to TEDxNorthernQuarter TEDx and Talks

Andy Coley 1:08

So, Jess Robinson, award-winning impressionist, broadcaster, and definitely an entertainer. I know this for a fact. I'm seeing you in action. Welcome to the TEDx Northern Quarter, TEDx and Talks podcast.

Jess Robinson 1:21

Thank you so much. It's so exciting to be here, and it's been a long time coming. Yeah. And um, yeah, finally just a couple of days away from the talk. It's very, very exciting. I love it.

Andy Coley 1:34

Yeah, well, whilst this won't go out a couple of days before the talk, what is amazing is yeah, we are in Manchester for the TEDx event.

Jess Robinson 1:42

Yep.

Andy Coley 1:43

All the prep for that. Yeah. All this stuff has happened now. You know, we are literally you know 36 hours away from from getting the event up and running. So I I'm I'm starting to feel the the buzz and the energy and the excitement building as well.

Jess Robinson 1:58

Good.

Andy Coley 1:58

It gets to that point sometimes where you get a little bit slave to the logistics. I'm still gonna be finding that.

Jess Robinson 2:03

And what a lot of logistics you've had to cope with.

Andy Coley 2:05

Yeah, yeah. So and you, of course, have been working with your speaker coaches and and all of those side of things to get your talk right, memorized, tweaks. Titles have changed, like yeah.

Jess Robinson 2:15

Oh my gosh, now we're here. The title, I don't even well, we'll see what the title ends up as. We'll see. Um, it's that's exciting, but um yeah, and and doing all of that in amongst other things going on in life. It's been a it's been a lot, but it has also been so worth it, and I felt like I have grown as a speaker, and the the it's been interesting actually, really working with my coach John, and uh I also had a session with Steve, and just speaking it out loud, going back, you have this initial idea, and then the more you speak it and examine it, you really end up honing it. And actually, I think what's on at the webs on the website at the moment, what I said the talk was about, yeah, is sort of it's sort of gone diagonally, you know, up. And it's you know, it's branched out quite quite differently and quite interestingly. And I love it, I love what I've discovered.

Andy Coley 3:16

Yeah, this is one of the reasons why we actually don't land on the titles for what we submit until the talk's done. Yes. Because then at that point I think the speaker truly knows what their talk is titled.

Jess Robinson 3:28

Yeah.

Andy Coley 3:29

Some people know in advance they've got this really clear idea about what they want to call it and where they want to go with it. Yeah. And others evolve. I know when I did my TEDx, my sort of talk very much evolved into what it felt like at the time as well.

Jess Robinson 3:41

Absolutely.

Andy Coley 3:41

Yeah. So tell so tell the audience, for those that don't know who you are and what you do, a little bit about who you are and what you

Impressionist, singer, author and a portfolio career

Andy Coley 3:48

do.

Jess Robinson 3:48

Oh, well, I would describe myself now. If a taxi driver ever asks what I do, I just say admin because I do so many different things. I think it's uh described as a portfolio career. So I do voiceovers for animations and um adverts and things like that. I do Dead Ringers on the radio, on Radio 4. I'm an impressionist, so I've done Dead Ringers and Spitting Image, and I'm also a singer. Um I'm a singing impressionist, I'm an author and an actor. Um I also eat a lot of cheese.

Andy Coley 4:24

Wow. Um That's not very good for the vocal cores, though, is it? No, terrible.

Jess Robinson 4:28

Cheese and chocolate. Terrible, my two favourite things. Um yeah, have I missed something out?

Andy Coley 4:36

I mean, I've seen you on several of those things. So I think that pretty much ticks most of those boxes. Yes. Okay, and you also do work in in the sort of corporate sector as well, don't you? I do, yes.

Jess Robinson 4:45

There we go. That's what I missed out. Yeah, so I do lots of corporate event hosting and entertainment and facilitation and coaching and all sorts. So yeah, like an event MC, or is that Yeah, uh if if it's daytime, then it'll be sort of facilitation and MCing, but also for awards awards hosting. So they'll get me to do my act at the beginning, 15 minutes of fun and interactivity and all of the different voices, get everyone singing along, and then we go into the awards, and that's great. I love it.

Andy Coley 5:16

Yeah, so those things are good fun when you get the right person, the right energy that matches that as well.

Jess Robinson 5:19

The funny thing about working in sort of corporate entertainment and the corporate world is it's so different from working in just the entertainment world where you often feel like you are the small person with your hands out and sort of a little bit like uh uh uh involved in my talk. But when you're you're feeling like please, please, will you give me a job? Uh uh, you know, and you have to really sometimes bend over backwards and contort yourself in order to get a job to be nice to work with, to be this, to be that. Whereas I find working with on corporate entertainment and holding a room full of grown-ups who are looking at me to lead them as another grown-up, it's so leveling, it's such a nice thing, it feels so steady and um I just it's so validating. Yeah, and I just I love that. And lots of performers, lots of stand-up comedians don't really enjoy doing corporates because I think for many stand-ups, they are doing their jokes and you know, doing their act after there's been a load of speeches and people are a bit and the bars being open, and the bars being open, and people are talking, and so they won't get the nuance and they won't get the callbacks and all of that wonderful craft that they whereas and they and they sit there because you are the renter speaker.

Andy Coley 6:45

Right. And you go in and oh, you're the comedian. Yeah, oh you're gonna oh you're gonna be funny, are you? Yeah, it's a task.

Jess Robinson 6:52

It's a really hard.

Andy Coley 6:53

And I mean, I get that, I do a lot of corporate training as well. And I come in there and I'm gonna talk to you about leadership or I'm gonna talk to you about communication. It takes time to warm a room up to suddenly go, okay, I can learn something from this person. Yeah, yeah. Versus somebody who's who's really paid to come and see you, or is an audience member something they're very invested in. I mean, I've yeah, I've been see Dead Ringers and various like Radio 4 shows as at one last week with Ian Smith.

Jess Robinson 7:18

Oh, brilliant.

Andy Coley 7:19

These people are queuing around the block, yeah, literally to get into this show, and they are already like it doesn't matter what you say, they'll be laughing along with you or at you. Yes, they're excited because they're already excited to be there, which is very different from like a you know, uh, like I say, like a renter speaker for a corporate event.

Jess Robinson 7:34

Absolutely, yeah. But I do find that, you know, a bit of Lulu and uh Shirley Bassey and Britney and Gargar, and you know, that that sort of a big blast of music and impressions and that really energizes the room and makes things fun, and then they're sort of oh, oh, it's not just someone telling jokes. So that's nice.

Andy Coley 7:55

Uh your Lulu is better than my Lulu, to be fair.

Jess Robinson 7:58

Well, maybe we'll do a little impressions masterclass and we'll see.

Andy Coley 8:03

So all of those things that you know, from the advertising to the the broadcasting to the singing, they're all about voice. And voice is very much about what your talk is all about, isn't it?

Jess Robinson 8:12

Yeah, absolutely.

Andy Coley 8:14

So give us a little sort of uh an overview. Um, if I was a taxi driver and you were telling me about this event you're about to go and speak at, like what is it and where have you landed to to where the talks or what the talk's gonna cover?

Jess Robinson 8:27

So, what the talk is really going to cover is that when your own voice feels small, I mean I'm not talking about literally your voice, but you know, as as your your the way that you communicate, if you struggle with that and you struggle to stand up for yourself or challenge something unfair or have a difficult conversation, what you can do, and this is where I sort of got the idea from my impressions, instead of because instead of I found that I was very being a very good girl, I was very small, I was not challenging unfair things, I was not standing up for myself, I lost my own voice. And so I turned to my impressions because I realized that instead of hiding behind them, I could borrow instead of a voice, a quality that I admired in someone else, and use that as inspiration to stand up for myself.

BRB: Borrow, Repeat, Become

Jess Robinson 9:25

So I've come up with a sort of a three-step um program, which is borrow, repeat, become, as in BRB. Yeah, you know, BRB, I'm just gonna find my voice. And so you can borrow a quality you admire in someone else, you can repeat it in everyday situations until it becomes yours. Yeah. And your aim isn't really to become another person, it's to to unlock what is available in you. Um, so yeah, it's it's exciting and it's been brilliant living it because I've been doing it for a while, but to really hone it in a way that you know that I can speak about and also teach other people, it's been it's I've sort of relived it and re found it, and it's it's the first time, this is the first time I will have stood on a stage and spoken for 15 minutes without breaking into song, without doing too many silly voices. There'll be a couple in there, um without hiding. And that so that this whole process has been quite vulnerable for me, yeah and and really liberating. And so the TEDx is sort of in a way the the living proof, the result of the doing the three steps, BRB, yeah.

Andy Coley 10:48

And it's interesting because I've I've heard of people you know say the like WWAD, like what would Oprah do? Or what were so many, you know, and that that whole thing of if this person were here at the moment, yes, facing this challenge or feeling like this, what how would they respond? That's exactly almost like borrowing that aspect of their personality.

Jess Robinson 11:07

That's right, because we've all been you don't have to be an impressionist or a performer, you we've all been modelling other people since we were children, it's how we learn to speak. So this is using that same human instinct deliberately, yeah. And um, I mean, the way that I I tell people to do it, um, you've gotta you've gotta come up with a hook like impressionists do to get into an impression. So if I was gonna be Britney, I would go Al and that would get me in. Or if I was gonna be Liza, I'd say Xiaoi. Or if I was gonna be Theresa May, I'd say Rexnet. So you'd get a hook and a gesture. You step into imaginary square. Yeah. Don't do it on a TEDx stage the first time you do it. Do it, you know, in a toilet or in your bedroom on your own. You'll feel silly, but but if you can unlock the quality that you're looking for even for a second, it means it's it's all it's part of you, yeah, isn't it? You're you're just practicing a bit of yourself that you don't trust yet. It's like it's like training a new muscle.

Andy Coley 12:12

Yeah, and for those of you that are watching this as video, I'd replay that back with the video bit turned on if I were you. Right. Because one of the things that you're getting into when you're becoming those people is the physiology is changing as well. Yes. You're physically acting as if you are that person, or your version of that person. It was very much out here, and the uh the Teresa was very down here, and so you shifted and changed your physiology. And I've seen this when watching shows like Dead Ringers is being recorded, is the you know, all of you become the physiology or your version of that in order to step into that character. Yes.

Andy Coley 12:46

And and a lot of my background is with neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and NLP, the the whole vein that runs through NLP is about the concept of modeling. The founders of NLP modelled the fields of psychology and sociology, anthropology. Yeah, they modeled people who were great at working with people, coaching people to borrow that to become the field of of NLP. Yeah, so there's actually when you're when you're running and doing your your training in NLP, the master practitioner in particular, you do a modeling project. So you find an exemplar who does the thing you'd love to learn how to do, and that can be a task, it can be a behavioral thing, or it can be a thought process behind something, and then you act as if you are that person, and so yeah.

Jess Robinson 13:31

Um what you're saying is I've come up with nothing new.

Andy Coley 13:35

No, no, no, it's not that you've come up with nothing new, you come up with something that's gonna be easily repeatable for people. So the whole concept of BRB, be right back as that person, yeah, yeah, yeah. If that inspires people to be able to then step into that or or act as if they're that character, I think that's that's absolutely fantastic. And you will probably find if you did research around this that people's heart rates, that their hormones are like all sorts of things change when we shift and change our physiology.

Andy Coley 14:05

There's definitely research around that. You know, if you are in a more powerful stance, yeah, you know, that has an effect on what happens within your body system with the oxytocin, with the cortisol levels, with the you know, uh I had that once. I was running some training with an ambulance service, and we're doing things on like powerful stances and you know, uh needing more confidence standards if you're confident, just that little bit of a change helps to make a shift. Uh, and somebody came back in on the second went. Uh, I did this with my daughter, she's been bullied at school. We did the sort of Superman, Wonder Woman hero pose type things, and she's it's completely changed her life at school. It's so brilliant. Just a little tiny thing like that, yeah, can make a massive difference. And I and I know that that's what people will get from your talk.3

Borrowing, hiding and the masks we wear

Andy Coley 14:49

Jess Robinson 14:49

Yeah, it's it's so fascinating. And I was practicing, I've been practicing my talk, obviously, in front of everybody. Yes. Um, my poor stepson, who's amazing, he's 15 years old, has has helped me learn it and watched it gazillions of times. But my my husband was really adamant that he should sit and watch it and help me with it, and because he said this is gonna be so good for Sam to see. Yeah, this is gonna be so brilliant for him to learn about. And so we would were discussing, you know, what he took from it, what he could learn from it. Yeah, but there is that that brilliant study talking about the the superheroes called the Batman effect, yes, which I talk about um briefly in my talk, where young children who stepped into a heroic persona like Batman could persist longer at a repetitive, boring task than those who didn't, because uh it stepping into a character makes you know creates psychological distance. Yeah. And so it's not you struggling, it's Batman or Wonder Woman or Liza Minnelli.

Andy Coley 15:49

Batman.

Jess Robinson 15:50

That was good. Hey, come on, Dead Ringers. We could push John Culshaw down the stairs. Just for your Batman.

Andy Coley 15:58

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just one Batman friend.

Jess Robinson 16:00

Sorry, John, we won't push you down the stairs. I love you.

Andy Coley 16:03

But yeah, it's a it's about stepping in and acting as if, you know, and stepping into that person in that persona.

Jess Robinson 16:09

And you really it you don't have to be a performer to do it, and it doesn't matter. It it if you're shy, it's even better. It helps you. It's uh, it's and there's a big difference as well. I don't know what you think, but I feel like there's a big difference between borrowing and hiding.

Andy Coley 16:24

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 16:25

Isn't there?

Andy Coley 16:26

And masking.

Jess Robinson 16:27

Masking, exactly. Exactly that. Yeah, masking, I would say, maybe I should say masking instead of hiding, but you know, instead of instead of sort of shrinking yourself, which it feels sort of disempowering, actually, doesn't it?

Andy Coley 16:40

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 16:40

I feel like that's what I was doing for a long time. Yeah. Being the good girl.

Andy Coley 16:45

Well, people have had to mask for such a long time. Masking, particularly prevalent in being spoken about around neurodiversity, you know, around kids having to mask at school because they're they want to run around, they want to be that buzz, and they've got to mask, mask, mask, and they get out of school and go, write! Yeah, you know, because they've been being good. Yes, you know, all day, and and they've kept that or somebody masks in a relationship because there's a particular way that they choose. Oh my god. Well, this is the way I've been taught that I should be doing something.

Jess Robinson 17:14

Jess Robinson 17:14

So absolutely, absolutely.

Andy Coley 17:15

We are we can sometimes slip into those masks because of culture, because of a belief, because of somebody else's shit that's that they've basically given

The moment Jess realised she'd made herself smaller

Andy Coley 17:23

Andy Coley 17:23

us.

Jess Robinson 17:23

Yeah, you're you're making yourself smaller to make somebody else more comfortable, or you're you're keeping the I say I you know, I keep the peace at the expense of my own. Yes. And that that is that's really hard on your body. Yeah. It's it's hard on your health. In fact, I think I found some, and now I can't remember the exact I can't remember the exact study, but it's something about women who don't speak up, um, live a shorter life. Right. And I can believe that.

Andy Coley 17:52

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 17:53

You know.

Andy Coley 17:54

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 17:54

I really, I really can.

Andy Coley 17:56

And why why do you have such a passion then for this subject? Is there been a time when you hadn't spoken up or where you noticed actually you were living the mask of the impressions rather than who you were?

Jess Robinson 18:08

100%.

Andy Coley 18:09

What kind of got you what got you into this stuff?

Jess Robinson 18:12

It was the the fact that there have been a few times in my life, but one of the the biggest moments was when um a producer said to me, I hope you're not I hope you're not a diva like most singers. And I went, Oh, I'm not really much of a singer.

Jess Robinson 18:30

Well, what a thing to say.

Andy Coley 18:32

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 18:32

I mean, you've seen my show. I I'm classically trained. Yeah, I've been paid to sing for years. I've sung at the Albert Hall, but I I totally erased the whole skill just to avoid some tension. Yeah. And I just kept giving so much of myself away. And I and something had to change. Something had had to change. And I did it in my first marriage, and I've, you know, did it in you know, personal family relationships as well. Um and so it's it's it's speaking up now and finding my voice. It's shifted a few relationships. Yeah, not gonna lie, it has. But as you said, you know, that's their stuff to deal with. It doesn't mean that you have to go backwards. It just takes people a moment to adjust sometimes, doesn't it, when you start behaving differently.

Andy Coley 19:24

And that's what people can do, is they end up going back to the version of the person they think the other person wants us to be. Run the person we actually are as well.

Jess Robinson 19:32

Yeah, so tempting though, just for a quiet life, just to stop the icky feeling or to you know make just to you know resolve the conflict or or whatever.

Andy Coley 19:42

And it can happen the other direction, like somebody stepping up and a shift of identity into a new role. Yeah, I see this a lot working with in in the leadership space, like somebody gets promoted to be a lead or to be a manager, and now they're working with the same team, but in that leader-manager role. So, of course, the relationships change for some.

Jess Robinson 19:59

That must be really hard to navigate, yeah.

Andy Coley 20:01

Because it's it's much easier to turn up at a company in a new role, yeah, because people will see you as the manager.

Jess Robinson 20:06

Yeah, that yeah, yeah.

Andy Coley 20:07

Whereas if they see you as just who I've been working with for the last 10 years, who knows everything about me because we've spoken, you know, yeah, so many times about it, and now you're in charge of me, and all those things that we used to say about the manager. I'm now thinking about you.

Jess Robinson 20:21

Yeah, fuck.

Andy Coley 20:22

Yeah, fuck.

Jess Robinson 20:23

What what what um what advice do you give about that? Because that's fascinating.

Andy Coley 20:29

Well, just recognise that relationships will change. Recognise that you cannot be the version of you who was in that previous role, that you're gonna have to learn to become uncomfortable, right? Having those difficult conversations, delegating to people that tell you that I don't have the time to do any more work, even though that's their role to do it, becoming the person that is the person that you will be talking about or moaning about, because that's what comes with the territory of the role. You can't be a people pleaser in order to be an effective delegator and manager, because you know, there are different ways of of managing and collaborating and working with other people, but you've got to find your groove, you know, yes, and then model somebody around you who you recognise does it well, and how can you borrow from them? And it's that BRB principle, like what could I do if I, you know, if I want to be this kind of leader, what what who could I step into? What personality, or how can I improvise what they might do in that particular setting in order to be a bit more like them?

Jess Robinson 21:27

So you I mean that that's really interesting. You've just got to lean into the discomfort until until you're fine with it, until you're used to it. Yeah. And just acknowledge that things are gonna be sticky and gnarly for

People-pleasing, creativity and Elton Reimagined

Jess Robinson 21:40

Jess Robinson 21:40

a while.

Andy Coley 21:40

And that's sticky and gnarly. I mean, you've probably found that like whenever you're trying something new, that must come through as well. I mean, uh it's uh one of the things I went to see recently that you were doing was your Elton John show. Yeah. What was the name of it again? Elton Reimagined. Elton Reimagined.

Jess Robinson 21:56

Yeah.

Andy Coley 21:56

You took Elton Reimagined to um the Edinburgh Fringe.

Jess Robinson 22:00

Yes.

Andy Coley 22:02

Very successful run there. How many shows did you do at the fringe?

Jess Robinson 22:05

I think it was 27 in a row. Oh no, we had a day off in the middle, but I can't remember it. I think I was just asleep.

Andy Coley 22:13

Yes.

Jess Robinson 22:14

Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Coley 22:15

27 days. Was it a sellout show? It was a sellout.

Jess Robinson 22:20

We got loads and loads of five-star reviews. And actually, it was a more successful year than it was last year in terms of the amount of press and reviews we got, which was really interesting because I was told, you know, oh, if you're returning for a second year, you won't get as much attention. Oh, literacy. Yeah. It seemed to grow, but because I had, I don't know if it's because, maybe it's, you know, incidentally, I had not expected so much. So I'd taken a huge amount of pressure off myself, and I just, and then all these lovely things kept coming. Yeah. But mainly I was just, you know, there doing my Elton show, doing all the press around it, and then learning my Ted.

Andy Coley 22:57

Yeah. So and of course guesting on other people's podcasts or episodes and doing lots of things around because everybody's in the same place. And we're all co-promoting and cross-promoting each other for a while.

Jess Robinson 23:09

Absolutely. But this is a that's a little bit how the community here feels, you know. I'm really, I'm really loving that. I'm really loving the I've there's another TED speaker, Jess Nix, who happens to, you know, same name, same town. Yeah. How bonkers. And we've been practicing, we practiced in the park, and we I went to her and stood in her garden the other day, and we went through our speeches, and we've sat in coffee shops, and just it's been lovely to have that camaraderie. It's been really lovely.

Andy Coley 23:36

And so we were in the audience together watching Jess when she did a one-woman show at the fringe event where she lives as well. Yes. Yeah, we were both there watching that, weren't we? You know, uh again, it's the icky feeling. That's what I guess I'm coming to. Like whenever you're doing something new, it is icky. Like, how do you how do you work through the right? I've got this idea, I've got this thing, it's a bit shit right now, and I need to push through it and get to something that feels a bit polished. Because you say, like, this is the second year doing the Alison show. Your Alison show is so polished. Oh, I love it from the outfit to what you do, to to to the interactions, to to all of that. That that feels very much like a very well-rounded show that I'm sure you can just right now, you could just do it.

Jess Robinson 24:20

Yes, I could.

Andy Coley 24:20

Because it's you've done it so many times.

Jess Robinson 24:22

Yes.

Andy Coley 24:22

You would have the TEDx would be growing a bit like that even now, even two days to go. Yes. So how do you how do you push through new projects and and get past the the icky start?

Jess Robinson 24:35

I think it I think it really matters um to work out where you're coming from, why you're doing it, what's the yeah, the why. So with the Elton show, I was coming from a total place of joy. I was coming from a place of fun and playfulness and wanting to create something fun, a bubble that people could escape into. There's so much crap going on in the world at the moment, you know, it's a it's a scary place. Come and be held, come and have a lovely time, you know. So that was my mission. And so I had fun with it. And so the process was fun. Yeah. Um and you do previews, and people that come to the show know, like we were saying with Dead Ringers, or or when you're at a corporate, you don't know what you're going to be in for. But with a uh when you go and see a gig, if it's built as a preview, you know this is work in progress, and that's part of the excitement. And so if a bit goes wrong, you you know, everybody's in, and you go, Oh, I won't do that one again, or oh, that worked, that's good, and you write it down, or what did you think of that? And you there's some feedback and and you talk about it. Um but before, because I was an Olympic level people pleaser, I used to try and create the sort of show that I thought the audience would like to see me do, and also this be the sort of person that I thought the audience and the industry would want to see me be in order to be more successful. And I was trying to be more edgy and I was trying to be that, and just trying to take so many people's ideas into account and and imagined attitudes and imagined outcomes that it made it very difficult to create, and it was a very uncomfortable process. And I don't I think the end results, you know, were always great, but I don't think they were very true to who I was.

Andy Coley 26:30

Yeah, and that must be a very difficult different process to going self-creating to something that's like scripted, like a Dead Ringers. Yes. How much involvement do you have in the script? Are you literally given the script and expected to then perform the script?

Jess Robinson 26:43

Yeah, well, so we get the script, we get so the night before Dead Ringers, so we record it on a Thursday, it goes out on a Friday.

Andy Coley 26:49

On a Wednesday, for those that don't know, it's it's a topical comedy news show.

Jess Robinson 26:56

Yes, where we are playing, we're we're so we're all impressionists and we imitate mainly politicians, Alex Jones from The When Show, I'll do a bit of Stacey Solomon. You know, we've got loads and loads of loads and loads of um different celebrities. And so the night before, on the Wednesday night, we get a list of this is who we think's gonna be in the news, these are the sort of characters we think are gonna be in, and then you know if your characters are in there. Yep. Uh these people are up for grabs, have a listen. So, you know, some some you know new cabinet um members, you listen, you literally are listening to on the train on the way to the studio. Yeah. So then at Thursday lunchtime, you have your read-through, then we all discuss after each sketch. We have a little discussion about what worked, what we thought didn't work, whether it should be a bit, you know, we're there with the writers and the director, and and they'll go, Oh, that feels a bit long, or that's really funny. I think it should, I think it should stop there. I think that's the end of the joke. Or could you say something like this? Because I've noticed she always does that. So it's all really collaborative. Then the actors go away, Jan and I'll go for lunch, and um we come back for an on-mic rehearsal at about four or five, five o'clock, and then we record it at seven. Yeah. And maybe 20% of the show doesn't make it onto the radio because there's always better to have more. Yeah. I love a good cut. I know I've noticed this in all my shows and in my TED talk. I love cutting out a chunk, and then you go, oh, it's so easy now. Um, yeah, so it's all quite last minute, but you have to have that sort of core um knowledge

“I lied and said I was brilliant at impressions”

Jess Robinson 28:44

Jess Robinson 28:44

there.

Andy Coley 28:44

Yeah. Now, of course, for many people, like BBC broadcasting job would be an absolute dream job. Like, how did you get that one? How did you land there?

Jess Robinson 28:53

Um, I lied and said I was brilliant at impressions, basically. I was a lot of my career has stemmed from this lie of just saying, Oh yes, I can do that. Um, it's probably another TED talk in that, to be honest.

Andy Coley 29:05

But BRB.

Jess Robinson 29:06

Yeah, BRB, yeah, I can do it. Yeah.

Andy Coley 29:09

Stepping into the life of the impressionist.

Jess Robinson 29:11

Yeah, I honestly I do think I think there are lots of things I could do if I just said yeah, and had a go. Yeah. I reckon I could fly a helicopter, but I do know that I couldn't do ballet. I know that.

Andy Coley 29:23

Um I've also tried ballet, it is very difficult. It's awful, isn't it?

Jess Robinson 29:26

It's terrible, beautiful to watch, terrible to do. Um what was the question? Oh, yes, so uh I was um working in a call center, and I heard that there was um a production of Little Voice coming up. You know, Little Voice was a film with Jane Horrocks where the painful painfully shy recluse can listen to her dead dad. No, what is it? Painful painfully shy recluse listens to her dead dad's old records so much she can imitate them with amazing accuracy. Um and so I I lied to the director and I said, I'm brilliant at impressions, can I audition? Yep. And he said, Yes, it's in five days, come along. And I had imitated my mum before, and I think I'd done Kate Bush to, you know, in the in the classroom at school just to heath. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's me or Kathy. Um and I'd done my biology teacher, Mrs. Barlow, who always used to say sweet corn in the feces. I don't know why she said it, I'm so sorry. Um I've really lowered the tone.

Andy Coley 30:38

She must have had a dog with a sweet corn.

Jess Robinson 30:42

But yeah, so I I lied, said I could do impressions, and then I had five days to learn. And I could already sing. So I just listened a lot, and um, and I and I could and I could do it, and I I got the job, and then I was in it was this little production in Hereford, and it so happened that the woman playing my mum knew Bill Dare, who was the Dead Ringer's producer, and at that time it was on the TV. And um I I I sent him a cassette tape of me, it's how long ago it was, doing Judy Garland. Yeah, and he went, Oh, it's very good, but we tend to do living people on Dead Ringers. So uh he said, Can you do any speaking impressions? And I said, Yes, I'm brilliant at speaking impressions, and then went and had to learn. Um, and so I I had an audition and I got in to the I was in the last two series of the TV show. Yeah. And then um when the radio show came up a few years ago, um, lovely Deborah Stevenson, who's a we're all mates, it's all quite a small community. But yeah, Deborah, Deborah left and um and I was available and jumped right in. I mean, Bill Bill Dare um really gave me my my break on TV, and yeah, yeah, there all my life.

Andy Coley 32:01

Yeah, interesting. And did that then get you onto spitting image and other things from that?

Jess Robinson 32:05

Yeah, that so that that um so I was the lead female voice in the the reboot of spitting image. Yep. There was also the imitation game on ITV, and I did Britain's Got Talent, which was a whole other bag of what is it? A bag of sh worms. I don't know. I didn't care. It was a can of worms, bag of bag of shit. Oh is that what it is? A bag of shit.

Andy Coley 32:29

A bag of shitty worms.

Jess Robinson 32:30

A bag of it was really, yeah, sweet corn in the feces. It was not, it was not great. No, I didn't like that experience at all.

Andy Coley 32:38

And I was at the moment that link to that one in the show notes.

Jess Robinson 32:41

No, I mean you can look it up, but it was that was my most good girl era.

Andy Coley 32:45

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 32:45

Where I was absolutely contorting myself and trying to please everybody and not knowing who to trust, or yeah, just not having any autonomy. But I think even if I I don't don't think I I I think it was so buried in there I didn't even know what I wanted. Yeah. That's part of the the that's part of the journey though, isn't it? Actually working out what you

Life Is Rosi, inherited patterns and family legacy

Jess Robinson 33:11

want.

Andy Coley 33:11

Yeah. And and it's interesting, isn't it, as well? It's it's also thinking back along what do I want to be remembered for?

Andy Coley 33:19

Oof. You know. Um which kind of brings me on to the your subjects of memoirs, because you've written a memoir about your your grandmother.

Jess Robinson 33:26

Yes.

Andy Coley 33:27

Um I have. And and what was the inspiration behind that as well? Because it is it is about like how do we what what's the trace we want, what's the legacy we want to leave on the world?

Jess Robinson 33:37

Yeah, yes, absolutely. And also what gets passed down, yeah. Even if even if it's not intentional. Yeah so my grandma Rosi, um when she was 23 years old, she was living and working in an orphanage in Germany, and she played her guitar and she sang, she was like a German Jewish Maria von Trapp, and this was in 1938. Um and the the Nazis were on the rise, anti-Semitism was on the rise, and because even though she was German, because she had a Polish passport, um, because at that time that your passport just came from your parents, it didn't matter where you were living.

Andy Coley 34:22

Yeah.

Jess Robinson 34:22

Because she had a Polish passport, she was caught up in um the Poland action, which is when Hitler got all of the Polish Jews out of Germany as a sort of dress rehearsal for what was to come. And she found herself sort of expelled um out with lots of other people and in a sort of a no-man's land town, border town in Poland.

Jess Robinson 34:46

And I have all of her diaries from that time when she was 23 years old. And um they were all in German, and I wanted to, so I I I translated them with well, I can't speak German actually. She didn't pass that down. Um, but my my mum and her friend translated them, and what I decided to do was run them in parallel with my diaries from when I was 23, living in London, starting, I think I get my first Dead Ringers gig during the book.

Jess Robinson 35:15

And it was interesting, so interesting to find the similarities and the differences, but the similarities between how we were so both of us obsessed with boys, even her when her whole life was turned up upside down. She just really wanted to find love and someone to love her. Um, but she really knew who she was. She knew at that age, she knew what she was on this earth to do, which was looking after children. She she made herself invaluable in this camp and went to um the local gymnasium where they had all the refugee children, and she just started washing them and then she started telling them stories and teaching them.

Jess Robinson 35:59

She was just, and because of that, she was chosen to escort them over on the last kinder transport boat, which saved her life. So she ended up in London. But at that age, I was absolutely floundering. I didn't know who I was or what I was here to do. And I she was had such a strength of character always. And I really I don't think I did. I think only now, actually through writing the book as well, um, have I sort of grown up.

Andy Coley 36:32

Y eah.

Jess Robinson 36:33

And I I say in the the talk, there was such a huge part of me that was frozen as a good girl, and that's it's it's hard to a thaw it out and b go against the the patterns that you've been repeating all of your life. So yeah, it's a really interesting journey between sisters, sister relationships and mothers and daughters, and what her what what the sort of mother that my grandma turned into, yeah, from being such a caring and tender young woman to actually quite a uh cold mum to my mum because of the trauma, I think, and because of I think my my my mum ended up living the life that my grandma would have liked to have. Yes, you know, but it's very so interesting or interesting uh about what's what's handed down and how it is now even affecting our relationships and the way that we think and the way we process things now.

Andy Coley 37:39

This whole principle of good or bad through about a person is really tricky, and as a parent, often catching myself in that whole thing of oh, you should be a good girl or a good boy or whatever, because it's part of you know how I was raised, you were good or you were bad. Right. And it's actually like dissociating the behavior from the person. Somebody is not inherently good or not inherently bad, yes, they behave in a way that is perhaps not the best, yes, or they behave in a way which is fantastic, but they are not in and of themselves a good or bad person.

Jess Robinson 38:13

No, everybody, everybody is a three-dimensional human with dark sides and soft sides, and yeah.

Andy Coley 38:22

Interesting, yeah.

Jess Robinson 38:23

It's so interesting. So, yes.

Andy Coley 38:26

And so, what does the future hold? What's next?

What's next and the person Jess wants to become

Jess Robinson 38:29

Um, the future holds well, what are we into? We're coming, we're coming into uh corporate season, big time. So October, November, I'll be hosting lots of corporates.

Jess Robinson 38:42

And my book is out in paperback in January, which is exciting. I'm also doing it's called Life is Rosi, Grandma, Me and Our Diaries at 23.

Andy Coley 38:52

Cool. Definitely put a link to that in the show notes.

Jess Robinson 38:54

Yes, absolutely. Yes, please. Um, if you live anywhere near Henley, I'm doing the Henley Book Festival, okay, which will be nice. Um and then I would like to write another book. I think there's a podcast on the horizon. If you want to follow me, jessrobinson.co.uk or Jess Robinson official on my TikTok or my Instagram. I don't do Twitter.

Andy Coley 39:22

Who does these days!

Jess Robinson 39:24

Well, quite. Um, yeah. Lots of exciting new projects and things. Yeah, I'm excited.

Andy Coley 39:31

Awesome. So just before we finish on the podcast, we've got a little tradition where we've got a little red journal where a question from a previous speaker has been left that we are going to ask you. Now I'm not gonna tell you who it is yet.

Jess Robinson 39:44

All right.

Andy Coley 39:45

Um so I'm gonna give you the question. I'd love to hear your answer.

Jess Robinson 39:47

Oh my gosh, okay.

Andy Coley 39:49

So, hello, exclamation mark. When you are 60 years old, how do you want to be described by those who know you best?

Jess Robinson 40:02

Um I want to be described as a ball of energy. That's that came into my head immediately. I want to be um a matriarch, not necessarily a mother, but someone that is turned to to help and advise and guide younger people, someone that people can turn to for advice, someone funny and effervescent and living every day authentically and to the max, and also very rich. Is that a thing?

Andy Coley 40:39

All of those things can be true at the same time.

Jess Robinson 40:41

Lovely, I'll have them all, please. Tick, tick, tick.

Andy Coley 40:43

Well, you've definitely made our lives richer by coming on this podcast. And I cannot wait uh to see your bundle of energy, your ball of energy shining on the TEDx stage in a couple of days' time. Thank you.

Jess Robinson 40:57

What a lovely chat.