‘Men have 30 seconds to get a laugh. Women have 10’: standup Bella Hull on proving herself in rough clubs

She started standup at 17 playing ‘unsafe basements’ and braving revolting hecklers – and even worse headline acts. Now she writes for SNL and is giving Edinburgh a blast of her surreal comedy Comedy isn’t just a career for Bella Hull. It’s a compulsion. “Standup for me is like – I have to do it,” says Hull, who first picked up a mic aged 17. “Regardless of what the response is.” A decade in, the response is resoundingly positive. The 28-year-old had a sell-out show at last year’s Edinburgh f...

By Rachael Healy