She gave a little, rather shy, wave when she came in to the applause of the audience, however, Lee Randall who was in the chair for the session quickly gave us Calman's background; she was a former corporate lawyer who had now found her niche in stand-up comedy and being a panelist. Her list of credits was amazing to hear; on Radio 4 she has been on 'The News Quiz' and 'I Guess Why They Call It The News'. She has appeared in BBC Radio Scotland as a presenter for Fred MacAulay and has had a part in 'Rab C. Nesbitt'. She has shows regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and this year she has a show at the Pleasance, which plays to packed houses.
Calman launched into her immediate problem - that her flat caught fire and fire engines seemed to appear from every angle. She described it as 'a bit of a wake' with one of the firemen asking, "and what do you for a living love?" "Don't get me wrong" she added, "I thought that they were smashing." Anyway, she said that when she was on stage, she found herself focused on what she was doing and seemed to have a different personality. The 'crab of hate' which had been whispering in her ear, previously, seemed to disappear.
Lee Randall said that she had been very brave to write this book, "Cheer Up Love", and asked why she felt she had to write it?
Calman said she decided really to do something about her depression. It was always good to hear someone talking about depression and what came out was that most people had experienced some form of depression in their lives. She therefore thought that by writing about the problem this would help to get rid of her 'dark side'.
There followed a reading by Susan Calman, with many asides and comments. She wanted to stress at the outset that this book was really for those who actually have depression, or perhaps for someone who has to live with another person who has depression. She also wanted to make it clear that this was not in any way a medical book. One statistic is of interest, and that is that fifty two percent of the population suffer from depression of some sort at one time or another.
She said that she did not have happy memories of school or of growing up in Glasgow. At the age of fifteen she said that she was sectioned and sent to a Psychiatric Unit in Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This was so terrible that she tried very hard to behave normally and so avoid being sent back there again.
After school she then went on to the University of Glasgow where she described the place "as an abattoir"! She must have done reasonably well as she won a Judge Brennan scholarship and a three-month spell in North Carolina where she worked with criminals on death row. She spent seven years working in corporate law, but became dissatisfied with her lot and decided to develop herself as a stand-up comedienne.
At the age of nineteen, she 'came out', and has spoken of her difficulties that she had growing up and being gay in Glasgow at that time. "It wasn't easy, not at all. Glasgow is a lovely city, but when I was growing up there was one lesbian bar, and there was a club for men, but there was no internet, there was no way of finding out about other people."
Lee Randall asked her what phrases she found to be particularly unhelpful?
Calman replied, that she found comments like, "Cheer up love", "It'll never happen", or "It could be worse", all difficult.
As her parents had grown up during the War they, like many people of that era had an approach which was, "just get on with it" and this was their philosophy and their approach to all problems. But there were other phrases which were in use such as "Pull yourself together!", "Smile, it may never happen" or "Life goes on." These comments, she felt, did not really help at all.
However, when someone may have had a really good night or is feeling particularly good, this rather unusual kind of demeanour can frighten those living with you. For instance, Calman's 'wife' who is another lawyer, can be very taken aback if she, Calman, is not 'normal' because this is what people get used to.
What Calman did say towards the end of the session, was that if someone was speaking to you then you should give them your full attention. Do not look away or mumble a response as that person to whom you are speaking will not be impressed. This is good advice and is well worth remembering.
This was a really interesting session and Susan Calman is certainly one of the funniest people around - she deserves success.
Cheer Up Love: Adventures in depression with the Crab of Hate 