Freya Parker and Celeste Dring. They are rising stars of comedy sketch Lazy Susan. It looks like 2020 will be their year of success. The duo’s star shines more and more every day. We have tried to make an interview with them.
Comedy sketch duo Freya Parker and Celeste Dring, AKA Lazy Susan, are describing their feelings about being named rising stars in 2020 by this paper. “We’re glowing,” deadpans Dring. “Buoyant. It’s tricky to get things done because we keep floating up off the floor.”
Trying to interview the pair involves separating fact from their flights of fancy. “We’re both from showbiz dynasties,” claims Dring. “Our parents are clowns.”
Parker picks up the baton: “And we met at Eton. It’s a heartwarming riches-to-riches story.”
They’ve actually been writing and performing together for five years, after being introduced by a mutual friend when they’d left university and were “doing bits and bobs” in fringe theatre. “We started off trying to write a play together but it was so bleak and awful, I shudder when I think of it,” cringes Parker. “We kept dicking around doing characters instead, so we accidentally began writing comedy.”
Last year, the duo released a well-received sketch show pilot on BBC iPlayer, which then got a terrestrial airing on BBC2. It was based on their sellout Edinburgh run, which sent up post-#MeToo sexual anxiety and saw them greet the audience with: “Good afternoon, ladies and predators!” This year, more TV projects beckon, but they’re currently top secret. “You’ll definitely be seeing more of us in 2020,” says Parker.
Parker grew up in Teesside, worshipping Vic and Bob (“They were like gods in the north east”). Dring comes from Wolverhampton, where her early comedic influences were Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko’s Modern Life and 1999 beauty pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous: “It’s got a dynamite cast and was the first time I saw lots of women being funny together, so it was an important film for me.”
The Lazy Susan name can be a bit of a liability when it comes to the opposite sex. “It’s a joke that lame men make,” explains Parker. “Which one’s lazy and which one’s Susan? Hur-hur-hur.”
“And I’m like, Are you single?” trills Dring sweetly. “But I like it because it’s both an object and sounds like a description of a woman.” Parker chips in: “I like the fact that it’s got a Z in it.”
“You’re not playing Scrabble, mate,” says Dring.
As well as having projects together in the pipeline, they’ll both be popping up elsewhere in TV comedy this year. Parker is among the ensemble cast of BBC Two’s The Mash Report. “It’s coming back in spring and I’m chuffed to be part of it,” she grins. “These are dark times, so we need satire more than ever at the moment.”
Dring plays Princess Eugenie in royal sitcom The Windsors. “We just shot the new series, which airs next month,” she says. “You’ll have to watch it to see if there are any scenes set in Pizza Express in Woking.” No sweat.
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