COMEDIAN, ACTOR AND RECENT CONTESTANT on Strictly (the UK version of Dancing With the Stars) Jayde Adams reclines on a sofa in the Mondrian London Shoreditch, slowly raising her leg to vertical, showing off her flexibility.
Two of her best friends sit across from her, unimpressed. They’ve seen this behaviour before. The pair are award-winning TV writer and comedian Jack Rooke, whose recent autobiographical TV show Big Boys – about a young man dealing with grief and sexuality – received critical acclaim, and singer Self Esteem whose much lauded sophomore album, Prioritise Pleasure, has achieved cult status along with a Mercury Prize nomination.
The talented trio have achieved their success through hard work, self-belief and never giving up. We invited them to discuss their relationship, their individual bumpy roads to success, how to deal with dying on stage and a lot of laughs.
ON HOW THEY MET
(JACK) How did we all meet each other?
(JAYDE) I met Rebecca at the Rolling Stone magazine launch
(REBECCA) I was singing with Bastille, I met you in the toilet and I said that people that I know who know you, love you.
(JAYDE) And I said exactly the same thing to you, and there the love affair started. I remember when I first met you I thought to myself, “Wow! Sheʼs funny for a musician.”
REBECCA Everyone says that. Thatʼs why Iʼm great on the telly.
(JAYDE) You are brilliant. Jack, we met at Bestival.
(JACK) I have a past where I used to be a spoken word artist and I was booked to do 10minutes of poems, back in 2013/2014 at that big queer stage.
(JAYDE) The Grand Palace! There was nothing grand about it. There was mud and some scaffolding.
(JACK) And some drag
