Today, Danny Hurst sits down with Rachel Creeger, a talented comedian, writer, director, speaker, podcaster and actress. Rachel explains how, despite being from an Orthodox Jewish background, which traditionally discourages stand-up comedy, she became one. She shares how she fell in love with comedy through her family’s love of jokes and how it helped her at school where she was bullied and struggled with being neurodiverse.

A serious illness didn’t stop her either and when she received a cash windfall; she used it to run away to the theatre and fulfil her dream. She also shares her experience of growing up as an Orthodox Jew in an area where the National Front was very prevalent.

If you can´t get enough of these podcasts, head to https://www.patreon.com/DannyHurst to access my exclusive, member-only, fun-filled and fact-packed history-related videos.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Most successful careers involve taking on multiple roles, so be willing to learn.
• Pursuing creative interests often requires you to take risks and prioritise personal happiness over traditional career paths.
• Do as much as you can within your current circumstances to follow your passion. Everything you do builds skills for your creative future.
• You don´t have to be famous to write something or act in a play.
• Personal challenges and unexpected circumstances can be transformed into opportunities.
• Comedians who used music, e.g. Jasper Carrott and Victoria Wood, really shaped comedy in the 70s.
• Dealing with the National Front was especially hard for Rachel´s older relatives who had fled persecution to find safety in the UK.

BEST MOMENTS

“When someone introduces me as a comedian. I get a little, tiny glow." 

“I said, ‘I'm going to run away to join the theatre,’ and that's what I did.”

“My material isn't niche. It's just another perspective on the same stuff.”

“Skinheads would stop you in the street and give you a hard time… it was sort of my normal reality.”

“It was important to also be part of what was happening in Britain and in London, because that's where we were growing up.”

“One minute our Sabbaths were these quite casual affairs, and then they became very strict.”

“I had one of those retro-antisemitic experiences.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.rachelcreeger.com 

https://www.jewtalkintome.com/

https://podstatus.com/podcasts/leaving-erinsborough-327103 

https://www.instagram.com/upstairsatadamandeve

HOST BIO

Historian, performer, and mentor Danny Hurst has been engaging audiences for many years, whether as a lecturer, stand-up comic or intervention teacher with young offenders and excluded secondary students. Having worked with some of the most difficult people in the UK, he is a natural storyteller and entertainer, whilst purveying the most fascinating information that you didn't know you didn't know. A writer and host of pub quizzes across London, he has travelled extensively and speaks several languages. He has been a consultant for exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as presenting accelerated learning seminars across the UK. With a wide range of knowledge ranging from motor mechanics to opera to breeding carnivorous plants, he believes learning is the most effective when it's fun. Uniquely delivered, this is history without the boring bits, told the way only Danny Hurst can.

CONTACT AND SOCIALS

https://instagram.com/dannyjhurst
facebook.com/danny.hurst.9638

https://twitter.com/dannyhurst 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-hurst-19574720