Abi Clarke

In the olden days, i.e. in the early 2020s comedians might have had the opportunity to play for years in the UK before being invited to an audience on TV and then selling out arena shows. It's not so easy. Comedy is one of the art forms which has managed to continue to be performed the presence of a live crowd, but we'll not be having arena tours anytime in the near future. But one Bristol comedian has a huge following through the social media lockdown. Abi Clarke did not set out to be an internet star. Abi, who is 24, lives in Henbury and began creating videos online "to establish a community of like-minded people who could appreciate my standup comedy." "I was performing a lot of shows in the depths of Devon to males in their 50s who weren't as enthusiastic about my Love Island, Sims and Twilight references so I went to the internet in hopes of finding other young women that were similar to me." Abi has since been performing at Lakota Gardens after locks have eased however, she continues to upload her videos to Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok (where she recently surpassed 500k followers) Finding the inspiration she needs from sources as diverse as her job in an establishment, a chat with a stranger or the girl group chat, writing all of her ideas down on her smartphone.