You can listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify each week. Follow this link if you're listening on Apple News.
Comedian Cat Cohen returns to the podcast with stories of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a long-awaited trip to Australia after a challenging year, and nights spent on the world’s various comedy stages. Plus, she teases her first album, and looks back on her award-winning standup show The Twist…? She's Gorgeous, which has now landed on Netflix.
Lale Arikoglu: Hi there. Welcome to Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu and I'm chatting today with someone I've seen perform live many times on downtown New York stages. She's Cat Cohen, singer, comedian, podcaster, poet, and actor. Her stand-up show, The Twist? She's Gorgeous, won Best Newcomer Prize at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 and was even made into a Netflix show. She's written a book of poems, and somehow during a hectic tour schedule, she's managed to record her debut album in London.
Hello, Cat.
Cat Cohen: Hello. How are you?
LA: I am well. So great to have you back on the show.
CC: I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
LA: You're in New York, right?
CC: I'm in New York City, center of the world.
LA: Big Apple, baby.
CC: Big Apple, baby. City that never sleeps. Paint the town red.
LA: Before we started recording, I was at least complaining to you that I was having a kind of annoying day.
CC: Yeah. And I said, "I, too am having an annoying day." And we've decided it's the moon.
LA: Yes. It's the moon. It's astrology. It's something in the air.
There's a moment from a song in Cat's live act, Come For Me, that weirdly actually captured how I was feeling that day, or at least how I was feeling before we started talking.
CC: (Singing).
I'm very excited. The special, it's a show I've been working on for so long. The album, I've been listening to since the summer. I just can't wait to share it with people and I'm hopefully going to throw a big holiday show party in New York in December, but I haven't figured out the plans yet. But that's the goal, to celebrate the album with a big splash in New York.
(Singing).
LA: The last time we spoke, I mean you've written for Condé Nast Traveler since then.
CC: Yes.
LA: But the last time we spoke on this podcast it was April 2020.
CC: Are you serious?
LA: It was fledgling weeks of lockdown.
CC: Oh my God.
LA: And so I-
CC: I have no memory of that.
LA: Well, I've got one to share with you right now.
CC: Oh God. What? What? No, I don't want to go back. No, don't make me.
LA: I promise we can return.
I dug up a clip from that show in the first incarnation of Women Who Travel.
CC: Yeah. I mean, my life is so, so glamorous normally. No, obviously this sucks so bad. I'm in psychic pain. I'm literally so extroverted I'm dying to get in front of a crowd. Should I go work out after this or make a cocktail?
LA: Make a cocktail. It's 5:30. I'm making a cocktail every day at 6:00 p.m.
CC: Yeah.
LA: I have the first one and I feel fantastic.
CC: Yeah.
LA: And then I have a second one and I have to go cry in the shower.
CC: I know.
Oh my God, that is so upsetting.
LA: When I listened to it, I was like, "This is actually awful." And then I was like, "I'm going to have to subject you to this too."
CC: Wow. We made it through.
LA: We made it through.
CC: That's crazy though. Oh my God, that version of myself.
LA: Yeah. Almost even listening to my voice, I feel like my voice sounds different.
CC: We kind of thought it was still sort of cutesy back then.
LA: Yeah. It was like, "Oh, I'm going to make martinis."
CC: Take the month off. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. "I can't wait to have an Aperol spritz and unwind for a few weeks.
LA: Yeah. And I was like-
CC: Damn.
LA: "Oh, you know what? When it gets to the summer, everything will be back to normal." And then I didn't leave the country for almost two years.
CC: Wow. Four years ago. Okay, we did it.
LA: I know. Look at us.
CC: And I feel like we've both, we've traveled the world since then.
LA: We have, which we'll obviously be talking about. So I hope that you're doing better than you were in that moment four years on.
CC: Much better.
LA: And so obviously a big part of it for you is you have now got to spend the last few years back in front of crowds.
CC: Yes.
LA: Which is a very important part of your work and your travels. And I want to start talking about a place that you love. It's Edinburgh, home to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
CC: My favorite.
LA: You were there I mean a couple of months ago.
CC: Yeah, so I've been back twice since the pandemic.
LA: For listeners who aren't familiar with it, what is the Fringe? What's it like? Who are the characters there?
CC: It's basically, it's the biggest arts festival in the world and the city of Edinburgh triples in population I've heard, and also every sort of space and venue and room and bar converts into a performance venue. And the city is just overrun with clowns and freaks and artists and comedians and musicians and beautiful people who come to watch. And it's just a non-stop party for a month. It's really magical and wonderful.
LA: What does it feel like for you to perform there?
CC: Yeah, it's just the best. I love being in Scotland in August because I hate hot weather, so I love being cozy and in the brisk Scottish air. And basically all day I sort of sleep and get ready for the show and then do the show and then have a couple drinks to come off the adrenaline and hang out with people, see other shows, and then do it again the next day.
LA: What's the party scene like at the Fringe? You've got people flying in from everywhere.
CC: When I went the first time, which was 2013 just to watch shows and I was like the girl handing out the flyers for other people's shows, when I went that year it was fully clubbing to 7:00 A.M., like going back to random Scottish guys' houses, being fully out of control. Now when I go out after the show, it's more like you sit in the courtyard and have a coup and I have to be not too hung over for the next day.
LA: That is true. I mean the former is a description of I was a student in Scotland and that's basically-
CC: Oh, so you get it.
LA: What I did.
CC: Yeah, exactly.
LA: For four years. Tell me though, what's your favorite Fringe moment of all time? Is there one that completely exemplifies what that experience is like for you?
CC: I mean, honestly, one of my favorite moments is just the first year I did it and we sold out all the shows and so we added an extra one and the energy at that extra one was just so electric and I have a recording of it that I would go and listen back to get ready for the taping of that show.
LA: I was going to ask, what makes a room electric? Is it just people laughing at your jokes or is there something that's slightly more intangible about just the feeling in that room?
CC: Oh yeah. I love that question because when you do a show every night, you can tell so quickly what the crowd's going to be like. And this year I remember, my pianist and I will be backstage and we can always tell the vibe based on how people are dancing to the pre-show music, how chatty they are before the show, what the weather's like. It all comes together to give a crowd such a specific energy that I can tell even when I walk on and my names announced, that reaction kind of dictates how the rest of the show is going to go. And sometimes that's great. Sometimes you're like, "Oh my God, they're on fire." And sometimes you're like, "It's going to be a tough one and we have to get through this."
LA: I was going to ask, for the tough ones, how do you break through that because does your stomach drop and you just think, "Oh God."
CC: It's more about just going on autopilot and not taking it personally. Just being like, "I know these jokes are good because they killed last night, so I'm not going to let this specific crowd send me spiraling. I will just power through." And some nights the show is 55 minutes, and sometimes it's like an hour 10, and the shorter shows are when I'm like, "I'm ready to get through this."
LA: You're like, "Get me off the stage."
CC: Yeah. I mean, no, there's always tough crowds, especially at the Fringe because people just see a poster and go to something. They don't know necessarily what they're getting themselves into.
LA: You get a lot of randoms that might have just passed into it and out of curiosity.
CC: Yeah. Definitely. That's such a Fringe rite of passage is playing to bad small crowds.
LA: When you took that show to Edinburgh, you mentioned that you did it this year and then you hadn't been since 2022 and you had from what I understand, supposed to go in 2023, but then had health issues come up.
CC: Yes. I was literally packing for the Fringe and I had a mini stroke. Which is so crazy. I guess I found out I was born with a hole in my heart. It sounds like I'm joking, I'm not. And they had to fill it up. It's actually the same disease that Haley Bieber had, so shout out to me and my PFO girl. We're both healthy, thriving, and back at the Edinburgh Fringe, at least one of us is.
LA: She's also thriving. Just not at the Fringe.
CC: I think she's thriving. I think she had a baby. Shout out to her. Congrats. We've obviously never met but I feel incredibly connected to her because of our ailment. And she really, honestly, I was so depressed when I was going through this.
LA: I mean, we don't have to get into the ins and outs of what that experience was like, but I imagine when you're lying in a hospital bed and your so young and something like that happens, it's lonely.
CC: Yes.
LA: Because you're like, "I don't know anyone else who's had this and what the fuck is going on?"
CC: Yeah. I just felt so angry too. I was like, "The past few years have been so hard." We just played that clip from the pandemic. I'm like, "All I want to do is be young and healthy and fun and travel the world and instead I'm getting surgery. Are you kidding me?" I was so pissed. So yes, I was very lucky that they sort of figured out what it was quickly and I was able to be touring again pretty much, honestly, six weeks after it all happened. Two months really, I was back on the road. I was in Australia three months after it happened, so I felt very lucky that I was able to have the procedure quickly.
LA: More from Cat after the break.
You're back with Women Who Travel.
I followed along with some of that Australia travel that you were doing.
CC: Oh my God. Have you been?
LA: I mean I went when I was 19 on a backpacking trip.
CC: Okay. Got you.
LA: So it was pretty deranged. I would love to go back.
CC: It's so amazing.
LA: An amazing, amazing place.
CC: It's too far though. I went for a whole month because like, "If I'm going, I'm going."
LA: Yeah. I was there for like six weeks.
CC: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
LA: What was it like to be back traveling but also to be doing a really intense trip?
CC: I know. Now thinking about it feels crazy, but the time I was just so eager to get going that I had to just turn off my brain, turn off those anxieties, and just do it. I had been so bored being stuck in bed for a month and I was so ready. But I mean, I had a pretty bad panic attack one night after a show. I was on really heavy blood thinners while I was across the world. My anxiety was bad, but the only way to get through that kind of thing is just to make yourself do it and then you get less scared over time. It was definitely one of those things that you just can't think about it too much when you're about to do it.
LA: You just have to take the plunge.
CC: You just got to jump. You got to jump.
LA: And you jumped.
CC: So I was lucky that it all went well.
LA: You're speaking very openly about this experience, which I imagine at point sight isn't always the easiest thing to revisit or something you'd actually want to talk about.
CC: Yeah.
LA: Has it seeped into your act in any way or is it you just don't want to talk about it?
CC: No, I think that's what the whole next show is about, but I haven't started writing it yet. But now I'm a year out from all that stuff. But it's hard. I think normally you need a much longer time to process traumatic events. But I'm going to try and start working through it because it is funny, there are funny parts about it, so I'm excited to talk about it, but definitely scared. I feel like I'm only now, even now when I talk about it, I get anxious. But it's one of those things, the more you do it, the less that will happen. So I think it'll be healing to do a show about it ultimately.
LA: And I imagine writing a show about it is also a way of feeling in control.
CC: Yeah, exactly. Like, "Oh, this is something that happened because it's in the past," because it's over and you're healthy now.
LA: Yes, and now I can reflect on it.
CC: All the time my boyfriend has to be like, "You're healthy. They fixed it. They fixed what was wrong with you." And I'm like, "No, no, I'm freaking out."
LA: That's why you need someone else there to tell you that.
CC: Always.
LA: What did it feel like to be traveling again and seeing all these new things and experiences?
CC: So special. And also the Australia trip was double special because I was supposed to go in March 2020, so it was actually a double-
LA: Oh my God. This trip.
CC: I know. So I was like, "I have to fucking get over there." And actually what made it so special is when I finally met the amazing producer I was working with over there. I also just met some friends on that trip that I've become so close with and seeing the natural beauty of Sydney, I was like, "This is just so unbelievable." And getting to go to New Zealand and we went to like Waiheke Island and we're having oysters and tasting wine in New Zealand and I was like, "This is crazy." I felt gratitude levels off the chart.
LA: I mean, sitting somewhere like that, drinking wine and eating oysters, in one of the most beautiful places of the world, you're like, "This is life."
CC: Yeah. I was like, "This is what life's about."
All summer I did a European tour. I did a US tour all year long. And even the US tour, which some of the cities are less glamorous than others, but even then it's so fun. And especially certain theaters and stuff will give you a point person who shows you their city and that's what makes all the traveling exciting. If you don't know anyone where you're going, it's definitely harder.
LA: What are your tips for traveling so much? Because obviously-
CC: Oh my God. Well, I'm always reading your website because I'm obsessed with knowing what bags people take to the airport, how they bring their shampoo. That is my obsession.
LA: I feel like it's a skill and I am unfazed by basically everything when I'm traveling. If something goes wrong, I'm like, "Whatever." Am I good at traveling? No, I'm disorganized.
CC: Really?
LA: I never quite know what's going on.
CC: Interesting.
LA: I always forget something and I think that's probably just who I am.
CC: That's beautiful. Acceptance.
LA: Yeah. Have you gotten good at it though?
CC: I'm incredibly good at it. I'm incredibly good at packing. I'm incredibly good at my little carry-on bag. Well, first of all, I have to shout out a brand I really like, CALPAK.
LA: Oh, love CALPAK. So great.
CC: Their carry-on bags are amazing. They're like endless and they have lots of good compartments, so thank you, CALPAK. Feel free to sponsor me.
LA: On this podcast. Or on-
CC: On this podcast. And I think the key is to have, I read this somewhere, but to have lots of pouches. Everything is in a little pouch so you're never totally fishing for something at the bottom of your bag.
LA: Oh, I love the pouches.
CC: The pouches are important. And then, honestly, and this is an ongoing struggle, but just to bring less clothing than you want to because you really won't wear it all and you'll be annoyed that you have to carry it.
LA: Yeah. One thing I've gotten good at is packing very lightly. And I just did a three week trip where I was in multiple countries and I just used a very big backpack.
CC: No.
LA: Still didn't wear everything that was in the backpack.
CC: What? What did you pack for clothes?
LA: Well, I was in London, I was in Morocco, and I was in Italy.
CC: Okay.
LA: And I'd love to say shout out to Ryanair, but it was-
CC: Yeah. They did you dirty?
LA: There was some challenging moments with the airline. I never want to fly Ryanair from Marrakesh airport ever again.
CC: Noted.
LA: Yeah. It sounded so glamorous, doing Marrakesh to Rome.
CC: That sounds gorgeous.
LA: I'm like, "Am I in Casablanca?"
CC: No, fully.
LA: Am I Ingrid Bergman? What is happening? And then it was the worst travel experience of my life.
CC: No. What happened?
LA: Well, I had a terrible stomach bug, which I understand is not Ryanair's fault, but the infrastructure of Ryanair made it a torturous experience.
CC: Oh no, that's horrible.
LA: One thing I discovered on Ryanair, after I almost missed my flight, was the last person on the plane, sweating. And also sweating partly because I ran, but also because I was deathly ill.
CC: Oh God.
LA: Is they don't serve any drinks. And so you have to go on an app on your phone and order water before the plane takes off.
CC: No.
LA: While there's still wifi.
CC: Oh, that's insane.
LA: It was insane.
CC: That would drive me fucking crazy.
LA: It was terrible.
CC: Oh my God.
LA: But I had everything in one backpack and I still didn't wear everything.
CC: I only had a carry on for the Euro tour. And I wore the same show outfit every night. And one was a Dianne von Furstenberg jumpsuit that doesn't wrinkle and a Norma Kamali mini dress that also doesn't wrinkle. So shout out to those girls.
LA: Fabulous girls.
CC: Those fashion icons, who know what's up, who know that women are on the go and wanting to look beautiful. Because both of those items, I'd either do a chic jumpsuit or a little mini dress. They're small and they did not wrinkle and I would just shove them in the back of my suitcase and put on some glitter eyeshadow and hope for the best.
LA: Oh my God, we need you to write a packing column or something. I'm like-
CC: Ooh, that'd be fun.
LA: I need to know everything.
CC: Yeah, and I'm also always looking for, it's difficult to find comfortable shoes that are chic, and I'm always on a quest to find the perfect boot. And I honestly haven't yet because I love wearing my Blundstones, but they aren't chic.
LA: I know. I love my Blundstones too. Actually, that was a pandemic shoe.
CC: Yeah, definitely.
LA: Because I was just trouncing around Brooklyn on my daily prescribed walk.
CC: And they're perfect.
LA: And that was it.
CC: And I think they have one cut that's a little more fashionable, but if they took that infrastructure and did a little something with it, it would be a game changer.
LA: I actually really like, there's a Scandinavian brand called Vagabond and they have a very good range of boots.
CC: Writing this down. I am familiar, but I haven't ever worn a pair, so that's good to know.
LA: I like them and they're quite, they last
CC: Okay, cool. Because I'm boots year round.
LA: Yeah.
CC: Boots with every outfit.
LA: Yeah. Can you tour glamorously?
CC: No. Touring is not glamorous unless you're at a much higher level where you're having your own bus and your plane and all that.
LA: Unless you're Madonna.
CC: Yeah, exactly. There is nothing more exhausting, and it's very lonely and it's very hard. They key is pack as little as possible and sleep anywhere you possibly can and drink a ton of water. And that's kind of it.
LA: Rules to live by, I'd say.
CC: Yeah, sleeping and drinking water will fix everything, that's ever, yeah.
LA: Coming up, Cat's new album, which she recorded in London.
We're back with CC.
In addition to all the work we've been talking about and the tours and in addition to your new special, Come For Me, you also have an album coming out in November.
CC: Yes. Stream it.
LA: Joining the pop girlies. Tell me about the album. What is it? What are you doing on it? How did it come to be, because you have so much music in your sets that it feels natural to me.
CC: Totally. Yeah, it's something I've wanted to do for a very long time. And it was just about, I met this woman Catarina, who works at Elektra Records, and she kind of just made it happen, introduced me to this amazing producer named Curos in London, and we found a window, we had nine days, and we just made it. It's like half old songs, half new. The first single's out now, so y'all don't delay. Go listen to Can You Send Me That on Spotify. It's about wanting to get your picture taken at a party. Or more specifically it's about when someone takes your picture at a party and then you're like, "Wait, how do I get that photo?"
LA: They take it and then you review it.
CC: Yes.
LA: And you're like, "Oh."
CC: "Can you send me that?" Exactly. That's what the song's about. It's very fun. And the rest of the album will come out in November and I'm excited.
LA: Where did you record it? Were you recording in London?
CC: Yeah. He has a home studio. You know what, when you're stuck in a room for nine hours with someone just focusing on one task, it gives that amazing college energy where you're just up all night writing your term paper and you get kind of loopy and you start being silly and laughing. It's that energy creatively and it's so powerful.
LA: You said there's old material and new material.
CC: Yes.
LA: The old, I imagine are the sort of cabaret songs that you have in your live acts that people might already be familiar with. How does the new material differ?
CC: Basically, yeah, we reworked some of the cabaret classics into pop songs. So some of them sound a lot dancier, some of them sound a lot dreamier, and I'm very excited about that. And then the newer songs, yeah, I mean they're similar in tone. And some of them did start on piano like the other ones, and some of them just started with a beat or someone strumming on the guitar. So it was fun to work in a different way. And I think hopefully I'll start doing some of the new songs on stage as well, but got to figure out where they fit into whatever this new show is.
I feel like the newest thing I make is always my favorite. And the last song we made, which is therefore the newest, it's called, I Just Bought A Journal, and it's kind of like an early 2000s pop rock anthem about buying a journal and thinking your whole life's going to change.
LA: Oh, I love that. I feel like buying a journal, and then if it's that era that's like you're talking about, then it's like a fluffy pen.
CC: Exactly. And yeah, laying on your bed with your feet dangling behind you like, it's very that energy. And I can't wait for people to hear that one because I think it's so cutesy.
LA: I love that. That was what I would do when I was 13 and then realize I had nothing to write in it.
CC: Oh, exactly. I'm like-
LA: Because nothing was happening to me.
CC: But now look at you traveling the world.
LA: Exactly.
CC: Getting sick on a plane.
LA: Exactly. Running to the bathroom in Marrakesh airport.
CC: It's so glamorous.
LA: What a life. What a life.
CC: It's so glamorous.
LA: I also think I've mentioned this incident more than once recording this podcast now, so clearly it's staying with me.
CC: Well, that sounds like you're scarred for life.
LA: I am, definitely.
CC: I don't blame you. God, there's no worse feeling. It's like making me sick even thinking about-
LA: No, I know.
CC: Poor you on the plane.
LA: I will stop. I'll stop.
CC: No, no, no, no, no.
LA: The Ryanair flight attendant to Rome screaming at me, "Signora!" and throwing the bottle of water at me because I was asleep.
CC: No. No. You curled up in the fetal position.
LA: Yeah, I was. Just up against the window.
CC: Oh my God.
LA: We are almost at time, but I do want to ask you what you're most looking forward to as you promote this album and I don't know, maybe tour it. You're trying to figure out what this next tour is.
CC: Exactly. Yeah, we'll see. But what are you looking forward to?
LA: Oh God. What am I looking forward to?
CC: Your face drops.
LA: I'm like, "Getting to the end of year." I think going on holiday over Christmas.
CC: Ooh, where are you going?
LA: Well, I'm trying to plan a trip to India.
CC: Oh, amazing.
LA: And I've never been there before.
CC: Me neither.
LA: The great thing about working at Traveler is there's always someone on staff that knows the place really well.
CC: I know. It's like you're in the right place. That's so exciting.
LA: So I think that. And then just-
CC: Who will you go with?
LA: Trying to figure that out. I'm kind of just set on it. I'm like, "I want to go. I have some time off."
CC: You're like, "I'm going. Come if you want." Okay, cool.
LA: Exactly.
CC: I love it.
LA: Is there anything that I haven't asked you?
CC: No. You slayed it.
LA: That you want to talk about? Do we need to cover anything? Hopes, dreams?
CC: No, I feel like we absolutely crushed it. We've put our bad mornings to bed and had a gorgeous convo. And I just want to say, if you're listening, send me any boots you like walking in. It's my request.
LA: Love that. I want that too. Send it to both of us.
CC: Okay, perfect.
LA: But Cat first because she asked first. Not going to steal those boots.
CC: I'll share.
LA: If people want to follow along with your work?
CC: Yeah.
LA: See where you're traveling, stream your shows, where can they find you?
CC: Yes, please, @Cat_Cohen on all the, Insta, TikTok, all the platforms. So I'm always posting tour dates. I'm doing it and actually I'm going to kind of get back into my sub-stack, posting on there about my travels and writing poems about places I go and all that. So check it out.
LA: Great. Cat, this was great. Thank you so much.
CC: Thank you so much, girly.
LA: Watch Cat Cohen's Come For Me comedy special on Veeps.
Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu and you can find me on Instagram @lalehannah. Our engineers are Jake Lummus,, James Yost, Vince Fairchild, and Pran Bandi. The show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner of Corporation for Independent Media and Michele O'Brien produced this episode. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's Head of Global Audio.