When two Liz Truss impersonators collide!
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Liz Truss interviews two Liz Truss impersonators.
Something a bit different this week - WHAT A SCOOP!!!
I’ve been making Liz Truss videos for a while now (mostly for Twitter/Instagram) and recently had the pleasure of meeting someone else who has been impersonating her for ages too: Nerine Skinner, the woman behind Liv Struss. It was really nice to meet someone occupying the same bit of comedy space, and we both instinctively knew it called for a photo-op!
Incredibly Liz Truss agreed to interview us both, for a small fee of £12,000.
LIZ TRUSS: Hello. *awkward hand shake* Who are you?
NERINE: My name is Nerine Skinner, I attempt to do comedy and silly things and found you along the way and that helped, so thanks Liz!
SUSAN: I’m Susan Harrison, I’m a character comedian and (when someone like you comes along) I become an impressionist too!
LT: I’m interested to hear how this all started for you. Of my many excellent qualities, what was it that made you think it would be fun to impersonate me? Was it -
a) My fiscal policy
b) My charisma
C) Other - please expand
NS: Your charisma was mainly the thing that appealed to me, mainly because there wasn't much. I actually thought you were a comedian when I first saw you and thought you were doing a better job than me and I nearly gave up. You have great comic timing.
SH: Other. I’d impersonated various people before (usually celebs/reality tv stars) and when I saw you and Rishi ahead of the televised debate awkwardly standing next to each other like cardboard dolls, my physical-comedy antenna went off. I thought, that looks fun. And it was! Also anyone who agrees with sending refugees to Rwanda/stopping the small boats, is fair game. It is MADNESS that your party are still in power and you really seemed to highlight that.
LT: What’s your favourite BRITISH cheese and why?
NS: I can't believe I'm being so open with you because you might really hate me. I really don't like cheese much. I can cope with mozzarella and halloumi and that's about it. And I know they're not exactly British either. I know that's a disgrace, please don't do the angry face!
SH: I like mature cheddar, because ironically I’m quite immature! *inane grin* . Oops, sorry I slipped into being you for a second.
LT: How do you become me, what’s your process?
NS: I work on your voice first and repeat your mantra, "pork markets in Beijing, Maggie forever, Kwasi my love, cheese" over and over again, then I practice your beautiful smile, pop on your necklace and I'm in and ready to go!
SH: I watch/re-watch videos of you and repeat words & phrases until I’ve hooked into your very specific voice, and then it’s wig time! The wig has been (fairly) likened to Michael Fabricant’s hair and for that I can only apologise.
LT: Are there any challenges of making topical videos? A lot happened around the time when I decided of my own accord to step down as PM - was it hard to keep up? Were you busy at the time?
NS: To be completely honest, I find it really hard. It's really tricky to keep up with the latest news and politics. I was never overly political before starting these and you made me follow the news every step of the way. You also made quite an impact in the news as there was a new story every day, so to keep up with that was difficult! I was so busy creating videos on top of my day to day work, so finding the balance between the two was not easy. By the time I filmed something, a new event would have happened and I was too late. I think I'm still recovering!
SH: It’s a challenge to fit in on top of day job work. My output has never been as prolific as Nerine’s - she’s so impressive - but nevertheless it’s hard to find time last thing at night when something has happened in the news or is about to happen. I like making non-political videos too, so I said to myself I’d only pipe up when you piped up. Nevertheless it’s hard. In the week you resigned I was in rehearsals for a family play at the Unicorn Theatre. When I got home one night I sort of knew you’d be resigning in a couple of days & I wanted to make a video about you asking yourself to resign while the joke still made sense. I wrote, filmed, edited and captioned it late that night. The next day at rehearsals there was a production meeting and the director said “I didn’t realise we had Liz Truss in the room!” because by that time the video had been doing the rounds on Twitter. I felt like a double agent: a comedian posing as a wholesome actor! (and also I felt quite tired).
LT: Who else (real or fictional) do you enjoy playing?
NS: I enjoy parodying Nadine Dorries and Boris Johnson but I also really love my own non political characters, especially Clarve The Vampire and Sadie The Roller Skater Motivator. I just haven't had time to do much on those because you've been keeping me busy!
SH: I enjoy being anyone from Love Island. I impersonated Jacob Rees Mogg once and that was fun in the same way that I imagine it’s fun being in a Charles Dickens adaptation. I also enjoy being my own characters, especially Fleur Delish who is in my solo show and who is the most twee, nauseating person in the world. I also enjoy playing inanimate objects….some of my stuff is a bit weird.
LT: Are there any impressions of other famous people out there that you particularly admire?
NS: I think Susan Harrison does a great job of Liz Truss. She'll be famous soon I'm sure! I think Christina Bianco is brilliant and I love that she mixes songs into her impressions too. But weirdly enough I wasn't overly that fascinated by impressions until all of this happened as I would never say I have those skills. I think I just look a bit like you Liz! However, now I find it really interesting.
SH: Nerine is a great Truss, and she has such funny bones! The thing I love about impersonations is how many different takes there can be of the same person. That was one of the things Nerine and I said when we met, that it’s really nice to see different interpretations. When Trump was in power all of us in Showstopper! The Improvised Musical were forced to play him at some point (usually in our kid’s show to be honest as the children kept requesting him as a baddie character!) and it was interesting to see the different improvised versions of him. My all time favourite Trump impression is by writer/actor/comedian (and UCB alumni) Anthony Atamanuik. It’s SO good. His improv chops enable him to interact with the public and it’s such an accurate & anarchic take. This is my favourite sketch in which he visits a primary school. The children aren’t actors, they’re just truthfully responding to this massive, awful buffoon in their midst, which makes their reactions hilarious.
LT: What’s your favourite market?
a) Borough
b) Christmas
c) Pork
SH: Christmas. 'Tis the season to ask Santa to bring me a new wig.
NS: Again, please don't hate me Liz. I'm a Vegetarian, so a pork market really is my worst nightmare. Christmas time is holiday season and the news calmed down a bit last year after you left, so I'll take the downtime!
Cheers Liz Truss! It was weird being interviewed by you, how can we ever thank you?
LT: A bank transfer will be fine.
Myself and Nerine are both doing solo shows (which may or may not contain Liz Truss) at The Camden Fringe this August and we’d LOVE you to come along. My solo show is Susan Harrison Work in Progress, at Aces and Eights on 26th and 27th August at 6:30pm and The Bill Murray on 26th August at 2:00pm
Nerine’s solo show is The Rise and Fall of Nerine Skinner (A Liz Truss Parody) Work in Progress, at Aces and Eights, 9th, 10th, 11th August at 9:30pm
Thanks and goodbye for now!
……PORK MARKETS!