Hello, everyone. My name is Joanne Lockwood and I'm your host for the Inclusion Bites podcast. In this series, I have interviewed a number of amazing people and simply had a conversation around the subject of inclusion, belonging and generally making the world a better place for everyone to thrive. If you'd like to join me in the future, then please do drop me a line to jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk. That's S-E-E Change Happen dot Co dot Uk. You can catch up with all of the previous shows on iTunes, Spotify and the usual places. So plug in your headphones, grab a decaf and let's get going.

Today is episode 99 with the title laughter as a lens, and I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Beth Sherman. Now, Beth is a multi Emmy award winning comedy writer and speaker on the power of humour for human connection. When I asked Beth to describe her superpower, she said, she can make you funny even if you don't think you are. Hello, Beth. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Jo. Thanks for having me.

I should actually say, welcome back to the show. You have the honour of being my first repeat guest because we had such terrible Internet troubles last time that we had to basically write the entire soundtrack off. It just wasn't usable, was it?

No. And it was all the fault of my Internet. We disconnected from Zoom. My spotty Internet disconnected from Zoom seven times. I had just moved and the Internet was not properly set up. So BT had given me sort of an interim device that did not work as so. But you know what, in show business, they say, bad dress rehearsal, great show, great show. It was a terrible dress rehearsal.

But in the spirit of this conversation, laugh was a lens. We did have quite a laugh, despite the problems. And it was like a real outtakes blooper reel, wasn't it?

At times, it really is, but that's what humour does. It is quick connection and being able to laugh at yourself, being able to laugh at the situation. Yeah, I guess we both could have just gotten angrier and angrier. I mean, there was part of it, but at a certain point you just have to look at each other and roll your eyes and laugh. I mean, it was absurd. The first time it was uncomfortable. The second time, it was awkward. The third time it's just silly.

But that is connection. I mean, are you going to forget that taping? I know I'm not. I'll try.

Maybe we will publish a bloopers reel at some point, but it was a cross between going through a tunnel on a mobile phone and an episode of Doctor who with the Daleks trying to exterminate somebody. It was a really broken up conversation. Every so often you'd freeze. And I was thinking, are you going to come back or aren't you going to come back? And it's comedy genius.

Well, and it became a talking point for us. It became a way to. Well, it's become a reference for us. I mean, I'm sure when we run into each other again, it will come up. It becomes a shared experience, so why not turn a negative into a positive?

Yeah. So you're an Emmy award winning writer. Tell us a bit about your background and how you got here today to.

The second bedroom where we're recording this. Where I'm recording this. We're not in a bedroom together. Well, I am a comedy writer by trade. I fell in love with the idea of writing comedy for television from the time I realised it was a job. And I can actually remember that because I was about 15, I watched a behind the scenes news programme on a sitcom that I loved, and they weren't focusing on the cast behind the scenes. They showed us a magical place called the writers room. And it was just ten guys sitting around a conference table being funny.

And they got paid for it and it was a job and it was guys, mostly guys at the time. But as soon as I realised that was a job, it's the only thing I ever wanted to do. And I'd been obsessed with stand up, so I just always had an ear for comedy. I went to university, I moved to Los Angeles. I'm born and raised in Philadelphia, nowhere near show business, nowhere anything like that. I moved to Los Angeles after college to go follow my dreams. I didn't know anyone except a woman that I'd gone to college with. And I started at the bottom, getting coffee, making copies.