Comedian Katy Brand's new Edinburgh show: 'I was a teenage Christian'

KatyBrandOfficial.com

Comedian Katy Brand is basing her new show around her teenage life as an evangelical Christian.

Brand, now aged 37, came from a non-religious background but converted at 13 after spending a holiday in Cornwall with some of her family's churchgoing friends.

She started going to church four times a week and put the "fun" and the "mental" into fundamentalism, according to the Edinburgh show description.

She lost her faith while reading theology at Keble College, Oxford and when her church banned the Harry Potter books. 

Brand told The Guardian that after converting, she began attending an evangelical church in Buckinghamshire: "I got involved in the tea-making, I got involved in painting homeless shelters. I was completely in love with the worship bandleader, who was interchangeable in my head with Jesus." 

She said the number of other teens around made it feel normal. "Church summer camp felt like a festival. Loads of people your age, hanging out, camping – albeit definitely not having sex."

Being religious could make a teenager feel important.

"Writing this show, I've found loads of people who had a religious period as a teenager. And it's because you're given loads of responsibility – you're praying demons out of people, for God's sake, at 15. You have a youth worker that devotes all their time to listening to you. You feel like you've got some significance in the world. And who doesn't like to feel important?"