Jo Brand
Specialising in papercut wit and painful self-deprecation (such as "Yes, it's a fat bird"), Jo started performing in 1987 under the charming moniker "The Sea Monster".
Brands seem to be everywhere in comedy nowadays. There's Russell Brand, for example, and there's also Katy Brand. Wonderful as it would have been, neither are related to Jo Brand, the grandest Brand of them all.
It made perfect sense for Jo Brand to get into comedy, because, back in the 80s, there were only about three other women in the stand-up circuit. Now some gals might have been put off by such wall-to-wall blokeyness, but Brand saw it as an opportunity. Like a shrewd entrepreneur (albeit one with mad hair and clumpy Doc Martens), she recognised a gap in the market.
So she gave up a career as a psychiatric nurse and bravely took on the worst hecklers London could offer. She rose to fame as the "Sea Monster", because that was a comedy producer's nickname for her. She'd been looking for a stage name and thought "that would do" - and this same casual indifference to just about everything helped make her a star. (That same indifference led to her accepting "Through the Cakehole" as the title of her TV series. She thought it was a "hideous title", but hey, it would do.)
She may have calmed down since then, giving up the fags and becoming a mum, but she still has a passion for comedy. Her stand-up routine may have mellowed somewhat, but she still peppers her material with brilliant moments of vitriol.
