{"id":23998,"date":"2025-07-20T15:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T15:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/23998\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T15:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T15:01:08","slug":"susie-mccabe-looks-back-i-knew-very-early-on-that-i-was-different-from-other-girls-everyone-else-did-too-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/23998\/","title":{"rendered":"Susie McCabe looks back: \u2018I knew very early on that I was different from other girls. Everyone else did, too\u2019\u2019 | Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Composite of images of comedian Susie McCabe in 1987 and 2025<\/a>Susie McCabe in 1983 and 2025. Later photograph: Simon Webb\/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Kit Hall. Archive photograph: courtesy of Susie McCabe<\/p>\n

Born in Glasgow in 1980, Susie McCabe began her\u00a0career in standup comedy in the early 2010s, quickly gaining recognition on the Scottish comedy circuit. The 2024 winner of the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow award, McCabe has supported Kevin Bridges and John Bishop on tour and, along with Frankie Boyle and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, hosts the podcast Here Comes the Guillotine. Her show, Femme Fatality, is on iPlayer<\/a> now. She performs her new show Best\u00a0Behaviour at Edinburgh fringe from 30 July to 24 August.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m three years old and in my late nana\u2019s ground-floor tenement Glasgow flat. She would have knitted that tank top, and the toy in my hand was a little monkey that my mum bought me as\u00a0a\u00a0present. Apparently I used to be obsessed with putting its feet in its mouth \u2013 I\u2019m sure a therapist could have a field day with that.<\/p>\n

As for the expression, I look utterly miserable. My parents had tried to make me look like a sweet wee girl, putting me next to a little doll, when really I was a tomboy. That face is very much: \u201cNah, not having it.\u201d<\/p>\n

My nan\u2019s flat was my happy place. She and I were best friends, for ever. She was an unassuming person who would show her love with food rather than words. An independent, non-judgmental woman with the heart of\u00a0a\u00a0lion, and, without doubt, the biggest influence in my life.<\/p>\n

In gay clubs, people would coalesce around you. Suddenly, I had a\u00a0whole community of people who would look out for me<\/p>\n

I knew very early on that I was different from the other girls. Everyone else did, too. Dad would ask: \u201cWhy won\u2019t you just wear a dress? Why can\u2019t you just stay clean? Why do you always have a football under your arm?\u201d At school I was popular and had plenty of friends, but there were a couple of kids who tried to bully me a wee bit. All\u00a0I\u2019ll say is, I soon sorted that out.<\/p>\n

When I was at primary school, my\u00a0hair used to go all the way down my back. It was thick and Mum used to\u00a0plait it every morning. The pain! I\u00a0had a massive Tonka truck that I took into school one day, and while I was running it through my hair, strands got tangled in the wheels. We\u00a0had no other choice but to cut huge clumps out of it, but I was so relieved \u2013 as well as the tomboy thing, long hair is difficult when you\u2019re running about trying to play football with the boys, who are also trying to pull your plaits.<\/p>\n

There was so much about my adolescence that was great \u2013 I loved to play football and rugby, and I had good teachers and friends. But I was also trying to deal with my sexuality. I was brought up Roman Catholic in the west of Scotland, during section 28<\/a>. It was not a particularly easy time to come out. My mum and dad were not overtly homophobic, but there was not much information about the reality of being gay out there. The Brookside kiss<\/a> was\u00a0pretty monumental, but before that there were so many negative connotations about being gay in the media, just scandals about gay priests.<\/p>\n

To deal with my sexuality, I smoked a\u00a0lot of cannabis. Sport gave me a healthy outlet, thankfully. I also had good friends who supported me\u00a0when I\u00a0came out. When I told my\u00a0parents, however, they put me out\u00a0of the house, so I moved in with my nana. I stayed with her for two years and I worked in a jeans shop and\u00a0then a gay bar.<\/p>\n

In many ways, those were some of the happiest days in my life: being gay was still a backstreet thing in the 90s \u2013 there was no holding hands in public. In gay clubs, however, people would coalesce around you. Suddenly, I had a\u00a0whole community of people who would look out for me. After about two years, my parents accepted that my sexuality wasn\u2019t a phase. It\u00a0wasn\u2019t always easy, especially for my\u00a0dad, but he got there in the end.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I wanted to be a sports scientist and a physiotherapist. I told my parents this, and in true working-class Scottish style, they replied: \u201cUniversity is not for you.\u201d Even though I had the intelligence to have gone, I don\u2019t think I had the bandwidth to work hard as I was so caught up in having to come out. Instead, Dad made three other career suggestions. The first was: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you be a police officer?\u201d To which I replied: \u201cBecause snitches get stitches.\u201d The next was: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you join the air force like your brother?\u201d My reply was: \u201cYeah, because I\u2019m so good with authority.\u201d Plus, this was 1998 \u2013 a\u00a0time when homosexuals couldn\u2019t even join the military. His third was: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you be an air stewardess?\u201d Wasn\u2019t keen on that one, either. I am not a morning person. I\u2019ve barely made myself a cup of tea by 6am, never mind making one for a plane full of people.<\/p>\n

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I wanted to be a sports scientist, but I was told, in true working-class Scottish style: \u2018University is not for you\u2019<\/p>\n

Comedy was a dare that became a\u00a0career. In the summer of 2010, when a friend was diagnosed with cancer, it\u00a0was a stark reminder that time is short and I should challenge myself. A\u00a0friend suggested I try comedy. Well, the exact phrase was, \u201cShitebag if you don\u2019t.\u201d When someone says that to you at school in Scotland, you absolutely have to do it, and, even in adulthood, I\u00a0feel the same necessity. So, I signed up for an eight-week course and did my first gig. Right away I knew, this is the thing I am meant to do.<\/p>\n

I was gigging for eight and half years, selling out solo shows and headlining clubs, when I eventually realised I was on the precipice and had to jump. Within a month of giving up my day job, I got signed to a comedy management company. I remember a\u00a0year or so after, driving down the motorway and thinking: \u201cI wonder what day it is?\u201d I\u00a0checked and it was Friday. I thought: \u201cI\u2019m living the dream.\u201d When you work for a living you always know when it\u2019s Friday and when it\u2019s Monday. As a self-employed comedian, I was working seven days a week, with no days off, but it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

This industry is a marathon \u2013 very few people break into it overnight. Even if\u00a0you find fame on TikTok, you still have\u00a0to put in the work: the gigs, the grind, learning your stagecraft. I grew up playing football with men and spent years working in building sites alongside them. That experience, always being the only woman in the\u00a0room, built my resilience and determination. Those early gigs could have been tough \u2013 miners\u2019 clubs, bowling clubs, golf clubs \u2013 mostly rooms full of white, bald heads. At\u00a0first, I knew they might see me as\u00a0\u201cother\u201d: a wee gay woman with a\u00a0mic. I also knew that, deep down, we\u00a0weren\u2019t all that different. Once I\u00a0started talking, I could get them onside. The first two minutes might be\u00a0rough, but if you speak your truth, the walls come down. There\u2019s nothing really separating us.<\/p>\n

While I am still that funny wee girl in the photo, there have been quite a\u00a0lot of major life events recently that have made me feel like an adult. I had a\u00a0heart attack on the way to the fringe last year, my wife and I separated, and\u00a0my dad died in June. In life you get\u00a0served curveballs, but I am very fortunate to be surrounded by decent people and living in a decent part of\u00a0the world. Plus, it means my next show\u00a0is going to be great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Composite of images of comedian Susie McCabe in 1987 and 2025Susie McCabe in 1983 and 2025. Later photograph:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-23998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}