Jun 27, 2023
Can you be both insecure and confident at the same time? In
this first of a series of Happy High Status takeover episodes, Viv
talks to award-winning comedian Tom Allen, star of The Apprentice:
You’re Fired and Bake-Off: Extra Slice, about his life on and off
stage and what he has learned about managing nerves, coping with
the reactions of audiences and critics and, most of all, living
with self-criticism. Tom tells Viv that it’s a mistake to assume
that comedians perform from a place of self-assurance: instead he
has learned that his version of happy high status comes from being
“confidently insecure." (Happy high status is a term from acting
and comedy that is a sort of shorthand for “your best self.”) He
shares tips on dressing for confidence (like Fred Astaire, please),
how to avoid being apologetic around people when you really should
be taking charge and how to feel entitled to speak. How do you
“make space for yourself” in a hostile environment? How do you
recover your confidence when it’s at a low ebb?
Viv's new book, Happy High Status: How to Be
Effortlessly Confident, is out now.
@vivgroskop
For more on Tom Allen, for tour dates and his new book Too
Much, go to www.tomindeed.com