Barry’s Economics looks at the psychology of poverty. If the subject matter can get serious, the tone remains accessible. Ferns returns again and again to the concept of survivorship bias.
“When I got myself out of bankruptcy and homelessness, I had to relearn the terrain of my own mind. When I learned about survivorship bias, I understood why.
“There’s amazing research from World War II by Abraham Wald [Hungarian/American mathematician and statistician]. All the planes were coming back covered in bullet holes, so they decided they needed to reinforce them. They took a survey of where all the bullet holes were, clustered in certain areas, and instructed engineers to reinforce those areas. Abraham Wald said, ‘These are the planes that made it back – all those areas with no bullet holes, it’s not that they weren’t hit, but when they were, they went down. So those are the areas you need to reinforce.
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“It’s exactly the same with stories of failure in our society. When you’re not successful, you don’t get to land the plane and say what the problem is. You don’t get to point at the bullet holes. Look at the people making decisions in parliament – there’s nobody homeless in the room adding to the policies on homelessness. What the fuck is that about?
“None of the people that didn’t survive have a platform. It’s heartbreaking, I know so many amazing pilots that got shot down and are dragging their broken plane through a field to get back to the airbase and they’re exhausted. And everyone’s going, ‘Why are you so unable to communicate?’
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“So I hope my channel offers those perspectives. And it is the tip of the iceberg. Most people who should be talking about inequality just don’t have the time to do it. They’re working three jobs or raising kids on their own. Every homeless person or single mother should have a podcast, rather than every public school kid. But they don’t have the time or resources so we usually only hear the same voices – because they have the finances, time and luxury of opportunity.
“I think this takeover is vital. Because there aren’t many people talking about inequality from our sort of background.”
Ferns opens up about his own story, as we sit in the upstairs flat at the Bill Murray. Gazing down from the walls are portraits of some of the comics that have played here over the years – from James Acaster to Suzy Izzard, Mae Martin to Aziz Ansari and Kevin Bridges.
“I’ve learned over the last year not just to have acceptance, but pride in my own story. That’s hard to do when your story includes homelessness, bankruptcy, and failure after failure after failure.
“You cannot, from reading a book or hearing a story, understand the lived experience of being homeless. You can know it’s tough, but lived experience effects somebody’s body, mind and perception of the world. If you’ve been homeless, you’ll never feel truly safe again.
“I’ll fill you in on how it happened. I grew up on a council estate in Dorset. My dad was a screw salesman. No one I knew had gone to university – I’m one of 36 cousins and none of us had gone to university.
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“When I was 12, I was at a car boot sale and someone gave me some comedy tapes at the end of the day to get rid of them. It was Victoria Wood, Billy Connolly, Robin Williams, Monty Python and Eddie Izzard’s Live at the Ambassadors. I fell in love. Now they’re all painted on the walls of the pub by a local graffiti artist. My DNA is in this place.
“I did five paper rounds a day, listening to those tapes on repeat. I was an unpopular kid, but learnt these routines by heart and it helped me fit in. Then I started writing jokes. There was a local comedy club and when I was 15, they let me on stage.
“I was offered a gig in Bristol, bunked off school to hitch-hike there, was offered a paid gig in Chippenham. Then got shows in London and got to the final of a competition in Edinburgh. I fell in love with the place.
“I started taking shows to Edinburgh every year, but it costs so much money to pay for accommodation, posters, flyers. I’d work all year to pay off some of the debt, but it was growing. By 2007, I owed £45,000.
“Then I had my first successful Edinburgh after I changed my name by deed poll to Lionel Richie to get publicity. But at the end of that show, I was still in loads of debt… and my name was officially Lionel Richie.
“I went to the Royal Courts of Justice to declare myself bankrupt and had to put my hand on the Bible and say, ‘I, Lionel Richie, do solemnly swear…’ and the court laughed openly. Part of my brain was going, ‘I’m going down well at this gig!’
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“But I was so embarrassed. I didn’t tell anybody. And I had no access to money. I sold jokes for a pound on the street and was dumpster diving for food. I’d spend nights in internet cafes. When you are homeless, the admin is one of the hardest things, and I couldn’t get a job because I didn’t have an address.
“A friend was subletting a flat and there was an abandoned flat next door – I think there had been a murder. So I broke in, replaced the lock and had my own squat near Archway. My friend let me run a cable from her electricity.
“I lived there rent free for 10 months. Now I had an address, got a job in a primary school and saved money for the first time ever. That’s when I started stand-up again.”
So it is that Ferns built Angel Comedy, a righteous, community-spirited, not-for-profit comedy empire.
“I started running a free club. Then it got busy. Soon it was a weekly night, Angel Comedy at the Camden Head, which we started in 2010.
“A few years later, there were queues around the block. It was always free. The manager of the pub told us about this place and we realised, with a Kickstarter campaign, we could take the lease. Now it’s a community venue where we put on more shows and more new comedians than any other comedy club in the country. I see it as an open mic night that got out of hand.
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“We also run free comedy workshops every Sunday, by donation, and a comedy showcase in Edinburgh where we pay the costs and the acts get all the ticket money. I’m proud that this place doesn’t make a profit. It means no one is being ripped off.”
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