The Guilty Feminist · Deborah Frances-White

The Guilty Feminist 476. Ten for Ten #8: Celia Pacquola

March 30, 2026·58 min·4 clips

Comedian Celia Pacquola destroys the 'crazy cat lady' stereotype with brilliant feminist logic.

A memory opens the door. The conversation returns to a London show where the guest talked about pregnancy, career fear, and the strange promise that motherhood might turn her into someone else. It starts funny and then gets softer. She admits she did not know whether she would make it back to stand-up, or what life would look like once the baby arrived. The scale catches up with her later. That gig may have been one of the biggest rooms she had played, and possibly one of her last before giving birth. Then she finds a better regret. David Tennant could have been invited, and she treats that as a proper missed chance, not a minor detail. The callback has bite because the old joke was so tidy: she was carrying a little feminist, even down to the ultrasound detail placing the baby on the left. Real life is messier. Her daughter is three, growing fast, rough enough to scramble assumptions, and also very into princesses and pink. The guest does not flatten that into a lesson. She hopes the princess phase is somehow ironic or non gender conforming, which is exactly the kind of hopeful feminist bargaining the show knows how to tease. The laugh has a point. This is about what happens when politics meets children, bodies, careers, and personality. Nobody turns it into a lecture. The host nudges, the guest answers, and the warmth comes from letting the contradiction sit there. Around it, the feed still sounds like a live show: a Cardiff Welsh election emergency special plug, some trailer noise, and the usual edges. The centre is the guest comparing who she thought motherhood might make her with who she still is.

As heard by us

Celia Pacquola makes motherhood, stand-up anxiety, and tiny feminist expectations feel warm, sharp, and properly funny.

Celia Pacquola is at her best here on the brutal little fantasy that parenthood will make you wiser, calmer, and above career panic. It does not, apparently.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a live Cardiff election special with Carol Vorderman, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Priya Hall, and a political edge.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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