Chloe Petts
A cheerful reclamation of lad culture from a football-obsessed lesbian.
1 special · 2024
Get an email when there's a new special. You'll need a Google account.
When Chloe Petts walks on stage, she carries the relaxed, broad-shouldered swagger of a regular holding court at a pub. She adopts the cadence of traditional lad culture—loud, amiable, and deeply invested in football. She uses that energy to put the room completely at ease. She treats the audience like friends at a match, employing a light, teasing crowd work that registers as pure affection. When a bit brushes against a tense subject, she maintains an amused, unbothered distance that keeps the atmosphere from tightening.
Specials
-
Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda with Hannah Gadsby, Jes Tom & 5 more
Hannah Gadsby hosts a showcase of seven standout genderqueer comedians.
Netflix · 75 min
On stage
Petts is a fixture of the British live circuit. By combining the familiar rhythms of nineties observational standup with modern material about gender presentation, she manages to make fraught cultural conversations feel entirely ordinary. She regularly plays to large Fringe crowds, earning trust as a comic who can talk about masculinity and internet trolls without bringing the room’s momentum to a halt.
Her material thrives on the friction between how she presents and how the world reacts. She will lay out the sequence of events of being misgendered in a corner shop, or the strange logistics of navigating public restrooms, and drain the anxiety from the situation. She is especially good at poking fun at modern male fragility, finding genuine amusement in men who wear t-shirts broadcasting their feelings. Her bits about her heavily trolled stint as a sports broadcaster demonstrate her primary move: she takes hostility and turns it into a joke about the other person’s weird behavior.
Raised in Kent, Petts spent her teenage years as head girl at an all-girls school, a setting she frequently returns to when outlining the slow, awkward realization of her own identity.
Turning points
-
Co-Founding The LOL Word Collective
Petts co-founded The LOL Word, a collective of queer and non-binary comedians that gained critical praise on the UK circuit.
-
Solo Fringe Debut with Transience
Petts debuted her first full-length stand-up hour Transience at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, establishing her solo career.
-
Global Showcase on Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda
Petts performed as one of seven international genderqueer comedians selected for Hannah Gadsby's Netflix showcase special.
-
Mainstream Breakthrough on Taskmaster Series 22
Petts joined the cast of Channel 4's comedy competition Taskmaster, gaining wider television prominence.
At a glance
Fans also like
-
Ed GamblePetts served as Gamble's longtime UK tour support act and featured him in her BBC Radio 4 series Chloe Petts' Toilet Humour.
-
Hannah GadsbyBoth comedians offer honest stand-up dissecting gender non-conformity and the queer experience, leading to Petts' inclusion in Gadsby's Netflix showcase.
-
Jes Tom
Both comedians appeared on Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda, delivering boundary-pushing stand-up about gender identity and modern queer dating.
Also on screen
- Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda
- Taskmaster
- The Way Out
A clip to start with
Chloe Petts on flirting with men as a butch lesbian | Melbourne International Comedy Festival