Time flew for Hayward as she settled into voice acting, doing things like dubbing Jackie Chan films and Japanese anime into English. Before she knew it, she was a weather presenter on Hong Kong broadcaster TVB’s English-language Pearl channel.
Why Hong Kong’s stand-up comedy scene is no laughing matter
Why Hong Kong’s stand-up comedy scene is no laughing matter
“I was doing a voice-over and I got talking to a guy I regularly worked with. The studios were always freezing and I was sitting there shivering and he was in a T-shirt like it was nothing.
“And I said, ‘Aren’t you cold’? He answered no, because his offices at TVB are cold and he’s used to it. Then I asked, ‘Can you get me a job on TV?’ And he went, ‘Yeah.’ Then he basically set me up with an interview and an audition.”
After a year as a weather presenter and full of confidence, Hayward decided to take her career to London, where the competition was much more fierce.
“I came to London in 2008, where I landed with a thump,” she says. “I was 26, 27 thinking: ‘Hey, I’m the big cheese. You know, I’ve done this. I’ve done that.’ But I hadn’t studied, I hadn’t gone to theatre school and I had no network. I knew nobody in the industry. And yeah, it was b****y hard.
“I shrivelled and there was a period where I was sitting at home watching [British game show] Countdown a lot.”
How comedy legend Michael Hui led the 1970s resurgence of Cantonese films
How comedy legend Michael Hui led the 1970s resurgence of Cantonese films
Eventually she found work and earned plenty of credits in theatre and short films. Then, three Australian self-help books from the 1960s – Yoga for Women, Sex and Yoga and Yoga Over Forty, all by Nancy Phelan and Michael Volin – gave her career a new path.
Inspired by the books, Haywood wrote a one-woman comedy show in which she plays the character of Kath, a woman over 40 who is exploring the 60-year-old books as a physical and wellness aid.
The show – called Yoga & Sex… for women (over 40) – has been causing ripples in the indie comedy scene, receiving very positive reviews. Its second run, at Etcetera Theatre in Camden, London, has just ended. Now Haywood is bringing it to Hong Kong.
The show brings to light that while the science of health, exercise and well-being has made leaps and bounds since the 1960s, attitudes towards the women who practise them have not.
“[Phelan] wasn’t even the yoga teacher, she just liked yoga. There are parts of the book where the tone is, ‘Now that you’re 40, your life’s over, but here are some nice exercises you can do while your husband’s at work.’ The point is, we haven’t moved on, really, in the last 50 years or so.”
The show treads a line between stand-up comedy and theatre. Haywood often calls on audience members to participate.
“You’re laughing all the way through the show and then at the end you’ll see that all these issues are still prominent in everyday life. So sit in the front row – if you dare!”
Yoga & Sex: Kathryn Haywood One Woman Show, January 31, 8pm, TakeOut Comedy Club, 34 Elgin Street, Central. Tickets from HK$108.