Comedian Alison Spittle joined Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss her new show, Big, which she is bringing to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival.
Based on her weight loss journey using prescription injections, the show explores her relationship with her body going back to childhood and how she navigates people’s reactions to her weight now.
"I was going to call it Fat B***h, that's what I was going to call it," she says, clearly thrilled to be cursing on Radio 1. "But, unfortunately, you couldn't put it on a poster."
"It's about being a fat b***h, basically, Brendan," she continues, dryly. "Last year, I got into some health difficulties, and I believe that's known as f-ing around and finding out stage of my life."
On the advice of doctors, Spittle tried to lose weight the "normal way" but struggled to get the results she needed. Eventually, she decided to try weight-loss injections, an experience that inspired much of her new show.
"The best thing about losing weight is now I can catch buses," she deadpans. "Before, buses weren't for me. I was manifesting. I was like, what's meant for me won't pass me."
"The worst about losing weight," she adds, "is that people treat me nicer."
Going back to the beginning, Brendan asked Alison about her relationship with her body.
"I've been fat since I was eight years old," she says, explaining that a lifetime of comments about her weight never once inspired her to become thinner. When told she would have to lose weight to make it in comedy, for example, she became all the more determined to succeed exactly as she was.
When it came to critical comments and verbal abuse, for the most part, the comic found that she could see that the issue fell with others rather than herself.
"If a fella comes up to you in Temple Bar and calls you a fat b***h, he's not doing it out of concern for your health," she says.
Growing up during the Celtic Tiger years, Spittle says that women were constantly being valued on their appearance, whether it be an actress on TV, or an Irish model being photographed walking around town in a bikini.
"I felt by staying fat, I was rebelling against that culture," she muses. "When I wanted to change its because I was unwell and I was scared. And then I realised I couldn't change. Like, that was scary."
Spittle says that her health complications forced her to face her addictive behaviours towards food: "I barely ate because I was hungry, it was always around emotion."
Bed-bound for two weeks, the comic says she "nearly died" during the health scare that led her to research weight loss drugs. Unfortunately, the process wasn't easy, with one doctor telling her that he didn't want her to have "an easy out".
"What does that mean? It means that they don't want a fat person to have it any easier to lose weight. That's associated with punishment," she states.
Eventually, Spittle was given a prescription for Mounjaro, which almost immediately took away the gratification she usually found from eating.
"It's taken the joy out of eating for me, definitely, but that's grand," she says, acknowledging that although the "dopamine" is gone, the reasons why she became addicted to food have yet to be dealt with.
Still in the early days of so much change, she says that coping with how people react to her can be challenging, and getting to know her new body and lifestyle is changing all the time.
One thing she is clear on? No matter her weight, she never waited for life to begin.
Some of her happiest days and most impressive accomplishments happened before weight loss, and she doesn't want to put down that past version of herself.
To listen back to the full interview on RTÉ Radio 1, click on the audio above.
If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines.
