Joy Holley’s collection of short fiction Dream Girl published by Te Herenga Waka University Press is an amazing read. I loved talking to Joy about it.

Joy chose as a starting point to talk about laughter and writing the 2022 film Bodies Bodies Bodies. This American black comedy horror film directed by Halina Reijn, in her English-language debut, with a screenplay by Sarah DeLappe from a story by Kristen Roupenian. It stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha'la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson.

I really liked how this conversation concentrated a lot on joy and pleasure which is perhaps something that has been missing from these conversations about comedy.

I also loved talking about the way Joy is reimagining some elements of horror and the surreal.

I have a signed copy of Dream Girl to give away. Simply leave a comment here on Instagram or reply to the story on Twitter by June 11 and I’ll do a draw and send it to the winner.

I think this conversation was quite influenced by an amazing book I’m reading by Nuar Alsadir called Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation. This book is literally changing my life. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s ostensibly about a psychoanalyst who goes to clown school and investigates humour in an incredibly inciteful way. The book is also making me feel a bit stupid, so many of the things I say that I think are profound are all described here as the stock and trade of psychoanalysis.