Welcome back to It Pays the Bills! Today’s guest is Marnie Yule, an outstanding singer and actor who is pretty constantly making everyone around them laugh. We got to chat with them about their current day job - the not-so-dreaded 9-to-5 - plus some colorful previous jobs to boot!
A bit about Marnie:
Marnie is a singer, actor and strong mover based in London. After training at Mountview they have performed in the holy trinity of acting roles: A pantomime, a cruise ship and a commercial for Durex. When they are not binge-watching improv comedy on YouTube, they’re listening to some form of podcast recorded by improv comedians.
In the condensed transcript below, I’ve italicized my questions and comments. Paid subscribers will receive a bonus edition next week, Perks of the Job. Enjoy!
So to start off, do you want to introduce yourself a bit?
These are these moments where it's like people should have like a rehearsed kind of thing that they normally say. But yeah, I am Marnie I'm an actor, performer. Started acting a little bit later in life than planned and, you know, trying to figure it out. Trying to like find a good pattern to exist in London at the moment. Yeah, gay Scottish actor. That’s pretty much it!
What would you say your creative pursuit is? Acting, anything else? You're a musician as well.
I am. I'm awful at practicing, but yes, I am. I would say probably the thing I tend to practice, I guess, I do the most would be singing stuff. That's the thing that I just wish I could be doing at all times. Grand dreams of actually writing something and creating something yet to come to fruition.
Same with like getting better at my instruments and stuff. Still very angry at the piano teacher who refused to teach me piano when I was 10 because she said I didn't have rhythm. She made us do a little clapping exercise, I apparently didn't do good enough, so that's how I ended up playing the trumpet and then the french horn. And both the people who learned piano gave up.
So you play multiple, as you say, you play trumpet, you play...
I bailed on trumpet. Well, I didn't bail. My teacher suggested because she was like, you might be better at this one because French horn is left-handed.
So I play the French horn. I play the guitar. I did those lessons out of school because my dad was in a band and stuff and he really wanted me to learn guitar. So I started learning that when I was quite young and I would get private lessons with this dude and he worked as the microwave chef in a Wetherspoons and he would tell me all about going to Glastonbury and doing bongo circles and stuff. And I would be like, can you teach me how to play Mama I'm a Big Girl Now from Hairspray? That or songs from the Twilight soundtrack. And he would be like, okay.
But yeah, those two are kind of the main ones. I do hoard them. I get periods where I'm like, I'm going to learn this instrument. So I think I have, I mean, I can play ukulele, but anyone who lived through 2009 also can play ukulele. I bought a banjolele lately, which is just a ukulele with the body of a banjo.
I also bought a lyre. Then I found out you had to tune it with a crank. It's that old-timey. I was like, I'm going to learn this, and I'm going to make so much use out of it. And it lives in the cupboard of delicate instruments of old, unlike my guitars, which sit out completely unused.
So how did you get into performing?
Well, my parents put me in dance when I was, like, two. So I did that up to the age of, like, ten. And then I actually saw an ad for Stagecoach. It's one of those, like, Saturday music theater skills. I saw an ad for, like, a summer school for that when I was, like, ten. So I went to the summer school and I was hooked.
And then I ignored it. I was like I'm going to study physics because that seems like a sensible choice. It was not a sensible choice. And then I found the musical theatre society of my uni, that society has a notorious reputation for ruining people's degrees and having them go to Mountview.
But literally I remember having a meeting with my advisor for physics and she was like, Marnie, you have to choose. And I was like, no. I was like, I can still do it.
I could not do it. I only cared about the musical theatre society and all the amdram in Glasgow. So then when I dropped out, I was like, I'm going to apply for postgrads for musical theatre. And then I somehow got in, which was deeply surprising to me. But then here we are.
So then what made you want to do the physics?
It's that thing where you just are taught that it's like you grow up, you get a degree, you get married, yada, yada, yada. I was good at physics at the time when you were applying for universities. It was the science that I really liked. And I liked sciences because it was really easy to find an answer. I actually didn't really like creative classes in school, which is funny, because I wanted to excel. I wanted to get high marks and you could not guarantee high marks with English or like art and stuff. But when it was like a technical skill where you knew the answer was right or wrong, I found that very satisfying.
But it just turns out physics is actually really hard and it's a difficult degree to do half-heartedly.
I always say I blame the Big Bang Theory. It was very big in the era of when we were applying for universities. And I remember I would do my art stuff while binge watching my DVDs of the Big Bang Theory. And I think I just wanted to be an actor. I think that show tricked me. It made it seem like it would be a lot more fun and quirky and cool and didn't talk about how much maths I would have to do.
So what's your current day job?
Currently, I work, I guess the technical term, I'm a software tester. Remember during lockdown there was that that really controversial poster of the ballerina - like train in tech? I was unemployed for long enough that I was like, yes. But it was one of the free boot camps that they do to like fill spaces in tech. So I did that and it requires you - because it's like free on the government it requires you to get a job - so this is the one that I found myself in. And I reluctantly realized that I thrive and do really well with really strong structure.
It's a hard thing with acting, to have that be your thing. But like an established schedule really, really like helps me exist.
But I had to call my agent obviously to tell him like, hey, I can't like take any big acting job at the moment. And the thing about acting where you like desperately feel like you have to say yes to everything, especially for us because we graduated immediately, got locked down. So we already felt kind of like locked out of the industry kind of from the get-go unless you were like someone who managed to get a job. So like when we got out, I was like, oh, I have to say yes to everything. Otherwise my agent will drop me.
No one had told me that. I was saying yes to everything. Which is why I kept the customer service job for so long, because of the flexibility of it. And I was like, I need to keep this job that drains me immensely just to keep the flexibility of a zero-hour contract. And it really just took it out of me.
So I was calling my agent like, he’s going to drop me. I was crying. And it was so funny because he was in his office. Like, I love my agent. Steps was playing in the background. So I could hear Steps quietly in the background and he was like, Marnie, I have clients that have kids. It's okay to say no to things.
What have your previous day jobs been?
Sports Direct. This was pre-acting. I did it briefly at university. I mean, it's retail, you know? People who do retail will be able to regale you. It's like a five floor Sports Direct in Glasgow. I worked on the men's floor, sort of like rearranging trackies and stuff. It was horrible. Just not the job at all. Like zero flexibility, I would say. And I quit that very, very quickly.
I was also briefly, actually, I would say, I don't know if this one was worse than Sports Direct or not. You know when you're like walking down the street and it's usually at the moment in London, it's like outside tube station. Someone comes up to you and tries to get you into a conversation to start donating to a charity or something. Direct marketing.
It was crazy. They made you keep track of if you got someone to look at you, if you got someone to walk towards you, if you got someone talking. You had to like keep tally marks of that so you could track how good you were at getting someone to come and talk to you. And you had like a rehearsed pitch that you had to do over and over again.
And I did it maybe for like three weeks. I would cry every morning because I hated it so much. I remember one day on the way to the place we were going, because we would carry, the big roller banner, all the stuff to, like, set up a little panel in, like, a WH Smith in Govan or something. And I fell over really hard and I, like, ripped my knee open. We got to the place we set up and I started getting really dizzy.
Not from the blood loss!
I was like, I need to go to the Boots and get something to cover my knee. And the guy was like, okay, whatever. So then I went to the Boots and I was like drowsily like browsing through the bandages and stuff. And they took me into the little room in the Boots and the person was like, I'll first aid you. So then the person like bandaged me up gave me stuff and I was like I have to go home. And [the guy] was like nasty to me about it. And then I was like, I have to quit.
The guy who owned it was really chill because it was, I would hesitate to say, pyramid scheme-esque. But it was one of those jobs that was like, the way they described it was shaped like a pyramid. And they were like, it's not a pyramid scheme. They had to say that to me. That's an indication that it is a pyramid scheme.
So like when I quit, he simply could not have cared less. So then I ended up applying to be like a Christmas temp at the Glasgow Theatre, which is the same company that I worked for in London. They own a bunch of the regional theaters. And then I did that, and it was just so, so much better. I think maybe that's why I did Front of House so long, because my bar was so low.
Do you have any advice for anybody who's looking to go into a creative industry?
It's your life. In that it's so easy to fall into whatever the industry pushes on you. Because you want to do it so badly. That's why we all do this. Because we just want to perform so badly. People are very lucky when they get to do exactly what they want as the thing that makes them money. And it's entirely luck-based.
So as much as you do always want to like keep your name in the sort of like pile of things that could get pulled, you can't exclusively do that. Because if you're just constantly throwing your name in, then what are you doing with yourself.
It’s about finding the balance. Like if you find a job that you're like, oh this is ideal, and it's really straining you, then it's not ideal. Don't ever feel guilty for saying no to things. You don't want to like get to a certain point in your life and realize that none of it's been for you.
Do you have a creative dream?
I would just love to simply write one song and commit to it. I don't know if there's anything specific or sprawling, but I would just really like to make something that is musical and that is funny.
Because on the internet, I'm very in tune to all the creative stuff that internet creators who do similar things to that put out. And I just love when people create things that are able to resonate with other people.
So I would say my creative dream would be to create something that provides people escapism whilst also feeling like something that they can understand. And they're like, I'm so glad that's been articulated.
Do you have a dream day job?
Ooh, I don't really know. I guess it would definitely be like nine to five-y. Flexible, of course.
The way I just never think about what I might want. This is a lesson for everyone. About taking time for yourself and thinking about what you want.
I would love to be one of those people who works in an art studio regularly creating stuff that other people have dictated. People who do stamps and stuff. They work in an art studio where they produce. A little pottery studio or something.
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