Marcus Brigstocke: I was fourteen when they threatened to wire my jaw shut

This episode includes discussion of sensitive topics, including addiction, that some listeners may find distressing. Please take care while listening, and feel free to pause or step away if you need to.

From a privileged childhood in Surrey to the chaos of addiction, expulsion and eventual recovery, Marcus Brigstocke’s early life was far more turbulent than his public persona might suggest.

In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with the comedian, writer and performer to explore the experiences that shaped him: boarding school at seven, a damaging relationship with food from childhood, and the compulsive behaviours that would later give way to alcohol, drugs and despair while he was still in his teens.

Marcus speaks with extraordinary candour about shame, survival and the long road to recovery, reflecting on the pain of being sent away so young, the sense of being trapped inside patterns he could neither control nor explain, and the intervention that ultimately saved his life before adulthood had properly begun.

They discuss the strange overlap between addiction and comedy, the instant feedback of making people laugh, and the role performance played in helping him endure what was happening offstage. Marcus also reflects on class, masculinity, recovery, parenthood and the double life of a stand-up- thick-skinned and vulnerable, commanding and needy, all at once.

Funny, forensic and deeply moving, this is a conversation about trauma, reinvention and the hard-won joy of becoming the person you might not have lived long enough to meet.

Additional support:

If you've been affected by anything you've heard in this episode, please take a moment to read the resources listed: We Are With You, Change Grow Live, Turning Point

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