Katy Brand has revealed how her new stand up show has been inspired by her teenage years as an evangelical Christian.

Talking to Brian Logan for the Guardian, Katy explains how she spent seven years in “a happy-clappy, charismatic, evangelical church” before becoming disillusioned with religion, aged 20.

At the time she was attending three or four church events every week: “I got involved in the tea-making, I got involved in painting homeless shelters. I was completely in love with the worship bandleader, who was interchangeable in my head with Jesus” Katy says.

She makes an interesting comparison between her own experience and the radicalisation of young people by extremists: “People seem to be amazed that young people are being radicalised at the moment, but I can see exactly why it’s happening. I’m just glad that the religion that got me wasn’t one that required I go around killing people. Maybe if I’d been 13 during the Crusades, it would have been different…”

The revealing, funny interview is well worth reading in full, which you can do here. Heck, even Christian Today have picked it up, so it must be good!

You can see Katy’s new stand up show I Was a Teenage Christian at the Edinburgh Fringe, at The Pleasance, 4.45pm every day (bar a couple of dates) for the whole Festival run in August. Tickets are available over there. Go get!