Women Set World Record With Stand-Up Act At Mount Everest Base Camp

With more than 500 live performances and 250 podcast episodes under their belt, the 'The Scummy Mummies', as they are popularly called, performed their gig as a fundraising campaign

You must have heard about people scaling Mount Everest and unfurling the national flag. But have you ever come across somebody doing a stand-up comedy at the highest peak of the world? Yes, you heard that right. Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn in March 2023 performed a stand-up show at the Everest base camp that stands at an elevation of 5,364 m (17,598 ft). They were, however, accorded the world record for the highest altitude standup comedy gig on July 5 by Guinness World Records (GWR).

With more than 500 live performances and 250 podcast episodes under their belt, the 'The Scummy Mummies', as they are popularly called, performed their gig as a fundraising campaign for Borne UK, a charity that researches premature births and supports such families.

To mark the 10th anniversary as a comedy double, the Scummy Mummies decided to try something amazing: they headed to Mount Everest to perform the highest stand-up comedy gig on land ever.

The women donned golden catsuits with grey and black stripes on it and used golden mics to perform the 32-minute comedy set for an audience of over 30 people that constituted of Everest climbers and expedition company staff.

"Trying to do comedy at minus 15 degrees conditions when you’ve had very little sleep and suffered from altitude sickness is tough," Ellie told GWR.

To prepare for the record, the duo exercised and went trekking and swimming to make sure they could go through the 10-day trek to the Everest base camp.

“For this trek, I did barre fitness, swimming, and spent a lot of time on the stair stepper at the gym,” said Ellie to GMR.

"We also did a practice 100-mile hike in May 2022, walking through the Lake District and Yorkshire," she added.