As a fan of comedy, Barnes ran comedy nights in Brighton. In the summer of 2008, her father died, who was an important influence on her comedy and had always encouraged her to become a comedian. A year after his death, she decided that life was too short not to pursue it as a career. She did a 12-week workshop in Brighton and a few months later started her stage career. Since winning the BBC Radio 2's New Comedy Award 2011, Barnes has continued to be a regular on the stand-up circuit, playing even bigger venues. She has also appeared on Weekend Wogan's Children in Need Special and Russell Kane's Whistlestop Tour for Radio 2, written for Radio 4's The News Quiz, played on Eddie Izzard's Laughs in the Park on BBC Two, appeared on Russell Howard's Good News on BBC Three, developed her own series with BBC Radio Comedy, and performed at the Latitude Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park. In June 2013, Barnes became noted for an article in The Guardian that followed a blog post she had written, where she spoke about how she felt society treated people deemed ugly and her feelings as someone who self-identified as such. She returned to the subject in 2015 as the subject of her Edinburgh Fringe Show "Come As You Are" In November 2013, Barnes joined the cast of the topical show Stand Up for the Week and, in February 2014, appeared on Radio 4's The Now Show. In November 2014 she appeared on Radio 4's The News Quiz and has become a regular panellist. She has appeared on Mock the Week on BBC Two and Dave's As Yet Untitled alongside Alan Davies, Janet Street-Porter and Michael Ball and in mid-2016 toured New Zealand. Between 2017 and 2018, she was the host of the showNewsjack broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra. In 2017, as part of her show in the Edinburgh fringe, "Fortitude", she performed a gig in a nuclear bunker at Anstruther. In January 2018 she appeared on Live at the Apollo and started to tour "Fortitude" which is about turning 40, being child free , and nuclear bunkers. In September 2018 she was able to pay tribute to her comedy hero, the late Linda Smith at a gala to raise money to fight ovarian cancer, from which Smith died. In December 2018 Barnes was named as one of the hardest working comedians of 2018 having driven 30,000 miles, visited 91 venues and performed over 100 shows. After hosting an episode of The News Quiz in September 2019, she hosted a series in spring 2020, with Andy Zaltzman and Nish Kumar hosting the other two series in 2020
Series
''You Can't Take It With You''
Barnes's stand-up series on BBC Radio 4 was based on her critically acclaimed début show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014, You Can't Take It With You. The show covers important topics such as life, love, family, work and death. The four-episode series is in part a tribute to her characterful late father, who was a sex shop manager, naturist, swinger and an enthusiast for caravans and pranks, and a major influence on Barnes. He taught her a carpe diem approach to life, and the show takes its name from his motto.This ran for two series, in 2016 and 2019
Following the violent murder of Australian comedian Eurydice Dixon, Barnes led the setting up of The Home Safe Collective, a free cab service for comedians at the Edinburgh festival who are members of vulnerable groups to ensure they get home safe from gigs. The scheme won the 2018 panel prize award at the Edinburgh comedy awards.
