F E S T I VA L C O M E DY | Shappi Khorsandi
A survivor of the often brutal comedy circuit in the 1990s, Shappi Khorsandi has a new show all about those crazy old days. Ahead of her run, she tells Murray Robertson about humanism, chips and Farage
‘Hardly
anyone goes on stage naked now’
52 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2019
Hi Shappi. What’s your new show about? It’s a love letter to the comedy circuit. I talk about why I got the compulsion to be a comedian (and it is a compulsion; if I could be passionate about accounting I’d say that would be a safer career option) and I talk about how rubbish I am at playing ‘the game’. How has the comedy landscape changed since you started out in the 90s? Back then you had ‘made it’ when you were playing the big clubs regularly. It was all about the circuit which was old- school vaudeville with bonkers characters and a punk attitude. Now, though, it’s all much more sensible. New comics are dead professional from the get-go and hardly anyone goes on stage naked now.
When was your first Edinburgh Fringe and what was it like? I did a three-hander with Russell Brand and Mark Felgate in 2000 or 2001. It was a stupid amount of fun. I ran around the city seeing as many shows as I possibly could and I blagged drinks and tickets using only lip gloss and a zest for life. When I’m there, I still feel that there’s no place on earth that I’d rather be or that has better chips at 4am. Did you enjoy your hiatus, skipping the Fringe last year? Yes!!! It was the most amazing summer ever. I didn’t shout at my children once and I saw friends who didn’t thrust a review in my face and cry ‘three stars?!’ I came to the Fringe for a few days as a punter. It’s always been my dream to swan around the city singing ‘I’m just here to watch some shows’ to performers who are grey with malnutrition and lack of sleep.
What was it like being president of the Humanist Society and how do you see the future of humanism? It was a lot of fun and I felt very grown-up giving talks, and meeting lots of very brilliant and interesting people. I want humanism to be a part of the curriculum in schools alongside learning about faiths. Despite vociferously defending rape threats from fellow right-wing political candidates as ‘comedy’, Nigel Farage seems to have recently become very sensitive to jokes by Jo Brand and Matt Berry. Has Brexit changed the comedic discourse? Oh blimey. Everything has become so contentious hasn’t it? I don’t think Farage will ever be my go-to guy when I want opinions on comedy.
Is there some material that you’d now think twice about performing in light of how humour is currently perceived? Certainly not at a live gig. That ‘rape joke guy’ is not a comic. A comic works a crowd, takes risks, reads an audience, and sometimes offends or misfires a gag. You can’t just walk around being an appalling bastard and say ‘but I’m a comic!’ Let him do his rape jokes on a Saturday night in front of a live audience that he hasn’t handpicked himself and we’ll see how well they go down.
It’s been three years since your debut novel, Nina Is Not OK. Can we expect a follow-up soon? I’m writing two new books: one novel and one not, and I can’t talk about either yet which is frustrating as showing off is something I enjoy. What are you up to next? I’m writing a play of Nina Is Not OK and I have a book deadline in November, so I’d better get on. See you at the Fringe!
Shappi Khorsandi: Skittish Warrior . . . Confessions of a Club Comic, The Stand, 4–10 Aug, 1.40pm, £12 (£10). In Conversation with . . . Shappi Khorsandi, The Stand’s New Town Theatre, 10 Aug, noon, £12.50.