Comedy with an Accent (Kuan-wen Huang)

In the second part of interview with Radu, the chat wandered off at times to include the funny geopolitical situation of Romania and how that gets reflected in Radu's comedy. Kuan-wen also delved deeper into the mechanics of Radu's voice and tone and how those embody Radu's comedy style and his worldview.

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Radu's Instagram (@radu70mld)

Radu's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show "Pandemic"

If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

It is not uncommon to name boys after the Norse hammer-wielding god in Norway, but it is a bit weird to use Thor as the first name but also "Odin" (Thor's father in mythology) as the middle name. It does not help that the image of Thor is hijacked by Aussie beefcake Chris Hemsworth, when our second guest of the podcast looks more like a member of a tattoo-free 90s boyband.

[The distorted sound has been fixed]

Thor and Kuan-wen talk about how some other comics feel they have the free pass to mimic and mock his accent and why he thinks he should be OK with it (Should he?); how he was heckled with "Ja Ja Ding Dong" and a new layer of Norwegian identity is added to him after he left Norway for the UK.

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Notes for international / non-UK listeners:

A Scouse accent is used to describe how people in Liverpool (Northwest England) speak. Thor did not have much of a Scouse accent, but the way he pronounces "Liverpool" shows the influence of Scouse accent. Thor studied in Liverpool. Drag Race UK season 1 winner, The Vivienne, currently on Drag Race All Stars 7, speaks with a Scouse accent on the programme. As for British comedians, John Bishop and Paul Smith are typical examples of Scouser comedians who are household names..

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram and email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline:

00:40 Intro

01:00 All about the name - Thor Odin Stenhaug

04:37 Thor's Norwegian accent ("Big Summer Blowout!" from Frozen)

05:47 Other comics mimic and mock Thor's accent

09:11 Where "Scousers" got their name from

09:37 Viking rebranding and Hygge

10:24 A layer of identity as "Norwegian" living in the UK

11:40 Scandinavian vs Nordic countries

12:38 Eurovision movie and Ja Ja Ding Dong

13:36 Movie/TV castings that are not accurate (Crazy Rich Asians, Marvel movies)

16:08 For Norwegian people, Thor sounds British

17:43 Tag questions and the use of "innit!?"

18:37 Thor pretended to be English for American tourists

19:30 Is Thor's accent strong?

20:55 Should a foreign comedian ensure every single word they say is understood?

23:23 Thor not putting on a thicker accent impersonating his dad

26:30 "Your English is a lot better than my Norwegian"

28:16 Authenticity on stage

29:23 Being Norwegian - kind of foreign but not too foreign

32:35 Thor's social media

Thor's Instagram (@Thortellsjokes)

Thor and Freya's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe show

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram (@kuanwencomedy) or Twitter (@kuanwen_huang)

Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

https://www.instagram.com/taigenkawabe/

Marjolein Robertson is a Shetlandic comedian, actor and storyteller. She was Scots Speaker of the Year in 2022, ranked number three in The List’s Hot 100 as one of the top Scottish cultural contributors. Hey 2023 Edinburgh Fringe show “Marj” also received award nominations and was one of the best reviewed show at the Fringe. Technically, Marjolein is this podcast’s second guest from Scotland, but same with every other island, Shetlanders see themselves as Shetlanders first and Scottish second.

The interview largely revolves the concept of “knapping”. The verb “to knap” for Shetlanders means to change the way you speak to accommodate the listener, as you do not expect the listener would understand your original way of talking. It is an equivalent to code-switching, but the process is probably more automatic when a Shetlander meets a non-Shetlander. It explains Marjolein’s accent shift as she performs and gets interviewed down south.

We also talk about how Marjolein weaves Shetland folktales into her comedy and takes advantage of general audience’s ignorance when it comes to her native island.

This is probably the episode with the densest discussion on linguistics and cultural identity to date; it is therefore slightly longer.

Marjolein is performing at Edinburgh Fringe this year! Her new show “O” is at Monkey Barrel The Hive at 17:40 daily (except Aug 12th). Reserve your tickets here.

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Follow Marjolein on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:48 Intro

03:10 On Shetland and islanders’ identities

06:34 How Shetland is indicated on a map

09:41 Marjolein’s comedy CV & her Wikipedia page

11:34 “Knapping” - a Shetlandic word meaning changing one’s way of speaking to make oneself better understand for the other person

15:51 Marjolein’s “American voice” v “Shetland voice”

18:48 How Marjolein’s accent shits on stage

21:40 New movement in Shetland - the “No Knapping” badge———

25:15 Shetland’s extinct old tongue “Norn”

26:53 “Scots” as a language tangled with Scottish independence

28:53 How A Faroese man - Jakob Jacobsen - helped preserve evidence of the old Norm language

30:37 Audience in England knows Shetland even less than Scottish audience

33:04 Marjolein plays with people’s ignorance when it comes to Shetland

38:50 On her Shetlandic not being “broad” enough for some fellow Shetland’s

46:29 A Storyteller

52:44 Marjolein’s 2024 Edinburgh Fringe show “O”

54:31 A poem in Shetlandic

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

This is a special episode recorded in Mandarin with our Chinese guest Jamie Wang from last week. For the non-Mandarin-speaking guests, our regular episode in English will be updated next Tuesday April 9th at 7am. （It's the normally bi-weekly schedule so this bonus episode does not come at the expense of regular English episodes！）

延續上一集，本節目特別用中文額外錄製一段主持人 Kuan-wen 與來自上海的表演人 Jamie Wang 訪談內容。Jamie 回顧自己如何站上舞台開始表演單口喜劇，又為何偏好透過英文表演。Jamie 也談到語言特性以及就喜劇的節奏和喜感，台灣所用中文與中國所用中文間的區別。

另外本集也未通篇針對喜劇討論，Jamie 在聊的過程中分享在台身為陸生/中國學生一點心得、台灣人基於媒體塑造形象對中國人可能偏扁平化的認知。

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在 IG 上訂閱追蹤本集來賓 Jamie

在 IG 上訂閱追蹤主持人 Kuan-wen

在 IG 上訂閱追蹤本節目 Comedy with an Accent

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

One of the fastest rising stars selling out venues across European cities, Sri Lankan born Vidura spent his childhood, his teenage years and his young adulthood in small chunks of time in different countries, Vidura is a globe-trotter. To him, Berlin sometime feels more like home than Colombo.

In the final episode of the first season of this podcast, Vidura is our perfect guest to illustrate how conventional definitions of "homeland", "mother tongue" no longer make senses to the globally mobile young population. An accent that cannot be easily located.

Having lived in the United States and reading mostly in English, at times Vidura feels like English is more like his most fluent language, similar to lots of young immigrants who move to big cities for a brighter future, better career and a fun life, Unsurprisingly, these are also the bulk of Vidura's dedicated audience.

A thinker and a prolific reader, Vidura sheds light on his cultural commentary approach to comedy and why he only write jokes that he has emotional attachments to or from ideas he has been mulling over in his head.

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Follow Vidura on Instagram and his website

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:54 Intro

02:45 The infamous Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka (no relations to Vidura)

04:02 Vidura’s weird mixed/ Netflix accent

05:37 Sinhala and other languages in Sri Lanka

06:59 Moving between USA and Sri Lanka and Vidura’s first language

10:46 Do British people ask Vidura about his accent?

12:31 Vidura’s audience’s profile

13:49 Vidura’s unique perspective because of his life journey

15:16 Too foreign to be a Sri Lankan

17:40 Wanting to leave Sri Lanka

19:54 More on Vidura’s connection with Sri Lanka and Colombo

22:47 Berlin feels like home

23:57 Not tailoring material too much

26:18 View on South Asian comedians doing the “accents”

29:24 Cult leader look and chilled energy

31:02 Only talk about things he actually cares about

34:38 A habit of reading

35:17 British people trying to seem smart

36:30 Vidura’s way wit words

39:51 Telling jokes as minority/an immigrant

43:26 Vidura’s high-quality video clips on Instagram

46:38 Vidura’s website and social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Gino Christofaro is the podcast’s first guest whose home city is not indicated in the episode title. He simply cannot name one.

Being an embassy kid, Gino never had a childhood home like many of us do.

Gino has been featured on Comedy Central Germany’s Roast Battle and is a now TV writer in both English and German for Comedy Central, ZDF, Paramount+ and Amazon.

Born in São Paolo, Brazil, Gino was brought “back” to Bonn, Germany then moved with his parents to Saudi Arabia, Argentina…. just to name a few. Not in once place has Gino stayed for more than three years. He had one year to make good friends, another year to enjoy the friendships only to lose those friends later. Now Berlin-based, Gino identifies more with New York that dominated his childhood TV and where he started performing (but he is not even an American to call NYC home).

A running gag in this interview is how Gino pays so much attention to his hairs, which your host mocks as a “First World Problem”. But the hair issue runs deep and reflects the childhood anxiety of a constant outsider always trying to fit in a new environment. The “embassy kid” journey forged Gino’s unique cadence in his mother tongue and influenced his approach to stand up comedy and to the audience.

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Gino is going on tour in April! Check out Gino’s shows here

Follow Gino on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:42 Intro

02:16 What is his name “Gino” short for?

03:11 A German Brazilian (of Italian descent)

05:54 A New York English accent and a “weird” German accent

08:13 Gino’s hair issues (one key theme throughout the interview)

10:18 On Gino’s Jersey/New York accent again

10:52 A little rant on Little Italy, Italian New Yorkers, Albanians

14:25 Why Gino was constantly during his childhood

16:15 On Gino’s hair issues again

18:57 Where does Gino consider to be home? Berlin or New York?

20:17 An identity-less guy, a German perceived to be faking American

22:31 Identity-less or little traits of all different places?

26:06 How much does Gino have to explain his identity at the start of his comedy set?

28:26 Gino’s German-ness questioned

29:27 A comedian’s attire and audience’s expectation

32:03 From anxious comic to not caring about what people think

39:20 Sadness and depression and how it’s reflected in his comedy (and social media)

45:23 The German (language) comedy scene

47:21 What Gino represents as an English comedy performer

52:27 Does liberal Berlin give Gino a false sense of comfort?

54:20 Gino’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Radu is the type of performer that is regarded by many fellow comics as a comedian's comedian.

He not only wins over audiences at comedy clubs, his contrarian approach often involves him throwing out ideas and notions that challenge the audiences' worldview. As he lays out his arguments, the unthinkable suddenly becomes so convincing for the audience and then chuckles come along. Radu's comedy is not just funny - it also makes you think. All these are achieved without Radu having to resort to stereotyping his home country.

In the first part of the interview, Radu talks about how he has always been aware that he has an accent either in USA or in the UK, or even back in Romania.

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Radu's Instagram (@radu70mld)

Radu's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show "Pandemic"

If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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Episode timeline

00:40 Intro

01:20 Radu in the final of "English Comedian of the Year" competition

04:11 Radu now being aware of his accent when he speaks English - most Romanian people not being aware of their accents

06:37 Radu is used to being seen as someone who has an accent - even when he speaks Romanian

08:32 Radu makes reference to his accent at the start of his comedy set

10:49 How to pronounce "Radu Isac" in Romanian

12:20 Radu's distinct personal way of speaking (The meerkat commercial)

15:55 How Radu's accent adds comedic effect but also boxes him in at the same time

17:14 A random chat on Ping Pong and Olympic sport categories

18:12 Radu considers his accent strong (but not as strong as it used to be)

18:53 The English-speaking muscle that gets tired after a while on a given day

20:37 Making fun of Grammar Nazis

22:45 Describing one's own home town as a shit hole.

23:20 Kuan-wen's comedy routine that is based on a cartoon-ish worldview to cater for the British audience

25:10 Radu refrains himself from reinforcing Romanian stereotypes performing to British audiences

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! The first episode in 2023 took your host to the Land of Song on the British isles - Wales. Steffan, more often in his Welsh tongue, is a Radio host, TV presenter and household name in his native Wales. Steffan also performs throughout the UK in English, a language he only became fluent in his teens.

The Swansea native's love for his culture and his langue is evident throughout this interview.

Steffan shared how he thinks in Welsh, how his skills at translating between the English and the Welsh languages help him deal with occasional glitches on stage and why he is fed up with lazy jokes about the Welsh language. So fed up is he that he wrote a whole show mocking the English language - those lazy "jokes" are not about Welsh but simply about a language you don't know.

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Follow Steffan on twitter, Instagram or join his Facebook group

Steffan's Rats in Boilersuits: The Torchwood Podcast

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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Kuan-wen mentioned a set from the Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert and the Welsh singer Browen Lewis.

If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review.

For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:50 Intro

02:09 Rhod Gilbert’s comedy portrayal of Cardiff

02:51 Growing up copying the Received Pronunciation accent; English fluency only in his teens

07:48 Thinking in Welsh; mastery over English as second language

11:09 Occasional glitches

12:55 Autism and accents

15:04 When the comic forgets a specific English word

16:33 Translating skills (The Welsh Language Act 1993)

18:59 An example of a glitch

20:57 Just admit you forget the word

22:53 Tougher gigs to perform to Welsh audience

30:28 Less stereotypes and more nuances for home crowds?

32:28 Audience shouted Sheepshagger

34:04 Accessibility to home culture and mother tongue

39:23 First show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival was secretly about languages

45:00 Battles to save the Welsh language

46:16 What is a microwave in Welsh?

46:53 Steffan’s social media and podcast

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Describing her accent as “a beautiful mess”, comedian Micky Overman’s show “The Recipe” was amongst the best reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. The excellent show is now free for viewing on Micky’s Youtube channel and forms the basis of this interview.

Micky has one of those accents of a proficient non-native English speaker that not everyone can work out what her mother tongue is. Despite this, unsolicited advice still found its way to Micky, that she should play up her foreignness and even present herself as a Dutch cliché on stage.

Except it is clear to Micky she does comedy for herself and wants to be herself performing comedy rather than a caricature. Micky was fed up with notion that a person could be largely definite merely by their nationality, she even wrote a show to mock this idea in 2018.

But Micky’s latest critically acclaimed show does quite the opposite. “The Precipice” has little to do with her being Dutch. It has to do with her thinking about mental health, motherhood amongst other subjects that most other millennials would be wondering. The writing is sharp; the humour is universal.

Watch Micky’s show “The Precipice”

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Follow Micky on Instagram

Micky will perform at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 with a new show “Hold On”. July 30th to Aug 25th (no Aug 13th) daily at Monkey Barrel The Tron at 5:50. For Tickets, click here.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:43 First Impression of Micky’s accent

02:19 Intro

05:35 Everyone interprets Micky’s accent differently

07:40 Micky’s accent shifts based on the people she talks to

08:35 Micky’s opting for British pronunciation in her comedy sets for jokes to land

10:38 Deliberately mispronouncing words to make them funnier

12:55 Why would someone pretend to be Dutch? On national stereotypes

15:55 Foreign comedians SHOULD use their “otherness”?

21:11 Practicing not to over-introduce herself in the 2023 show

25:07 Micky in English not having the same perceptions by others when speaking Dutch

26:38 Micky’s critically acclaimed 2023 show “Precipice”: her worldview through how the jokes were structured

28:22 Micky’d turns of phrase

30:48 Show not tell; trust your audience and do not talk them down

33:23 Comedy writing as music

34:02 Enjoying being dumb, not taking herself too seriously

35:36 Micky performed in a deadpan style at the very beginning

37:14 Micky’s 2023 show Precipice on Youtube

37:25 Micky at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Comedy with an Accent is back! Sorry for the prolonged break but we are back with another fun season, First episode will be out at 7am (GMT) on Tuesday 12 March. See you then!

Evelyn Mok is well known for being the former co-host of the (now retired) Rice to Meet You Podcast and the creative mind behind multiple popular sketches. The Swedish native is also one of the highest-profile comedian of East Asian heritage in the UK, who now spends her time between both countries.

Evelyn talked about how the feeling of being "other'ed in Sweden in her childhood prompted her to mimic a near perfect American accent as an escape. She also shared the cadence employed earlier in her comedy career - partially a remnant of getting out of a stage character and partially her understanding at that time of how funny should sound like.

This episode also includes Evelyn's reflection on her relationship between stand up (more specifically doing stand up in the UK) and depression and why it can be a complex mix. She has prioritised taking care of her own mental health and is now a in better place again to pursue her love for stand up.

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Follow Evelyn on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review.

For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:48 Intro (& some chitchat)

05:19 Where did Evelyn’s get her near perfect American accent from and why was young Evelyn determined to mimic the American accent?

08:45 Why ethnic minority immigrants are more likely to try stand up comedy

09:55 Can Evelyn’s American accent fool native speakers?

11:05 When Evelyn’s Swedish sound slips

13:00 Different Nordic sounds and stereotypes (inc. some Eurovision chat)

16:54 Evelyn might not have to explain her accent but needs to address her background - because of her ethinicty - if she wants to mention Sweden

21:25 Evelyn’s old “cadence” - the way Evelyn used to speak on stage - and the character she used to employ

24:58 How “Funny” sounded to Evelyn

30:21 Depression; how it affected Evelyn’s stand up

33:12 From a character to a stage persona to finally be her true self

37:44 Evelyn can only manage this American accent

41:07 Is Evelyn more fluent in English than in her native Cantonese?

41:52 Re-discovering her Swedishness and Asianness -

45:15 Looking back on a therapy like—episode

47:27 Evelyn’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Baby comic Jin Hao Li is still studying at the University of St Andrews, but he already amassed a remarkable win at the legendary Comedy Store Gong Show in London and got through to the final of Chortle Student Comedy Award this year; A fellow veteran comedian described him as "You are a baby who is walking - but you are not supposed to!"

The Singaporean comedy prodigy explains in this episode why he does not carry the usual sound of Southern Chinese dialects like many fellow Singaporeans do. Jin Hao talks about code switching and how his Singlish is only revealed with boys back home.

Even though he adores Singlish and Singlish humour, he is just unable to perform his surreal style of comedy in the Singlish accent and retains instead this "privileged international student" accent.

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Follow Jin Hao on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:53 Intro

05:03 An Atypical Chinese Singaporean who does not have a dialect

08:12 Singlish accent v privileged international student accent

10:55 White British putting on a “Black-ent”

13:17 Learning English through Coca-Cola-lisation

18:22 Chinese Singaporeans preferring a separate label from Mainland Chineses

19:49 Chinese Singaporeans with Southern Chinese heritage (Hokkien v Cantonese v Hakka v Mandarin)

20:46 The Manchurian people and the language (Northeast China)

22:03 Jin Hao confused between “Elderly” 長輩 and “Seniors” 前輩 in Mandarin

25:29 Jin Hao’s inability to write jokes in Singlish

28:23 The “Speak Good English” Campaign in Singapore

29:39 Why do some people refuse to think of Malaysia and Singapore as English-speaking countries?

35:35 Jin Hao performs in a non-Singlish accent in Singapore

37:33 Moving from China to Singapore

39:58 Jin Hao’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Actor and comedian Anne Klein is the first Oscar nominee (In the short film The Red Suitcase) and the first Luxembourgish guest on this podcast. Fluent in English, French, German and her native Luxembourgish, Anne has this amazing ability to switch between languages and disguises her accent(s) to fool inattentive listeners.

Anne talked about being the oddball that is too weird for her small country and her coming of age after she left Luxembourg. The pandemic ironically forced her to move back home for a year or two, but this time round, she managed to find her arty people in the small country of 646,000 people and changed her pre-existing view on her own hometown.

Anne also talked about how Luxembourgish lacks a richer vocabulary because of the people's fluency in languages of their neighbouring countries.

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Anne shared how she started her comedy journey and offered her view on actors and comedians not just "picking one lane."

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Follow Anne on Instagram, Twitter and her website.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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01:01 Intro (sound tech guessing where Anne is from)

03:46 Some facts about Luxembourg

05:07 How to pronounce Anne’s name

05:49 Luxembourgish people’s abilities to switch between languages

08:11 English being Anne’s language of choice when she talks about her emotions

09:42 Coming of age after leaving Luxembourg

13:48 In London, no one cares about your appearance

(Kuan-wen mentioned Sam Smith's 2023 Brit Awards outfit. For a reminder, see this)

15:27 Do people notice Anne has an accent? How does Anne’s accent(s) affect her acting work?

17:57 Anne’s French and German (proficiency and accents)

22:08 The Luxembourgish language and how it’s used (Students taught in German and French)

25:58 How to say “Four beers, quick quick” in Luxembourg

26:14 People not knowing (enough) about Luxembourg

27:11 Kuan-wen unimpressed by his day trip to Luxembourg

28:02 Anne rarely mentions Luxembourg in her comedy routines

29:27 The pandemic forced Anne to move back home and the difference this time

31:12 A trained actor performing comedy; pick a lane?

34:40 Luxembourg and Eurovision

36:13 Love having her hands in lots of pies

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

After two episodes centring on European languages, we are back to Asia this week to discuss comedy and foreign accents with the brilliant Japanese comedian Yuriko Kotani, 2015 winner of the prestigious BBC New Comedy Award.

Your host Kuan-wen asked Yuriko her view on the piecemeal understanding/perception/interpretation of Japanese culture by western societies. They also shared their constant struggles choosing whether they should base their jokes on concepts from their respective cultures but are foreign to British audience. Kuan-wen also sang an old Taiwanese Pharma jingo based on traditional Japanese folk music.

The long chat with Yuriko is divided into two episodes*. Part 2 will be released next Tuesday (Aug 2nd) instead of the usual bi-weekly schedule as it is an extended episode.

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Yuriko's Instagram (@yurikocomedy), Facebook and Twitter (@YurikoComedy)

Yuriko's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Kajiu About

If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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The traditional Japanese singing style Kuan-wen and Yuriko mentioned is called Enka （演歌/えんか） with distinct use of nasal sounds.

For Tokyo Olympics in 2021, they also had similar folk dance music called Tokyo Gorin Ondo （東京五輪音頭）. See video here.

The one Kuan-wen was singing

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Episode timeline

00:40 Intro

01:14 Different titles addressing someone in Japanese -San（さん）-Kun（君くん）- Chan（ちゃん）

02:04 Japan being Taiwan's former coloniser + Tokyo Ondo （東京音頭）- Japanese Folksong/dance music

05:06 All about the magical Japanese pharmacies

06:49 Yuriko's Japanese accent when she speaks English

09:35 British comedy audience's expectation when they see comedians of ethnic minority background

11:35 Yuriko's addressing her accent and her appearance at the start of her comedy sets

12:38 Kuan-wen addressing the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese first

13:31 Western societies likely to believe they know Japan better than they actually do (example: Oyakodon, 親子丼; Pachinko パチンコ)

18:02 Basing comedy sets on concepts foreign to the audience

21:56 Swearing in English comedy

23:37 Different personalities in different languages

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*Part 2 is separated so that the entire interview does not need to be marked as explicit as one episode. (The discussion centres on western fetishisation of Japanese culture)

This is a special episode recorded in Mandarin with our guest Blank Peng from last week

前一集的英文訪問 Blank 提及她在中國喜劇圈表演的一些經驗，第二段用中文訪談，主持人與來賓都能比較自然地暢所欲言（但也不能到太暢所欲言啦......這就點到為止就好）。Blank 解釋為何她的普通話在中國被視為不夠標準，甚至她的閩北口音會被其他省份的中國人嘲笑為『台灣口音』，主持人一同討論台灣與中國一些中文用語和發音的差別。

在表演部分，Blank 也剖析為何她會在台上稍微觸碰政治的議題，為何她現在在英國選擇先專心發展英文的單口喜劇演出，以及她對倫敦當地中文單口喜劇的觀察。

The next English bi-weekly episode will be available on Tuesday 30 July

Comedy powerhouse Arielle Souma is the very first French guest on this podcast after more than thirty episodes (FINALLY!). Unapologetic, unfiltered and oozing “I don’t give a f**k” energy, Arielle is known for her commanding stage presence and her punchy, intense and impactful comedy delivery. Arielle talks about keeping her English simple and accessible, thus easier to understand for non-native English speakers in the audience. Also, some of those long words are just too pompous for her liking.

Arielle also talks about how English works better for her rhythms as a language than her native French. The cheeky French comic claims it makes sense to pronounce various words à la française, since that’s the origin of those English words. Unless it’s words like paedophilia that requires a bit of phonetic precision.

As a mixed-race black woman raised by a white French family, Arielle talks about her hilarious over-compensating “trying to be more black than black” phase in the past. Surprisingly, the UK black comedy circuit does not particularly welcome her with open arms, just because her blackness does not fit in the several archetypes. She may be too confusing to tick a box for the industry and too saucy for the mainstream media, but if you are a London comedy club regulars, chances are you will get blown away when Arielle rocks up at the show.

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Follow Arielle on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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01:08 Pre-recording chat (trashing Ivorians and Nigerians)

03:07 Intro

04:43 Unfiltered and blunt

05:54 A French accent and using it

09:49 Arielle prefers her name pronounced in English

10:30 Opening a comedy set by addressing the French accent

11:29 An African identity in addition to the French identity

12:45 A black girl raised by a white family

16:11 How Arielle raised her son to be proud of the colour of his skin

17:03 Pros and cons of a French speaker learning English

18:26 What kind of English pronunciation does a non-native speaker pursue?

20:12 An example where Arielle had to correct her pronunciation to ensure the audience understand her

22:09 Keeping the words used simple

25:04 A boxing-like comedy rhythm

27:13 On swearing

31:21 Racism in France v.s. in the UK

39:06 Being othered on the black comedy circuit in the UK

42:36 Too spicy for mainstream media?

46:14 Running a French comedy show in London

48:58 Arielle’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Hailing from Xi-An（西安） , Northwestern China, Chin Wang won the legendary London Comedy Store gong show in March 2021 and has since been on a meteoric rise. Chin and Kuan-wen talked about their occasional 'glitches' switching between English and Mandarin, a veiled constructed criticism on her accent, her move south of Hadrian's Wall from Edinburgh to London and how messing up tones when speaking Mandarin creates confusions.

Leave your comments on the podcast's Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/comedywithanaccent/

(@comedywithanaccent). You can also email your comments, questions to comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

Follow Kuan-wen on

Instagram (@kuanwencomedy)

Twitter

Episode timeline

0:17 Intro

1:46 Different English spellings of Chin/Qin's name

4:03 Kuan-wen's old English name

4:41 The importance of Mandarin's tones

6:21 Foreigners and Xiang Sheng 相聲

6:44 Taiwanese people's accent when they speak Mandarin

8:00 Chin: "I have an accent"

8:49 Standard Mandarin v standard English accent(s)

10:02 Chin noticed her accent when listening to her own recordings

12:04 A feedback implying Chin's accent was too strong

13:29 Understanding the Scottish accent

15:26. Chin's comedy journey and her Comedy Store Gong Show win

19:12. Chin's observational comedy and not relying on Chinese stereotypes

21:43. Kuan-wen's attempts at neutralising his accent

22:43 Difficulties in switching between Mandarin and English

24:08. Kuan-wen's accent in his Comedy Central clip

25:12 Chinese Comedy

26:54 Difference in Asian comedy audience

28:29 Swearing is not the same

28:56 Chin's social media

Follow Chin Wang on

Instagram @chinwangqin

Facebook @chin.wang.comedy

“Are you the WHSmith guy?” Stephen Buchanan is known by strangers these days for his viral sketch clips, shared so widely that he’d be stopped and recognised by random people on the street. He won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2018; he is a third of the popular podcast Some Laughs and part of the new generation of comedy talents coming out of Glasgow, a city that has produced exceptional performers from Frankie Boyle, Kevin Bridges, Larry Dean to Billy Connolly.

With one of the most consistent guest’s own chuckle rate throughout the interview, Stephen talks about the working class character of Scotland's biggest city and the "Tall Poppy Syndrome" he was taught growing up as a wee working-class Glaswegian lad. Being neither the tallest nor the most capable of playing football or fight, Stephen morphed into the funniest guy in the playground to survive.

Your hosts also asks Stephen about his daft, beta-male stage persona and why he does not go down the incel-pleasing trope of opinionated comedy style.

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Follow Stephen on Instagram. or Twitter

Stephen is a third of Some Laugh Podcast with fellow Scottish comedians Marc Jennings and Stuart McPherson

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review.

For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:49 Intro

03:40 A viral clip that makes Stephen “The WHSmith Guy”

06:40 Only having an accent when gigging in London

08:11 Adjusting the accent level depending on the person you talk to

10:03 Did Stephen have his podcast parters think about their accents when recording?

11:57 BBC World Service producer changing Stephen’s references for American listeners - a “Bin” (Trash can)

15:32 Changing the way he speaks performing outside Scotland

18:37 Changing a working class accent for London centric Upper class audience

21:49 Why has Glasgow nurtured so many great comedians?

24:52 The Scottish mentality - The Tall Poppy Syndrome

27:38 Stephen’s akin to Charlie in Always Sunny In Philadelphia

31:50 Joking about his own height on his terms

34:00 Silly mundane stuffs rather than opinionated comedy

38:21 Jokes made funnier because of the accent or only funny because of the accent?

41:12 Glaswegian accent voted the 3rd sexiest accent in the UK

44:15 Comedians free to swear when performing in Glasgow

46:24 Some (obligatory) bagpipe music

47:19 Stephen’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Fresh from winning the LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year in the UK, Victoria was featured in the Guardian (See link to the article) a month after this podcast episode was recorded. Her unique brand of humour is best illustrated by the joke quoted in the Guardian interview, in a love poem to the former Home Secretary in the UK Priti Patel, "I wish I was the Falkland Islands, so you can occupy me indefinitely against International Law."

Outside comedy, Victoria remains a successful business entrepreneur and a SEO specialist.

Victoria talks about how she has to make do with the very limited understanding of her home country when performing in the UK and how she set foot on the comedy path from a corporate career in the financial sector. Kuan-wen also discusses with Victoria how her deadpan and precise style of comedy delivery may be a by-product of her not being as proficient in English as opposed to her mother tongue Spanish.

See Victoria on stage

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Follow Victoria on Instagram or Twitter

Follow host Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

If you like the podcast, please like this episode and either follow or subscribe on the platform you use. You can also leave any comments on the podcast's instagram page or. email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:52 Intro

02:51 Greetings in Argentinian Spanish

03:16 "Latin America" v. "South America"/"North America" v. "Americans"

05:29 Falkland Islands - Islas Malvinas

07:11 "I sound like a scam!"

11:11 Former life as a miserable corporate robot (see the corporate robot video Kuan-wen refers to)

13:49 Speaking at a corporate event led to suggestion of a go at comedy

20:06 Argentina in Wong Kar Wai's "Happy Together"

20:54 British people's limited understanding of Argentina and the stereotypes

23:30 Tango

27:45 Victoria's stage presence v. her accent

31:28 Different personas in Spanish and in English

34:50 The importance of addressing her foreignness at the start of a gig

37:04 Is Victoria white?

41:13 Buzz Lightyear's Spanish-speaking mode in Toy Story III

42:47 Between Katherine Ryan & Tig Notaro

45:16 Victoria's social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Ahead of the Chinese New Year, we are rejiggling the podcast's format slightly. Our guest this week is Jesse Appell, a native English speaker from Boston, USA who performs stand up comedy in Mandarin and whose career started in China. This reverses our usual format of interviewing non-native English speakers who perform English stand up.

Known as 艾杰西 in China, Jesse has performed on Chinese TV and apprenticed over 7 years under the late Chinese Xiang Sheng* Master 丁广泉 （Ding Guang-Quan）Having started as a Fullbright scholar researching Chinese humour and performance, Jesse has an astonishing command of the Chinese language and has in your host Kuan-wen's view picked up a lot of mannerisms of a typical Chinese speaker from Northern China.

Jesse shares his experience of performing in front of Chinese audiences. He explains how he has had to adapt to their expectations, when anything he covers risks being interpreted as "What an American has got to say about China"

The pandemic also unexpected forced Jesse to move back to the States, a situation that he described as "being an exile in my own country" and "no one else would believe except for the Chinese Immigrants"

A bonus episode recored in Mandarin will be released on Chinese New Year's Day 21 Jan.

*Xiang Sheng is a traditional performing art in Chinese comedy. See more on Xiang Sheng

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Follow Jesse on Instagram or his Youtube Channel. If you use the Chinese Weibo, you can find Jesse as @艾杰西

Jesse's tea business has a separate Instagram account

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review.

For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:53 Intro

02:14 UK vs “Europe”? Or Rest of Europe?

03:32 Jesse’s impeccable accent (Beijingers like) when he speaks Mandarin

07:27 Back in USA, Jesse having to deal with Americans’ lack of knowledge in China (including Chinese Americans)

09:30 Forced to move back to USA by accident - exiled in his own country

11:33 Jesse’s assessment of different comedy crowds

14:43 What Jesse can and can’t say as an American performing in China

17:04 When an audience’s expectation of a comedian is not neutral

18:42 Chinese not used to meeting caucasians speaking fluent Chinese in real lives

21:55 Jesse’s tea business and coming to the Baltic states and to the UK ‘en route’

25:54 On differences between Asians and Asian Americans; on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, Margaret Cho, “Fresh off the Boat” and the Vietnamese character Dong in “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”

34:03 Audience not bothered by Jesse doing a thick Chinese accent

34:45 Different personalities when different languages are used?

38:52 Advocating doing comedy in a foreign language

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

¿sabias que todos los meses se hace un show de monólogos de comedia en español en Londres?

One half of the masterminds behind the popular Comedy Por Favor show, Sergi Polo returns to talk about how the idea of a comedy show in Spanish in London came about and why the brand has been a massive success in the Spanish and the wider Hispanic community - with every single show sold out in advance since the first show two years ago.

With performers from Spain, Latin America and Spanish-speaking Anglophones and the mirroring audience, a Comedy Por Favor show is always a hodgepodge of conviviality and joy (and a bit of a chitchat). As everyone in the room is guaranteed bilingual person, this creates a supportive atmosphere if anyone struggles to speak Spanish at any given point.

Sergi also shares his insight and the uncertainty he still questions himself performing in different languages to crowds in different countries. The same question is extended to his online output in English as well as Spanish, where Sergi has grown his followers substantially since his last episode two years ago.

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Follow Sergi on Instagram

Sergi and Soraya’s podcast (in Spanish) Los de Londres

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:49 Intro

02:22 Why is Comedy Por Favor - a comedy show in Spanish in London - so popular? (compared to other comedy shows in foreign languages )

05:57 How the idea of Comedy Por Favor was born

06:37 The trial runs/practices in Barcelona before the first show in London

08:40 Kuan-wen’s Casio watch disrupting the interview

09:32 Warm reception by the Comedy Por Favor audience

10:54 A show that makes the audience feel they are transported back home

12:12 The chitchatty Spanish-speaking audience

14:22 Misunderstandings between Spanish spoken in different countries?

16:17 Hoping to attract more Latin American audiences

19:17 Spanish-speaking native English speakers who go to Comedy Por Favor shows

22:09 A supportive audience for non-native performers

doing comedy in Spanish

25:43 Jokes based on ideas that are funny more easily translated

27:34. Sergi learned English through performing comedy in English

28:51 Puns and comedy in different languages

29:38 How to estimate the market size for a Spanish comedy show in London? How many Spanish speakers are out there?

30:55 To create a community rather than pursuing bigger venues for bigger shows

32:11 Doing comedy solo shows/specials in different languages

37:29 A TV interview in Catalonia

38:10 Doing a show in Catalan in London on Saint George’s Day

39:29 Differences between Spanish audience in London and in Spain

41:40 Sergi’s Social Media; Los de Londres podcast

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

India's stand up comedy star Sahil Shah has been in this business for over a decade.

He has been at the forefront of India's modern stand up comedy scene and has pretty much grown with the scene. It started with comedy sketches uploaded to Youtube, later packed out live shows. This year, he performed for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the UK - including a week at the Comedy with an Accent showcase - and was scouted by Soho Theatre to bring his own show to London.

On the eve of his second night performing at London's Soho Theatre in October, your host Kuan-wen reunited with the energetic performer from Mumbai to record this episode.

Sahil explains how the rich languages and the sheer scale of India give rise up to a variety of stand up comedy scene"s" in different language zones. As an act who performs only in English, he shares why he prefers to have jokes' set ups in English but reveals his punchline in Hindi. He nevertheless adjusts his performance style when facing non home crowds and discusses the difference between the comedy audiences in India and in the UK.

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Follow Sahil on Instagram , Twitter and Youtube

Sahil's first comedy special on Amazon Prime Childish Behavior

East India Comedy on Youtube

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:44 Intro

06:47 Languages Sahil speaks

10:05 Languages in India and languages switching in Mumbai

11:43 Set up in English, punchline in Hindi

17:55 Different performance strategies for non home crowds

20:53 Mindful of one’s own accent to adjust the speed and to enunciate

24:38 When someone “put on” an Apu accent

28:57 Indian audience clapping at comedy shows

33:31 The stand up comedy scene in India

36:27 Caste and comedy

41:51 Any plan for Sahil to perform comedy in Hindi and/or Gujarati?

42:42 Comedy at its funniest with localism; the bit about the chappal

46:41 Sahil’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Making headway to big comedy clubs’ paid spots within two years of arriving in the UK, Blank got into almost all the major Comedy New Act Competition finals and collected gong show wins like a dedicated Pokemon player collecting the Poke gym badges.

“Blank is an incognito bilingual stand-up comic,” so goes her comedy profile on some of London’s top comedy clubs’ websites. It is not by accident she’s named Blank; it’s a deliberate choice of a stage name to keep her quite literally incognito - for understandable reasons, given part of Blank’s stand up incudes commentary on her native China. Your host to this day does not know her full real name in Mandarin.

Blank shares a more nuanced picture of her home country’s censorship on the burgeoning stand up comedy scene, how comedians work with the script pre-approval compliance requirements and why places like her more obscure province’s scene allows more leeway.

Having started performing stand up comedy in Mandarin first (and already doing very well), Blank is one of the fewer guests of this podcast who did not start performing in English. Instead, she had to transition into an English stand up comedy performer. She talks about why her Mandarin and English jokes are separate and why she is happy to stick to just English stand up comedy in the UK, despite the growing number of Chinese students and immigrants.

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Follow Blank on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:57 Bonus episode in Mandarin

01:25 Intro

02:24 A Chinese national considered having a Taiwanese accent?

04:00 More British than American influences

05:31 Unsolicited feedback on her accent from audience members

06:12 Mandarin stand up comedy performer before English stand up

08:34 Coming from a “third-rate” Chinese city

10:54 Comedy New Act Competitions and Gong Shows

13:40 Comedy censorship in China

22:12 Turning into a more unique performer in the UK

23:17 Separate comedy materials between Mandarin and English stand up

24:56 Blank’s stage persona in Mandarin stand up

26:29 Ethnic minority comedy performers and hack jakes

31:05 Blank’s racially self-deprecating jokes and the principle of fairness

32:20 No longer performing Mandarin stand up in the UK

35:51 Why “Blank”?

36:40 Why “Blank404” for Instagram>

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Our third ever guest from England hails from Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire. For listeners interested in the numerous accents that exist in the UK, the Hull accent is considered one of the most distinct accents.

Louise Atkinson has provided the tour support for Live at the Apollo stars Sarah Keyworth and Esther Manito and her solo show “Mates” won the Amused Moose Best Debut Show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023.

A proud northerner, Louise talks about what makes the Hull accent distinct, which has been named as the sexiest accent by Timothée Chalet. As the podcast now boasts more listeners outside the UK, the conversation goes into great length explaining the North v.s. South divide in England and the relevant but not entirely identical class divide in the society.

Louise talks about the local pride - Hull was selected as UK City of Culture in 2017 and has widely been seen as a tremendous success story.

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Follow Louise on Instagram

Louise’s podcast Be Fairy Afraid on Spotify; Be Fair Afraid on Apple Podcast

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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01:05 Intro

03:57 Louise hates it when people from south of England question her accent

05:20 Fellow. Comedians mocking Louise’s accent

07:45 Adjusting her accent overseas in a corporate job

08:45 Accents and classism in the UK

11:20 North vs South divide in the UK

13:40 A world famous actor from Yorkshire

15:33 Northern England vs South England is not always working class vs middle class

16:52 Proud of being from Hull

18:44 “I HATE people” but perceived as “affable” because of a northern accent

21:25 The Hull accent is the sexiest accent per Timothée Chalamet in the UK; what influence makes the Hull accent distinct?

26:25 Who gets to joke about Hull being the backwater?

26:50 UK City of Culture 2017

28:54 Self-deprecating a British trait, not necessarily just for the Northerners

29:34 Performing across the UK and knowing audience from different parts of the country

32:40 The “Waitrose” audience

36:10 A few more random facts about Yorkshire and Hull

37:52 Louise’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Name a stand up comedian who’s like the ambassador of both the English and French cultures? Many of you probably think of her bright pink hairs straight away. Yes, you have Tatty Macleod in mind, and she really has been given the title of an honourary ambassador for the British Council and was invited to host the alumni day by the French embassy in the UK.

THE Anglo-French (or Franglais/ Frenglish) stand up comedian and social media star is well known for her hilarious online sketches on observations of both cultures in both languages. Her debut comedy hour - FUGUE - sold out its entire 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival run. The subsequent tour has sold over 10,000 tickets and counting, with the continental European leg now extended to 2025. This includes four nights at the Soho Theatre and two nights at Clapham Grand in London as well as three nights at Théâtre des ateliers in Paris - with three more nights at Théâtres des variétés in Paris booked in this May.

Among Tatty’s 600k+ followers across Instagram & TikTok, many are nomads themselves who are attracted to what Tatty personifies as a Third Culture Kid - a fluid identity and multilayers of heritage, accompanied by bi- or trilingualism. Born in Zimbabwe to British parents and raised in France by her ethnically Scottish/Welsh but culturally English mum, Tatty talks about code-switching, fine-tuning her accent to fit in and how accent, languages become intertwined with emotions and her identity in this fantastic episode.

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Follow Tatty on Instagram

Tatty is on Tour in Europe in 2025. Check Tatty’s website (click here) for tickets.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:55 Intro

02:04 A true bilingual guest and how she thinks accents reflect one’s life journey

04:35 Coming to terms with a tinge of an English accent when she speaks French now

06:36 Moving between countries - a quick summary of Tatty’s childhood and adolescence

07:41 Accents, languages, identities - and a sense of belonging

10:39 A very subtle accent but visual clues of a non French person

14:30 How Kuan-wen learned to speak French and dislike Parisians

15:40 Choosing what language to speak in v.s. being rude to foreigners?

21:09 A Third Culture Kid; a bicultural upbringing

23:41 People remain determined to ask Tatty to pick a side (between her dual cultural heritages)

26:48 Tatty’s specific fan base

30:18 What did this question/terms of phrasing “like we say in French (Comment on dit en français)” imply?

34:07 Are the cultural nomads an ultra niche group?

36:17 All identifies are relative; shall we say British or English?

39:17 Tatty’s diction when she speaks English; an accent from a time capsule

43:30 Changing one’s accent to fit in

44:54 Jokes/comedy sketches based on stereotypes grounded in reality

46:32 Tatty’s debut solo show (currently on the European leg of the tour)

49:31 Nearly didn’t do the comedy sketches online

52:00 Tatty’s social media

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

As one of the founding members of Becomedy - a comedy show production team in the English as well as Italian languages in both Italy and the UK - Tiziano La Bella is a stand up comedian performing professionaly in both languages. He has appeared on Comedy Central Italia and Amazon Prime and only just recently relocated from London back to his home town Rome. Tiziano came to the UK with a clear objective to hone his craft, at a time when there simply wasn’t much stage time for stand up comics - Italy was not yet familiar with the concept of modern stand up comedy and would confuse it with their traditional cabaret. (He definitely did not come for the British weather and sky!)

As a result of the migration of Italians in the UK, Becomedy has been able organise stand up comedy shows in Italian in London and Tiziano has performed more frequently in Italian in recent years, leading to more gigs booked in his native Italy. Tiziano has made use of what he learned from English stand up to shift more focus on performing in Italian and eventually decided to move back as the stand up comedy scene in Italy is now fast growing.

On the eve of his relocation, this podcast invited Tiziano to talk about his accent which carries a hint of Australian English, his creative process in both languages and how he dissect the audience into four different groups. We also talked about the Italian stereotypes and how the Italian accent is the endless bottom of the joke, even though Tiziano does not find doing accents particularly offensive.

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Follow Tiziano on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:46 Intro

04:14 An evolving accent and now a hint of an Aussie accent

08:03 The W-word between British English and Australian English and how Americans and British audiences perceive the C-word differently

10:56 Foreign/minority comedians doing accents on stage?

12:35 Young Italians’ improved English fluency

15:13 Italian stereotypes mined by influencers on social media

16:43 Choosing the funny-sounding words and the formality level of words

20:06 Weird Duolingo scenarios

21:13 Italian immigrants not necessarily able to improve their English fluency

27:05 Forced to use English regularly during Erasmus and starting to perform stand up comedy

29:54 Start of stand up comedy journey and how Tiziano never intended to settle in the UK

32:06 Returning to Italy; shifting to content and performance in Italian

35:19 The reality of living in Roma (Garbage collection) v.s. garbage collection in Taiwan

36:07 “Is this joke about Chinese offensive?”

37:50 Italian accent being the only accent everyone is comfortable with doing

42:10 Not having a stereotypical Italian appearance (based South Italians)

44:23 Differences between performing in different languages to difference crowds

47:47 BeComedy with Italian/English shows in the UK and in Italy

49:17 Tiziano’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Having only started performing comedy in the UK in 2021, Joshua was crowned winner of So You Think You Are Funny in 2022 and bagged another win at London Comedy Store gong show. He was finalist at BBC New Comedy Award 2022 and nominated as Best Newcomer by Chortle.

The Southern India's native came to the UK for a corporate job and he only took up a comedy course to get better at communication doing his corporate job, These achievements and credits were unintended.

Equally unintended is his understated, still and measured stage delivery. Joshua claims he is just trying to remember his lines!

This episode inevitably covers a few big topics as our chilled and composed guest is incredibly intelligent and eloquent. Joshua explains the opening line about his accent he dislikes and how he has had to go the extra mile to convince others that some Indian boys really are called Joshua.

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Follow Joshua on Instagram and Youtube

Joshua's work=in=progress show at Top Secret Comedy Club in London on 17 July 2023 - tickets

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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00:38 Intro

02:43 Why is Joshua named Joshua? Anglo Indians or Indians who converted to Christianity?

07:49 Joking about his Indian accent he didn’t think he has;========= a school that focuses on English education

11:02 To “perfect” one’s accent?

12:09 The “Bank support accent” joke

15:00 “Sorry my name is not brown enough for you”

18:47 Joshua’s languages

20:14 Languages in South India

20:52 North v South in India

21:59 Colourism; racism without the race

24:44 Joshua on colonialism

30:11 A subdued, still style of comedy delivery (that is unintended)

34:25 Not staging a fake Indian accent

35:56 Joshua’s upcoming shows and social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This is a one-off monologue (without a guest!!) before 2024 comes to an end. But hey. monologo(s) do also mean stand up comedy in Spanish and Italian.

This episode covers the 2024 Spotify for Podcast unwrapped to share with the listeners data of your consumption of this Podcast this year, supplemented by statistics from the podcast’s hosting platform. There is in addition a mid-point summary of season 2, with a roadmap of episode recommendations for different types of listeners.

Your host Kuan-wen then shares the original idea of the podcast, his thoughts on guest invitations - maybe a bit of frustration, too - and his recent experience of studying and brushing up his *Taiwanese for a podcast interview.

*For context, the use of Taiwanese is in constant decline in Taiwan owing to past government policies, with ever fewer people from younger generations being able to master it. Its circumstances are comparable to those of Welsh and Irish.

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Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

Follow Comedy with an Accent on Instagram

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00:33 Reasons for a no-guest episode

03:59 Alternative idea of the host of the podcast turning into the guest for a one-off (nah)

05:45 Outline for this episode

07:44 2024 - Season 2 mid-point review and some stats

08:45 Season 2 episode recommendations (based on the type of listeners)

17:08 Data from 2024 Spotify for Podcasters Unwrapped

18:30 More data on Podcast consumption from the hosting platform

24:50 The idea behind Comedy with an Accent since the launch - a moving Venn diagram

27:51 Criteria for guest invitations/selection

31:34 Kuan-wen’s apologies for occasional grammatical and pronunciation errors

34:04 Kuan-wen prepping for an interview conducted entirely in Taiwanese

38:17 Thoughts on producing the monologue episode

40:34 How much discussion about languages should be included in the podcast?

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Best known as the mischievous private investigator on Channel; 4's Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, Mark Silcox is an accomplishment stand up comedian in his own right, even though he claims not to be a very ambitious comedian himself. For comedy "is just a way of spending time with friends"

Apologies for the delay in publishing this week's episode

Mark's distinct deadpan and at times anti=comedy style makes him many comedians' comedian.

Mark talks about not being listened to or taken seriously by students in his semi-retired day job as a supply teacher, also the only immigrant in his own family - after thirty years, he still feels fresh off the boat. Both push him to grab the microphone on stage so that he feels listened out.

In the last six minutes of this episode, we dive into Mark's childhood as a middle child with eight siblings. We then learn why this trained scientist and teacher is catching up on the fun he could have had and should have had but missed from the distant childhood.

Mark Silcox's really name is not Mark Silcox. The initials are AA. If you want to find out, you got to listen to this episode.

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Follow Mark on Instagram, and Twitter

If you are going to Edinburgh Fringe this year, Mark will bring his show "Women Only" for the first two weeks of the Fringe this year (Aug 3 - 18) at PBH - Voodoo Room at 2pm. See info here.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:47 Intro

04:02 Not just an Indian accent - Mark’s unique way of speaking

07:10 A supply teacher that students do not listen to

08:20 Mocked by students but refusing to change his accent

12:26 In the world of comedy, Mark’s accent is his USP

14:24 Mark’s distinct style performing stand up

16:21 Opening line to address the accent

18:12 Private Investigator on Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back

20:15 Not relying on facial expressions

23:27 First gen v second gen immigrants

28:26 Comedy just a hobby to speak time with friends

30:34 Comedy offers freedom of expression (and the chance to wind somebody up)

33:45 Inventing a new identity

37:13 Childhood experience

42:18 Upcoming 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Show

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

How do you perform stand up comedy when half of the audience sees you as the enemy at worst, or not knowing what to think of you at best, in a language that is neither your or the majority audience’s mother tongue?

Given the complex relationship between China and Taiwan, how does one position herself when they are known as “The Chinese comedian” in Taiwan?

Jamie Wang is a student from Shanghai, China, who came to Taiwan for her master degree but became the rising star of the relatively small English stand up comedy scene on the predominantly Mandarin- and Taiwanese-speaking island. She opened for Atsuko Okatsuka when the latter paid Taiwan a surprising visit in May 2023.

Jamie talks about audience lowering their expectation on the performer’s language fluency in a non English-speaking country. She also shares why she is determined to give voices to two otherwise two-dimensional groups - Chinese people in the eyes of Taiwanese (even though she does not want to be pigeon-holed as the comedian who bangs on about politics between China and Taiwan); Asian women in the eyes of caucasian male expats. If those white expats can be so demeaning to Asian women when they tell English jokes in Asian countries, why can't Asian women return the favour?

*For Mandarin speakers, there will be an additional episode recorded in Mandarin to be released on Tuesday 2 April

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Follow Jamie on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:41 Intro

01:59 How Jamie learned English through an (French langugage) exchange programme in Belgium

03:34 How different types of audiences perceive Jamie’s English and her accent

06:45 Whether Jamie reveals her Chinese identity at an English stand up comedy show in Taiwan

08:57 Taiwanese audience’s mixed attitude/hostility towards Jamie as a Chinese performer

11:00 Jamie’s stage persona and the real-life Jamie

16:24 “You are the ONLY Chinese person I like!”

17:21 Jamie joking about the white male expats in Asia

19:44 “Is my **** bigger than the Asian ****s?”

22:02 Taiwanese people’s ability to laugh at themselves

25:39 One trick pony - if a comedian is only known for a “thing”

27:31 Where does Jamie go from performing English stand up comedy in Taiwan?

29:09 The comfort of performing in a second language; free from judgment

30:56 Jamie v.s. her social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Bon Nadal! Feliz Navidad! Our last guest in 2022 is our third Spanish-speaking guest - also the podcast's first Catalan speaker - the self-titled "Lovely Boy From Barcelona" Sergi Polo.

Fresh from being nominated for the prestigious Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year, Sergi is a regular at the popular Angel comedy in London who is known for his snappy, sharp and witty gags. Just check his Instagram page for the reels and you'll get an idea.

Your host Kuan-wen had an interesting discussion with Sergi on their differing views when it comes to mockery of accents. Sergi does not mind it; in fact, he further welcomes jokes and comedy based on stereotypes. He does reveal some of Spain's curious attitudes on racism, legacy of colonialism.

Asian listeners, buckle up; listen in to find out how "Takeshi's Castle (風雲!たけし城)" is translated in Spain.

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Follow Sergi on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:41 Intro

01:06 Sergio is Spanish (Castilian); Sergi from Barcelona is Catalan

03:24 “My Spanish accent is beautiful”

07:07 Spanish words written the way they are pronounced and the “Acento”

10:46 The accent helps Sergi stand out and be different from other comedians in the UK

13:56 No problem having his accent mocked

16:00 Sergi’s relaxed view on Manuel from Fawlty Towers

17:00 Catalans like to make fun of themselves

19:45 Spanish fine with the F word or the N word between friends if they know there’s no malicious intent

21:56 Racism in Spain, the Spanish version of Takeshi’s Castle

24:12 Franco in Spain; Taiwanese attitude towards a past dictator

27:02 Do younger Spaniards have much less strong accents in English?

29:18 Sergi in fact having a Catalan accent in English

30:02 How the Catalan language is being kept alive

32:38 An example of a joke that is either offensive or based on truth

34:51 Sergi’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Polish stand up comedian Kat Nip is a Berlin-based but globe-trotting performer. She runs her own comedy show in Berlin but is also a regular at comedy clubs in London, including the popular Top Secret Comedy Club.

Winner of London Comedy Store gong show, Kat Nip has written for and acted in Comedy Central Poland’s “Mini-Mock” series in 2022 and 2023. She has also appeared on Arte and Buzzfeed UK.

Having lived half of her live outside her native Poland, Kat’s native slavic sound is quite hard to detect. Yet her accent morphs where she moves to, so she ends up with a funny scenario of a faint German accent even if she does not speak fluent German.

Kat also shares how changes in her health and lifestyle led her to reflect on her comedy materials and directions as well as her stage persona.

Kat's comedy special "Traitor" can be seen on OUTtv

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Follow Kat Nip on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:37 Intro

01:51 Guessing Kat’s nationality based on her accent

03:45 A Berlin-based polish comedian who lived in the UK and almost everywhere, hence the confusing accent

07:45 Ending the podcast policy

09:41 Unfiltered

10:34 Polish stereotypes

12:45 More of a Berlin girl than a Polish lady on stage?

15:25 Quit drinking but continuing to do a show about jokes on drinking

19:00 Moving on from the easy jokes

21:53 Traumatic experience of performing in Polish to the kind of Polish crowd that made her leave Poland

24:46 Specific type of fellow Polish netizens that are easily offended

28:13 Is the “Polish builder” stereotype still valid?

31:12 Kat’s journey and why she left her village

32:48 Difference being a Polish comedian between London and Berlin

35:03 Comedy reflecting life’s changes (moving on from typical Berlin expat lifestyle)

39:14 Just live your life the way you want

41:43 Why choosing “Kat Nip (presents)” as stage name?

43:49 Hastag gross food on Instagram

45:07 Kat’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Our very first Portuguese guest is comedian Jomi Cruz who radiates tons of youthful energy and resembles a junior Eurovision contestant. Jomi shares how he acquired a quasi American accent that is not good enough to fool Americans but just enough to trick some Brits.

Jomi chats about the few stereotypes associated with Portugal for British audience but the one bad joke about Madeline McCann* that is sure to put punters off but 1 out of every 5 new open mic comics tempts to do.

Sounding not typically Portuguese but more certainly camp, the fashion-forward and even androgynous-dressing Jomi explains how he learned to embrace his accent, his campiness through therapy. The episode was recorded back in January but the overlap of its release date with the renewed reservoir search for Maddie REALLY IS CONINCIDENTAL.

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Follow Jomi on Instagram and his London comedy night - Comedy Freaks

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:50 Intro

02:22 Madonna’s time in Lisbon

03:03 Where is the name “Jomi” from

03:57 What does Portuguese sound like?

04:27 Jomi’s fake-ish American accent

09:22 Not an obvious Portuguese accent vs hack immigrant comedy

12:08 Junior Eurovision vibe

13:08 Starting his comedy set stating he is Portuguese

14:42 Hating the way he spoke pre-therapy

16:28 Embracing his campness

22:00 Therapy and change of attitude towards his way of speaking

23:26 Rejected by toxic masculine male punters due to his dampness?

26:08 Jokes about Madeleine McCann

30:28 Portuguese typically good at foreign languages?

32:52 Being nice and The changing Portuguese mentality

34:55 Jomi’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Guido Garcia Lueches is a theatre maker, actor from Uruguay. His one man show “Playing Latinx” - though categorised as Theatre rather than Comedy in last year’s Edinburgh Fringe - packed in so many jokes that it was probably funnier than many shows under “Comedy” had to offer.

To be fair, the show was also marketed as “Half stand up”, but to its creator, genre is not something he’d bother. It’s whether the audience gets his intent that counts.

The show weaves in multiple Latino stereotypes and is first and foremast silly. But beneath the silliness and stupidity lies a message that is mostly definitely political in nature. The show was based on all the audition experiences Guido had to endure over the years. All the exaggerated characters were roles Guido were asked to perform as and if he is lucky, typecast in.

When Guido speaks in English without too heavy a Spanish influence, he was instructed to “just do your accent” even though he was speaking with his accent. Then he realised what the casting directors were after, dialled up his Spanish tongue, got one Mexican drug lord role after another one of a sexy pool cleaner.

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Follow Guido on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:41 Intro

02:26 Kuan-wen’s poor knowledge about Uruguay

05:04 Guido’s accent in English that he is not sure how to describe

07:13 Wrong prepositions gives Guido away

08:40 The standout characteristic of Guido’s accent

10:50 Facing questions about his accents from British people

13:06 Singer, Actor, Comedian and Dramaturg

14:51 Guido’s show “Playing LatinX”

16:30 Idea of the show coming from bad audition experiences

19:36 Different accents featured and changed in the show

22:40 “Could you just do your accent?”

24:09 The industry’s attitude towards a needed foreign accent

27:30 In a perfect world, how would people know a small country without stereotypes?

30:16 Why humour is crucial to Guido’s show design

34:15 What if the audience doesn’t get the irony? What if the jokes reinforce the stereotypes instead?

37:41 Silliness and drama; theatre in the UK as observed by Guido

43:36 Why Latin”X” ?

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

The effortlessly charming and cultured Italian comic Luca Cupani, who at some point in his life was more fluent in Latin and in ancient Greek than in English, brought the podcast to a new intellectual level that really challenged your host Kuan-wen to keep up. Renaissance paintings and modern art were casually referenced to and our guest this episode randomly threw away proper Latin phrases rather than made-up Harry Potter words "Expelliarmus!". There was even talks of "cassettes"

Meanwhile, Kuan-wen tried to instill the idea of doing exorcism as a side business in Luca's head and banged on and on about pasta.

Luca shared how he was told he looked more Polish or English than Italian, that the marketing people think real Italians are TOO Italian, how he ultimately achieved English fluency - despite the accent - in his adult life after receiving poorly designed English lessons in middle school. There was also an interesting discussion on Italian comedy punters.

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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Episode timeline

00:38 Intro

03:03 Luca's Italian accent as a result of old-fashioned "All grammar, little conversation" teaching

04:31 Luca being more fluent in Latin and ancient Greek

05:31 UK punters asking Luca to "drop" his accent

07:09 Where Luca's blue eyes come from

08:30 Notion of how an Italian should look like (10;38 East Asians looking like characters in Mulan more likely to be cast)

12:38 Luca used to apologise for his accent early on in his comedy career

16:09 Pre-conditioned perspectives; what (some) comedy reviewers expect from foreign comics

18:35 A short discussion that is all about PASTA

19:53 The Italian test: Italians giving so much fuss about pasta (and good food!)

21:10 Differences between Luca performing in English and in Italian

23:17 Differences between UK and Italian comedy audiences

26:30 How Luca re-learned English himself properly in his 20s & 30s and his frustration

29:21 Why Kuan-wen is no longer arsed about perfecting his English pronunciation; how do you pronounce a "HOT DOG"?

30:54 Younger Italians having much lighter accents in English thanks to TV streaming

32:05 Why Silence of the Lambs was translated as Silence of the Innocent People in Italy?

32:51 The non-stop hand gestures

34:08 Luca's multi-layered stage persona and self-deprecating jokes

36:07 Italian Fascism - topics about being Italian that Luca insists on doing

36:41 The pros and cons of the "beautiful" Italian accent

39:21 Luca's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show

39:35 Luca's social media

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Luca's Instagram and Twitter

Luca's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Happy Orphan

Kuan-wen made a reference to a set by Maisie Adam - her French teacher with a think Yorkshire accent. You can find the clip here.

Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

https://www.instagram.com/taigenkawabe/

Our mini Scandinavia tour comes back to Norway again after two recent episodes feauturing guests from Denmark and Sweden. Viggo Venn, previously half of clowning duo Zack & Viggo, is our second guest from Norway.

Viggo trained as a clown at the renowned École Philippe Gaulier, where he is now a member of the teaching staff. His clowning instinct - a desire to entertain and a persistence to embrace failures ("flops") - meant this recording has been the most chaotic and disruptive to date. But it was fun!

Viggo explains why he exaggerates the "foreign idiot" persona on stage and consequently exaggerates his accent. We also peek into Viggo's journey as a performer - how he ended up training as a clown after coming across Dr. Brown's show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Viggo was not only interviewed but performed throughout this recording. The whole episode is interwoven with two running gags, namely Viggo insisting he and your host Kuan-wen are related due to the pronunciation of their names and that Viggo is not happy another Norwegian comedian (Thor Stenhaug in episode 2) was invited first.

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Follow Viggo on Instagram and check out his website for shows and clown workshops

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:59 Intro

03:08 How Viggo wrongly pronounces his own name and Viggo starts the running gag he and Kuan-wen are brothers (and went wild)

06:48 A stronger Norwegian accent on stage in the UK to be the “foreign ldiot”

11:45 Are Norwegians more boring?

12:50 Norwegians’ perception of themselves and attitudes towards Sweden and Denmark

15:35 UK comedy audience’s particular appreciation of high brow and silly lowbrow comedy at the same time

16:40 Kuan-wen’s observation how Viggo adjusts his accent

18:50 A clown that does stand up

24:37 Viggo being disruptive (AGAIN!)

26:09 How Viggo decided to train as a clown

28:55 Purist believers of stand up comedy

32:46 Zack & Viggo

33:58 Viggo being disruptive (AGAIN!)

39:26 Viggo’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Our first returning guest is Singaporean comedian Sam See, previously featured in Episode 25 of the first season.

Since the last recording in January 2023, Sam has uprooted himself and relocated from Singapore to the UK as - in his own words - he has reached the ceiling in Singapore. Sam shares his gentle criticism of the comedy audience in Singapore.

Sam also just finished supporting Ed Byrne on tour in 17 locations, including some well-off towns and some run down places. The bulk of this episode focuses on Sam’s approach to perform as a newly settled immigrant act in these small English towns in front of audience that are predominantly old and white.

Sam is at Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year (2024) with two shows:

The Asian Comedy Showcase

Sam See: And I Can't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

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Follow Sam on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:44 Intro; why Sam is invited back

03:37 Sam moving from Singapore to the UK

05:04 The tour - opening for Ed Byrne

06:53 The reason Sam swapped Singapore for UK

08:54 Has Sam considered US or Australia instead?

09:40 First time Sam living on his own

13:17 How Sam was asked to be Ed Byrne’s tour support act

15:48 More on the actual tour

16:46 Winning over an older, predominantly white audience

19:32 Research fun facts before arriving in a new town for performance

28:16 Some British cities/towns with tricky pronunciations

29:35 Audience demographic

31:00 Singaporean audience trained Sam to always write generally

33:00 Example of Sam employing local references in his jokes

34:19 Sam’s own touring plan

37:45 Sam’s shows at 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and his social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Donatas Kveselys is the second Lithuanian comedian featured on this podcast. This episode, however, feels half-dedicated to the Kingdom and the people of Sweden, for Gothenburg, Sweden is where Donatas currently lives and where he started performing stand up comedy (in English).

Donatas is a London Comedy Store Gong Show winner. He also secured the 3rd spot in the Roast Battles’ 2024 International Western Division League table.

Having already left his Eastern European homeland Lithuania to move to Sweden for work, Donatas gave stand up comedy a go in his adopted country where the majority of population do not speak English as their mother tongues (but are known to proficient English speakers). Talking about layers of cultural and linguistic code switching!

Donatas discusses how he got to understand the reserved Swedish folks inside out from a foreigner’s perspective. He talks about doing Swedish jokes for Swedish crowds - If you don’t know already, you should definitely google “SNUS” and “SWEDEN” - but also explains why he is now travelling and gigging elsewhere in Europe for a broader reach.

Content warning - from 34:47 onwards there's a brief mention of suicidal feelings as part of a discussion on anxieties

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Follow Donatas on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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01:02 Intro

04:12 A Lithuanian comedian performing English stand up comedy in Sweden

05:18 An East European accent

07:13 The odd foreign performer who performs in English at Swedish comedy shows

10:18 Lithuania in Swedish people’s eyes

12:57 Dissecting the “Chernobyl Survivor” joke and Lithuanian stereotypes

16:21 Lithuanians’ views of HBO’s series Chernobyl being shot in Vilnius

19:20 A white comedian with a foreign accent vs a Swedish comedian from ethnic minority backgrounds

23:45 Lithuanian as an East European language but not a Slavic language - it’s a Baltic language

25:11 Swedish people in Donatas’ words

28:30 Jokes for Swedish audience only; “SNUS” in Sweden

30:41 Travelling around to perform to difference audiences

32:03 What does Donatas like about performing for the Swedish audience

33:10 Bad at imitating his comedy idols, finding his own voice

34:47 Penchant for dark humour

37:35 Returning to his home country to perform in Lithuanian?

40:09 Donatas’ social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Isa celebrates being "weird" in their comedy approach. They got into the comedy world by accident when they tried to impress a girl - well, Isa did not get the girl, but they did get comedy! The wicked Spanish comedian - 2018 finalist of BBC New Comedy Awards - enjoys sharing the wacky thoughts in their head rather than joking about and conforming to all the worst Spanish stereotypes, against their comedy course tutor's advice.

This episode also includes a heartfelt section of Isa explaining how Spanish women had to endure an unfair and sexiest society well into the 20th century and why they feel compelled to tell the stories of Spanish women who show strong emotions..

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Isa's Instagram

Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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Episode timeline

00:38 Intro

02:23 Isa making an effort - sometimes - to mitigate their Spanish accent

05:01 Simple phrases and greetings in Spanish

06:15 How Isa uses an opening joke to adjust audience's perception of their accent and why Isa does not want to be THE Spanish comedian who only talks about being Spanish

07:48 A comedy course tutor advised Isa to rely heavily on Spanish stereotypes

09:40 Isa does not wish to make Spanish people the butt of the joke; Manuel from Fawlty Tower

11:34 Isa started to touch upon topics from the Spanish culture more recently

13:23 Isa anglicised their long Spanish name; also, ISA means Individual Saving Accounts in the UK

15:14 How Isa's Spanish accents works in their favour & against them

17:10 UK's social classes in the eyes of foreign immigrants

20:12 Isa rarely performs comedy in Spanish

21:01 How Isa got into English stand up comedy

23:28 Is it rude or is it in anyone's right to point out a foreign comedian has a (strong) accent?

25:33 The portrayal of fiercely emotional Spanish women by Isa and other Spanish-speaking comics (Check out British comedian Jen Brister's set, who is half Spanish )

27:20 The lack of women's rights in Spain until 1981

29:22 Isa's comical portrayal of their mother that comes from a place of love

32:28 Spanish or Castellano?

33:20 The Telenovela version of a British Royal Family sketch

34:33 Isa's social media accounts/handles

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The character in Fawlty Tower mentioned by Isa is Manuel. If you have a look at the clip, it is quite surprising how far comedy and the society have evolved!

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

https://www.instagram.com/taigenkawabe/

Alice Frick is a comedian, writer, producer originally from Vienna, Austria, who is also the show runner of "Laughing Labia", an all-female line up comedy show and one of the longest-running LGBTQ+ comedy show in London with a loyal following.

Alice talks about the articulation lessons she has been having and how her English went from American-sounding to more obviously German when she decided to switch to British pronunciation. We also learn why Alice is happy to go with the Alpine Milk Maid stereotype and why certain stereotypes about Austria seem to be based on an element of truth.

This episodes concludes on The Anti Self Help Book written and published by Alice, a body of work that mocks the self help book genre (as pointed out by Alice, there's no regulation in publishing a self-help book) while gathers Alice's otherworldly thoughts, jokes and anecdotes.

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Alice's Anti Self Help book can be found on Amazon (Kindle version/Paperback)

Follow Alice on Instagram and Youtube

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:45 Intro and some German grammar chat

02:27 A comedy show in German in London

04:43 An Austrian having a dig at Germans

07:42 Two immigrants complain about the English greeting “How are you?”

11:45 Alice’s Articulation lesson

17:56 Some tongue twisters

18:26 Accents and actor casting

24:17 Laughing Labia - an all Female line up comedy show

29:06 Unsolicited feedback from fellow Male comedian

33:57 A stronger accent on stage

40:34 Alice's more subtle humour outside the "milk maid" character - The Anti Self Help Book

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

The hilarious interview with Yuriko continues in this episode.

In the last episode, your host Kuan-wen and Yuriko started the discussion of the partial and poor understanding of Japanese culture by western societies. An extension of this is the fetishisation of Japanese culture. Because of some of the terms mentioned in the chat eg Bukkake (ぶっ掛け) - and possibly because your host Kuan-wen's mischief - this episode has been marked containing explicit content.

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Yuriko's Instagram (@yurikocomedy), Facebook and Twitter (@YurikoComedy)

Yuriko's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Kajiu About

If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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Episode timeline

00:40 Western audience's fetishisation of Japanese culture eg. Hen Tai (変態). Anime (アニメ),

(01:18 - 02:19 Yuriko proposes both she and Kuan-wen go to a cosplay event)

02:38 How Bukkake (ぶっ掛け) went from a cooking technique to a genre in ... errr .;.. porn. See detailed explanation on Wikipedia

05:07 Kuan-wen explains why the sex noises in Japanese porns are different from those in western porns

06:24 How Mandarin speakers understand the term Hen Tai (変態) when they read the Japanese writing and why it is not just a porn genre

07:58 Yuriko chose currently not to cover these fetishised Japanese terms as comedy material

11:01 Yuriko's different persona when she performs in English and how Kuan-wen feels Yuriko has become even more anglicised on stage

14:02 Kuan-wen explains why he videotapes every single performance

16:55 On voice actors

17:59 Yuriko performing in Japanese

21:53 How the very different Japanese sentence structure affects how comedy can be constructed

24:04 Why Kuan-wen gave up learning Japanese in high school.

26:44 Yuriko's social media and 2022 Edinburgh Fringe show.

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For the avoidance of doubt, President Obonjo is a comedy character created by Anglo-Nigerian comedian Benjamin Bankelo Bello.

In clear contrast to the brash, uber-confident and larger-than-life self-appointed African dictator in exile who speaks with a thick African accent, the comedian Benjamin Bankelo Bello is a soft-spoken, suburban Englishman who often wears a cardigan on top of his shirt.

Benjamin has stormed his way on to the British comedy circuit as President Obonjo for more than a decade. So convincing is this character that some gullible punters actually believe The Lafta Republic does exist. That is until someone who never got the joke "ousted" him on TikTok.

Benjamin recently started to perform stand up comedy as himself - a process which he describes as his "therapy" as a "recovering character comedian" - and explained to your host Kuan-wen why the character President Obonjo was created in the first place. The character was based on Benjamin's real life experiences rather than just a whim. When Kuan-wen and Benjamin discuss how and why what accent is used, it traces back to Benjamin's personal history, with the untangling of British Empire as the backdrop. You also can't help but wonder that as President Obonjo comes so alive, maybe … sometimes it is he who is in charge?

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Follow President Obonjo on Instagram

Follow Benjamin as a stand up comedian himself on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

If you like the podcast, please like this episode and either follow or subscribe on the platform you use. You can also leave any comments on the podcast's instagram page or. email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

01:11 Intro

06:18 Moving between Nigeria and the UK

08:51 Brought up speaking English as first language in Nigeria

11:17 Benjamin's accent shift after arriving in the UK

14:58 A conscious efforts by other friends to keep their African accent(s)

17:41 Does Benjamin sound British or African?

19:44 Unable to switch off the character or switch between accents

21:30 Differences between stand up and character comedy

25:46 THERE IS NO LAFTA REPUBLIC

28:01 Creation of a dictator character based on real life experiences and extensive research

35:33 Performing to Nigerian audiences and at Black circuit gigs

40:19 Mocking Chinese accent and stereotypes at black circuit gigs

44:14 Benjamin and President Obonjo's social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Schalk Bezuidenhout was tour support for Trevor Noah and won South African Comics' Choice Awards' Newcomer and Break Through Act of the Year. This episode was recorded in May when the South African star brought his show to Soho Theatre in London for a 5-day run, filling the room with South African expats and local Brits alike.

Schalk explains the stereotypes attached to Afrikaans and talks about how Afrikaans speakers are often on the receiving end of jokes in South Africa, how the Afrikaans accent can be made fun of, Nevertheless, comedy serves as the unifying factor for the multi-racial post-Apartheid South Africa by creating a shared experience

When gigging abroad, the white South African label used to lead the audience to automatically assume the comic has got to be racist, so much so that a disclaimer is required. Schalk explains how things are changing and why he would always identify himself as an Afrikaans South African rather than just a South African.

*Apologies from your host in this episode as he mispronounced Afrikaans by omitting the "S" at the end on a few occasions.

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Follow Schalk on Instagram and his website

Schalk will be in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival this August! See Schalk in EdFringe

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

Your host Kuan-wen will be in Edinburgh in August, too!

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00:50 Intro

02:28 Afrikaans as a language (vs. Modern Dutch)

05:54 Schalk prefers performing in English

08:05 Languages in South Africa

09:28 South Africans’ less privileged passports

12:30 Schalk’s accent / comedy being one of the unifying factors in South Africa

16:11 Schalk performing in front of other ethnicities in South Africa

18:07 How Schalk was “forced” into learning English

19:29 Picking on English South Africans

19:59 Needing to warm up to switch to English

22:04 A party for South Africans (other guests welcome)

23:50 Changing words and slangs in the comedy set

25:39 Different approaches for gigging in different cities

28:36 A Public school is a Private school in the UK

29:34 People tend to ask “where’s your accent from?”

32:45 Afrikaans as oppressed (Anglo-Boer war) or oppressor (Apartheid)?

33:24 Comedy audience automatically assumed white South African comedians to be racist

36:30 The Afrikaans South African performer rather than just South African

38:41 South Africans in the UK more homesick than those in Australia

41:21 How many South Africans there are in the UK

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Your host Kuan-wen describes Freddi as one of the best kept secrets to comedy audience in the UK and the US.

Freddi has been a veteran on the Berlin stand up comedy scene, one of the largest in a non-English-speaking country in Europe thanks to the large number of expats in the city. In fact, it should be two scene"s", since Freddi used to perform both in German and in fluent English and the two only have a limited amount of crossovers. Most expat comedians perform only in English; more German comics perform in German.

When Comedy Central sought localised content across the globe, Freddi got on national TV in astonishing speed, as she and her generation of Berlin comics just got enough experiences at the right place and the right time. Then the pandemic happened and Freddi decided to give up performing comedy in German.

Your host Kuan-wen reunited with the "old friendly acquaintance" of his to discuss her journey and how she made up her mind. Freddi shared her insight into stand up comedy remaining a underground-ish sub culture in Germany for now. Freddi also explains how she finds it difficult to joke about her faith to Germans or to joke about sex club culture outside Berlin.

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Follow Freddi on Instagram

To get a flair of Freddi performing in German on TV

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:37 Intro

02:36 Freddi’s very American accent and its origin

05:51 German colonialism

08:08 Credential to joke about the Nazi grandfather

10:46 The make up of comedy audience in Berlin

14:19 Political Cabaret (Politisches Kabarett) in Germany

17:27 German audience not getting modern stand up comedy

18:59 Why Freddi gave up performing stand up in German

21:49 German audience not receptive of discussing someone’s faith in public

28:13 Changes in Berlin’s comedy scene

34:09 Not necessarily easier for the comedian to tell and write jokes in their mother tongue

39:23 Sex club culture referenced in Freddi’s Berlin jokes lost in translation in Edinburgh Fringe Festival

43:00 Freddi’s relationship with her (ex-) Christian faith

46:53 Is German an ugly-sounding language?

48:14 Freddi’s social media and her full German name

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Evaldas could have stayed in his native Lithuania and earned much more from doing comedy. After all, he started performing at a critical time in Lithuania when anyone who decided to perform was almost automatically a professional comedian.

Instead, the hopeless romantic fan of stand up comedy came to the UK and started again from bottom of the barrel - doing open mic gigs all over the place to work his way up. All these because he saw a visiting pro and concluded he had to leave to get good.

Your host Kuan-wen reunited with his victor - they both participated in a new act competition in Manchester in 2019. Your host came second; this episode's guest was the rightful winner.

Evaldas talks about how he worked on his English to soften the accent and how he gets annoyed when the audience make notes of his accent rather than focusing on his jokes. He talks about the "East European" label as seen by audience in the UK, as most Brits know very little about his home country.

You will also hear Evaldas' nuanced view on comedy sketches on social media, including his own ones, and the use of social media for comedians in general. Apart from comedy, the discussion also includes his take on the legacy of Russian/Soviet occupation in Lithuania

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Follow Evaldas on Instagram and Youtube

Evaldas also produced a very interesting documentary on his experience of participating in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as a new-ish comedian. See the documentary here.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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00:53 Intro

02:11 Evaldas’ seemingly American accent

04:58 Lithuania and Taiwan’s “Small Country Syndrome”

06:38 Evaldas would rather people focus on his jokes than on his accent (even if it is a praise)

09:01 Private English lessons in the past and continue to work on his English pronunciation

11:16 Being half Russian but not embracing the Russian side of heritage

13:52 Comedy audiences from Eastern Europe

15:36 Russian or English as foreign language in Lithuania

17:34 Why Evaldas moved to the UK (Manchester first, then London)

19:22 Lithuania’s fast-growing comedy scene

23:31 The regional “East European” identity

26:30 Not yet addressing a harsh and poor East European childhood on stage

27:26 A preference over American style comedy

30:43 Evaldas’ committed approach to comedy sketches on social media

32:17 Social media as a comedian’s necessary evil in this day and age

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Live at the Apollo star Esther Manito started performing stand up comedy only as recently as 2016 - not to forget we should probably count two years out because of the pandemic. The ex teacher has since brought two critically claimed solo shows (Crusade, #NotAllMen) to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and become the first female comedian to perform at Dubai Opera House.

Describing herself as an "Essex Arab Girl Comedian", Esther is in her own words a chameleon of accents having grown up between mixed and sometimes clashing cultures and social classes. Between an Arabic-speaking Lebanese father and a Geordie mother who switched to a southern English accent at home, Esther nevertheless wears the badge of her distinct Essex accent with pride.

This is the first episode to feature a distinct British regional accent. The Essex accent has an endearing nature but carries the social connotations of being thick and unsophiscated, best embodied by the all-time guilty pleasure reality TV show The Only Way is Essex.

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Follow Esther on Instagram or Twitter

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

Esther's hilarious podcast with comedian Lily Phillips: Ghastly Women

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Esther started performing stand up comedy as a young mother after she just gave birth to her second child. If you are interested in how Esther balances her family life whilst switching career as a comedian, there is a great episode on the Parenting Hell Podcast by Josh Widdecombe and Rob Beckett. Also recommended is the interview by comedian Cally Beaton on her podcast Namaste Motherfxxker.

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Episode timeline

00:57 Intro

01:48 First British regional accent featured on this podcast

03:12 A variety of Essex accents

05:17 A chameleon of accents - Esther’s mixed heritage

10:45 What the Essex accent makes Esther feel as opposed to a Posh British accent

12:43 The evolution of the modern Essex accent

13:42 Quirky examples of an Essex accent

19:03 Definition of a “chav”

20:37 Comedy and social classes in the UK - made more complicated by misperceptions of regional accents

23:10 Double standards applied to comedians with different accents on swearing

25:28 Fetishisation of “working class”

28:39 An outsider in her own home town

31:01 Ranting on stage and a comedic voice of “tiredness” of being a mum/wife/woman

34:49 Two funny arguments between Esther and her husband

38:00 A hardworking comedian that balances the life as a mother with young children

40:21 Discriminatory treatment of women in Kuan-wen's extended family

41:54 The name “Manito” and Esther’s maiden name

42:50 When English polite manner only confuses Esther’s Lebanese relatives

46:22 Esther’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

North Macedonia’s proudest export to the UK and so far the only North Macedonian comedian performing professionally on the UK comedy circuit, Vlad has appeared on BBC Stand Up for Live comedy in 2021. He took home various awards wins from Comedy Store London King Gong, Up The Creek Comedy Club’s One To Watch and The Stand Up Comedy Club’s “Get Up, Stand Up” competitions.

A sizeable chunk of the interview was given to explain why North Macedonia ended up being called North Macedonia, after years of appearing as FYR Macedonia in Eurovision, why “Macedonia” can be a tricky name to claim. Vlad explains his reluctance to spend more time on this point due to the general lack of awareness about his native land by the western word. We also explore the wider dynamics of the Balkons region and between the ex-Yugoslav neighbours and how this interacts with comedy.

Vlad also points out the double standards when Little Britain is pulled off the shelf, there is little outcry when it comes to Borat. We talk about employing stereotypes as tools for comedy and why ignorant depiction of foreigners continue to get by.

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Follow Vlad on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:40 Intro

03:09 Some introduction about Vlad’s native North Macedonia and why there is a “North” before “Macedonia”

07:03 People know little about other parts of the world why Vlad is tired of having to explain his nationality

10:46 Explain your accent at the start to build a relationship with your UK audience

15:26 The odd gig when the immigrant label irritated the audience

16:10 Could comedic exaggerations be taken as misleading factual statements?

19:22 How true are these jokes? The Serbian aunt boycotting Sex And The City joke and the Taiwanese army joke

24:05 Being the only comedian from your country on the UK comedy circuit

25:37 Is Macedonian just an extension of Bulgarian?

32:17 The Balkan discussion

34:21 Nostalgia towards Yugoslavia

37:35 The “Borat” question

44:27 Growing out of early jokes based on foreign stereotypes

48:25 Vlad’s social media

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

When your host messaged Dan about the interview at the start of this year, he replied that he was still on the move after leaving Russia. He could not be sure where he will have a legal paper to stay.

It's a weirder-than-ever time to be a Russian comedian, especially one who dared to joke about Putin's height in his comedy special. Dan followed his instinct to become a 'travelling comedian'. Travelling or exiling, depending on how you see it.

In deciding to leave Moscow, Dan ditched a successful career as a stand up comedian back home. Even though it was still possible to continue to perform in his mother tongue for the overseas Russians, Dan decided to convert himself to an English stand up performer. He did have to start over again but in his own words, it is a chance to re-invent himself from Денис Чужой (Denis Chuzhoy) to Dan The Stranger.

Dan talks about this extraordinary journey and his comedy choices - why he'd shy away from hack Russian stereotypes and how Mike Birbiglia inspired him with comedy story-telling.

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Follow Dan on Instagram

His stand up special (in Russian) released in September 2021 that was mentioned in this episode

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:48 Intro

02:47 From a (domestic) Russian comedian to an exiled/travelling Russian comedian performing in English

07:30 Declaring his view on the war is a must

09:21 Infrequent English performances prior to the exile

10:53 Conversion to a new language to make a living

14:04 A chance to re-invent yourself

16:00 Continue to learn English from an App

18:20 The journey out of Russia

20:49 How have Dan’s audience changed after he left Russia?

21:48 Russian overseas do not stick together

24:22 Hack jokes based on Russian stereotypes

30:51 90% thinking in Russian and 10% thinking in English

32:13 Dan’s special in Russian released in 2021

33:29 “Russian comedy”?

37:01 Police knocks of the door for his jokes

40:25 Dan’s atypical comedy choice as a Russian comedian

42:33 Writing jokes inside a story

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

The very first German speaker invited to this podcast is not from Germany, but from Austria - a relatively small country that produced a range of household names from Mozart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joseph Fritzl, Hitler to Conchita Wurst. This small country is also the remnants of the once mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Hubert explains why the loss of the empire creates a visibly darker sense of humour - as opposed to Germans - that is shared amongst Austrians, and how this in his cultural DNA shapes his edgier and darker choices of subjects in his comedy.

See Hubert's performance at Comedy Store

Hubert and Kuan-wen also discussed whether Hubert's incredibly deep voice, coupled with his mild but noticeable German accent, is rather soothing, creepy or manipulative in his comedy delivery.

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Hubert's Instagram and Twitter

Follow host Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

If you like the podcast, please like this episode and either follow or subscribe on the platform you use. You can also leave any comments on the podcast's instagram page or. email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:46 Intro

01:44 How to pronounce Hubert Mayr in German

02:59 Being a German speaker but coming from (the lesser known) Austria

05:51 "Not a bad accent"

07:25 Austrians having a milder accent speaking English compared to Germans

08:60 Austria v. Bavaria v, the whole of Germany

10:36 Placing Hubert's accent

11:46 Why does Hubert describe his accent as CREEPY?

14:06 Hubert's deep, low voice and its potential manipulative quality

21:05 Hubert's darker jokes - comedy coming from a place of pain

22:14 Austrians having a darker sense of humour

24:35 An off-track chat on schlagers

26:03 The empire hangover and WWII shaping Austrians' sense of humour

29:45 "The Sound of Music" and Kuan-wen singing "The Lonely Goater" in Mandarin from his boys choir days

33:39 The shaping of modern Austrian identify as an insignificant country after the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

36:47 Hubert's autobiographical comedy and why he refrains from criticising the British people

38:42 Laughing at his own (dark) jokes

39:57 Jokes about being Austria or famous people from Austria; jokes based on a nationality

45:57 The catholic upbringing

49:36 Hubert's social media

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Hubert mentioned two Austrian films: Indien - English title India - and Muttertag - English title Mother's Day.

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

[Notes for our non-Mandarin-speaking listeners, this is a one-off special episode recorded in Mandarin. We will be back to our normal bi-weekly episode in English on Jan 31st]

先祝各位聽眾一聲新年快樂，兔年行大運。

上一集以英文訪問來自美國波士頓，但在中國以相聲和單口喜劇走紅的艾杰西（Jesse Appell）。錄音當天，我們以中文分別又錄製了這一集。本集中文內容集中於主持人冠文與杰西討論中國與台灣所用中文的差異、杰西闡述他中文如何學到如此入骨的歷程、以及中國相聲「說、學、逗、唱」四大要點。

看看杰西的中文好得多驚為天人

杰西於中國電視節目表演內容

Winner of the prestigious So You Think You Are Funny competition in 2023, Samira Banks is a bright new star making waves on the UK comedy circuit. Her trademark jokes include her family’s journey fleeing their homeland as refugees. The crowd’s laughters are often raucous but some sensitive souls amongst them also pull their faces wondering. “Are we supposed to joke about refugees?”

On stage, Samira refers to her heritage as a broad “from the Middle East.” She never specifies which specific country that is. This question thus forms the central discussion of this episode and explains why in the episode title, both her mother tongue and her native country remain unspecified.

Growing up in Germany and moving to the UK for work, Samira is another guest with an international accent that is hard for others to associate it with a specific place. Samira shares her family’s stories and why a reunion of her extended family would turn into a mishmash of accents.

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Follow Samira on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:58 Intro

03:58 An international accent that is hard to pin down

06:58 Picking up multiple languages growing up

08:31 Why Samira chooses not to specify her home country when performing

13:09 Family history of fleeing and becoming refugees settling in different western countries

16:51 A closely-knit family and the elders’ funny views on romance and marriage

18:39 Between the English language, the German language and her mother tongue

19:48 German speakers refusing to see Samira as German

20:50 Some other complaints about German speakers

23:50 German v.s. British

25:22 Samira’s past naive assumption of anyone with accents from the north of England

27:04 Middle class refugees’ “privileges”

29:29 Difficulties of handling refugee experiences as comedy materials

31:52 What does Samira think about her position telling her parents’ life experiences?

35:59 Samira’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

In Philipp’s comedy set, he likes to open with “Hi, my name is Philipp. I come from Austria, America and Slovenia.” In real life, sometimes Austrians do not see him as Austrians (He left Austria at the age of four), Slovenians may not seen him as Slovenians, Americans might find something a bit off about him. Those Americans not familiar with an English accent might even think his accent is English.

A breakout star turned a regular at many best known comedy clubs across the UK, including The Comedy Store and Top Secret Comedy Club, Philipp could be mistaken as another American act who moved across the pond, whereas he in fact grew up in Slovenia but went to an international school and studied in English. It is only after he became an adult he is catching up with his Slovenian fluency with the help of a private tutor, motivated by a bit of regret.

Philipp shares how he feels not being tethered to one specific place and your host Kuan-wen describes him as an American born out of Europe. He talks about his belief in an international approach to his comedy, based on his own experience of feeling alienated at a comedy show in Edinburgh Fringe. He also talks about finally feeling at ease with himself, embracing the goofiness and silliness and becoming a better performer as a result.

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Follow Philipp on Instagram and his website

You can order Philipp's Comedy Special on line

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:48 Intro

05:23 Why Philipp was not invited to appear on Season One of the Podcast

08:56 Americans who treat family heritage as ethnicity

09:33 Growing up in Slovenia speaking English and German only (no Slovenian)

15:30 Where’s home? No where is Philipp tethered to

24:14 When did Philipp drop his middle name on stage?

26:18 An international approach to stand up comedy, not making any audience member alienated

29:05 How Philipps has changed as a performer since 2018

34:02 Producing student radio show at Royal Holloway University

37:37 Being comfortable with one’s true self

42:55 How to deal with the sense of not belonging anywhere

44:26 Philipp’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

How do you perform and progress on the comedy circuit, when you as a native English speaker already moved to an Asian country where the population does not speak English as their mother tongue (and there really isn’t much stand up comedy going on)?

Such is the story of Sam Yarb, co-founder of the leading comedy club in Taiwan - Two Three Comedy Club 二三喜劇. Sam started by arranging road trips to cities and towns of all sizes on the East Asian island to target the scattered English-speaking expats. Gradually, along came the Taiwanese people.

As stand up comedy becomes more popular and the Mandarin scene outgrows the English scene, Sam becomes the instrumental figure in bringing international acts to the island and connecting the English performers with neighbouring Asian countries.

We hear from Sam how he manages a comedy club in a foreign land and Sam’s observations on the local Taiwanese v.s. expat audience

The Firelight Chat podcast episode with Sam quoted in this episode:

On Apple Podcast

On Spotify

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Follow Sam on Instagram

Two Three Comedy Club on Facebook

Two Three Comedy Club on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:44 Intro

02:51 Sam’s accent

05:03 How Sam started performing comedy in Southern Taiwan (a short Northern v.s. Southern Taiwan debate)

06:36 Comedy road trips in Taiwan

08:51 Audience make-ups in small Taiwanese towns and tailoring materials

10:57 A self-deprecating American comic in front of a Taiwanese audience

15:50 Expat v.s. Taiwanese audiences

19:56 Taiwanese approaching stand up comedy shows with curiosity

23:07 Taiwan - China relations as comedy material?

26:12 Expat audience in Taiwan v.s. US audience

26:57 Nationality comparison based comedy materials

28:34 Being a comedy promoter/producer in Asia

30:31 How the small town gigs are organised and promoted

31:31 Writing all funny ideas that come to mind and making selections later

35:03 Sam’s Social Media and 23 Comedy Club in Taipei

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Could you ever imagine no longer having a fixed place you call home, not even having a storage space to keep your belongings, that you are just constantly on the road, crossing borders at times, moving from one city to another?

Such is the life style of Victor Patrascan, a truly nomadic comedian who has been on the road since 2020, all for his love for performing stand up comedy.  In 2022 alone, he has traveled to 27 countries across 2 continents and performed in 70 cities.

In the first episode of this podcast’s long due second season, your host was reunited with this old friend of his when Victor came to the UK for a few shows.  Well respected by his peers, Victor’s line was quoted by three other guests from foreign backgrounds, all of who were previously featured on this podcast:

“Before I came to the UK, I was just a guy.  Now I am a Romanian.”

Victor used to be a London-based act, until despairs caused by  Covid lockdowns energised him to sell his belongings and start travelling and performing in continental European countries.  He now performs to a mixture of local and expat crowds, although the majority of them are not native English speakers.

In this episode, Victor talks about the differences between his old days of gigging in the UK and now on the road.  There is a significant amount of disagreement between your host and Victor in this episode, as they have varying views on the boundaries of stand up comedy.  But what they have in common was to agree to disagree agreeably.

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Follow Victor on Instagram  Victor is touring, find him when he comes to your town

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:43 Prelude - explaining why the episode is released late

01:33 Intro - chitchat

03:19 Victor’s home town; Romanian immigrants in Europe

05:51 Where’s the line when you mock and criticise another country?

07:40 Agree to disagree agreeably

09:51 A comedian who is constantly touring

12:25 Is there a trade off being constantly on the road?

14:54 Proud of his own accent, “This is who I am”

18:55 Having to explain his accent and he’s Romanian facing the UK audience in the past

21:31 Fair game to mock someone’s accent at a comedy show?

30:43 Racism faced in continental Europe for being Romanian; some credit to the UK

34:05 Ever feeling lonely on the road?

36:14 Now performing to other foreigners

38:55 Difference of use of English between continental European and UK audiences

42:53 Crowd work (audience interactions) - social media clips

49:01 Ultimately it’s about being funny

50:42 Victor’s social media

51:04 Both people on the left and right sees Victor as if he had horns

52:31 Being funny and/or being philosophical

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

This week, your host Kuan-wen would like to introduce the burgeoning comedy scenes in his native Taiwan - both in English and in Mandarin - as an example of how Asia is catching the stand up comedy fever (and catching up!). Since he has not lived in Taiwan for over a decade, the introduction is recorded through the eyes of an Englishman who has spent the last few years first in Shanghai and then in Taipei.

Outside comedy, Adam is a journalist who moved to Asia for work and perhaps for a bit of change of scenery. Then Covid happened and the lucky Adam enjoyed a relatively free year of 2020 in Taiwan. He was heavily involved in the English-speaking "expat scenes" in Taiwan, witnessing the growth of the parallel local scene and even started performing in Mandarin himself.

There are long queues for people who want to sign up to perform. Someone's first open mic gig may be in front of an audience of 180. But, occasionally, you perform to audience who are actually not that fluent in English and are introduced as, "here comes a white dude who performs stand up comedy."

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Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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01:02 Intro

04:08 Kuan-wen and Adam swapped their homelands

07:05 Adam’s (West) Yorkshire accent

09:22 Adam’s Taiwanese sounding Mandarin accent

12:21 How Taiwanese and Chinese speak differently

13:54 Taiwan’s Mandarin and English Open Mic scenes

17:45 Avoiding references not relevant to audience in Asia

20:36 Why did Adam move to Shanghai first and Taiwan later

24:00 Adam spent 2020 Covid free in Taiwan

27:59 Comedy based on East Asian stereotypes

35:05 English comedy shows in Asia and “Expat scenes”

39:08 Adam’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

"What's your mother tongue?" A simple question.. Cansu Karabiyik, our guest this week, replied, "That's a complicated question. I don't really have a national identity anymore."

As a Kurdish/Turkish Danish citizen who studied abroad first in America then at Cambridge University in the UK, Cansu is an example that national identity and our relationship with a language may not always be straightforward.

Cansu in this episode talks to your host Kuan-wen about how she had to adjust her comedy performing style since moving across the pond from London to New York. With such a complex background, how she selectively chooses bits about her to include in her introductory lines to provide the context for subsequent jokes. Your host and the guest also had a gentle dig at the Cambridge University and the world famous Cambridge Footlights club (hopefully all justified after you watch the video - see link below!)

Cansu debating "Cambridge Footlights have NOT ruined British Comedy" (cringe...)

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Follow Cansu on Instagram.

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For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Episode timeline

00:42 Intro

02:14 A Kurdish comedian from Denmark who parents are from Turkey

05:04 Changes to Cansu’s accent since she moved from the UK to New York

06:51 British humour v New York audience

12:42 Kurdish v Turkish v Danish, which one is Cansu’s mother tongue?

14:22 Kuan-wen draws parallels between his Taiwanese and Cansu’s Kurdish

15:23 Cansu’s confusing accent to others

17:12 Unconscious bias to link ethnicity to choice of languages

18:35 How Cansu works with her confusing accent performing comedy

21:33 English is a language reserved for comedy jokes

23:10 Cansu’s straight talking from Danish and Middle Eastern cultures

25:50 Being “other”ed in Denmark and the Danish Ghetto Laws

30:05 Differences between Kurdish people in Turkey/Iraq/Syria/Iran

32:46 Cansu’s Cambridge and Cambridge Footlight experience---------------------------------

Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Described by some as the "mother hen" of Singapore's burgeoning stand up comedy scene, Sam has just performed his solo show "Government Approved Sex" to critical acclaim at this year's Melbourne Comedy Festival.

This episode was recorded at the start of 2023 when Sam returned to the UK after a mini-tour in continental Europe (preceded by a full Edinburgh fringe run last summer).

Sam shares why his mother tongue Mandarin isn't his most proficient language - something that is not uncommon for Singaporeans. He explains how Singapore's language policy means he no longer speaks the languages of his grandparents, which his parents use to openly hide secrets from him.

Sam also provides his insightful take on the differences between audiences in Singapore, continental Europe and the UK.

Due to your host's friendship with Sam, there have been a lot of banters and swear words so apologies for the numerous beeps this episode!

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Follow Sam on Instagram, Twitter and his website

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00:52 Intro (Bickering between the guest Sam and your host Kuan-wen)

05:24 Not fluent in his mother tongue - Mandarin

07:14 Singapore’s official language and de facto lingua franca

09:52 Why doesn’t Sam speak any southern Chinese languages?

13:12 International school v Chinese school students

15:23 Sam’s not-quite-Singlish English accent

17:50 Choosing to focus on stand up comedy in English instead of Mandarin

19:35 Sam’s role in Singapore’s stand up comedy scene/ opening for Jim Jeffery

21:40 Scottish comedians slowing down when performing in Singapore

22:43 Singapore’s complex relationship with its neighbour Malaysia

24:38 On Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew

27:43 Differences between comedy audiences in Singapore, continental Europe and the UK

29:19 Sam’s "Introductory Set"

31:41 Kuan-wen’s example of how comedy savvy the UK audience can be

32:42 Sam’s “Introductory Set” when performing abroad

36:20 Does Sam always mention he is gay on stage abroad?

38:29 Sam’s military service experience

41:04 Sam’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe