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 Fre ..read more

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 f ..read more

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。 --------------------------------- 在 IG 上訂閱追蹤本集來賓 Jamie ..read more

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 ..read more

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 wh ..read more

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 ..read more

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 traditiona ..read more

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 i ..read more

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! Th ..read more

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 rea ..read more