60 Second stand up: Shazia Mirza
BY Anna Walker
1st Jan 2015 Humour
We chatted with Edinburgh Festival’s sassy Shazia Mirza for the latest instalment of 60-second stand-up.
What’s your favourite of your own jokes?
It’s very rude and I only tell it in exceptional circumstances…
Have you found parts of the country funnier than others?
There are certain places—Liverpool and with drunk people in Birmingham—where the audience thinks they’re funnier than you.
Any funny stories about a time you bombed on stage?
One Swedish show went so badly that I had to leave through a toilet window in the barn where I was performing. As I was squeezing through my shoe fell off, so I had to run away from the farmyard with one shoe on.
What’s your favourite one-liner?
Joan Rivers: “No man wants an intelligent woman. You’ve never heard of a man putting his hand up a dress looking for a library card.”
Who’s your biggest comedy inspiration?
Richard Pryor’s groundbreaking show Live on Sunset Strip was made 35 years ago and it’s still funny. It’s hard to do something now that will still be relevant in 35 years because young people’s interests are so fleeting.
If you were a fly on the wall, whose wall would you be on?
Vladimir Putin. I need to find out what’s really going on there.
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
I’d love to be able to control people’s minds—I could change everything.
Shazia Mirza will be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month. Visit edfringe.com for tickets.
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