English Comedy night in Berlin

Tuesday 31 January sees the first Time Out Berlin English comedy night in conjunction with London Laughs. As huge fans of comedy we thought we would bring some of England's finest talent to Berlin for a special evening of English comedy.

Performing on the night will be the very special, the very talented and incredibly funny, Shazia Mirza. The Guardian columnist, TV personality, social commentator and all round revered comic shot to fame in the early noughties as the self proclaimed, 'first Muslim, female comic' as she performed in a headscarf.

Hosting the evening as well as performing, we have the Laughing Cow herself, Maureen Younger. Maureen Younger is a firm favourite in the local German comedy scene, as a former resident of the area; she performs in both German and English. If you have been lucky enough to see her perform you will be fully aware of just how funny and infectious this women is.

In preparation of our first evening of English Comedy, we decided to sit down with Shazia and Maureen for a few minutes and ask some questions.

Hello guys, why don't we start with a little introduction from you both?
Maureen: Hi Time Out Berlin, I am Maureen Younger, I am from London, I am a stand up comic, an actor and a Presenter.
Shazia: Hi Berlin, I am Shazia, stand up comedian and writer from London.

You are both performing at Time Out Berlin and London Laughs English comedy night, have either of you previously spent much time in Berlin?
M: Yes, I’ve been gigging in Berlin for several years now. I regularly headline the English Comedy Night there as well as gigging in German (I happen to speak fluent German with an Austrian accent!). I’ve also worked as an actor at the English Theatre Berlin.
S: I have performed in Berlin for many years now. I first did The Berlin comedy Festival in 2002 at The Tempodrome.

Maureen, did you use to live in Germany?
M: I actually used to live in Austria (hence my Austrian accent) and also spent some time near Frankfurt working for the Japanese company, Mazda. Let’s put it this way, I don’t think my personality was a perfect match for my rather traditional Japanese boss.  So, I left and went back to the UK.
 
Can you explain the concept behind Laughing Cows?
On the UK comedy scene you rarely have more than one female comic on the bill. Promoters believe if there is more than one female comic on, it’ll put people off the night. Laughing Cows was set up in 1998 after a London comedy promoter inadvertently threw down the proverbial gauntlet to Laughing Cows founder, Hazel O’Keefe. "We were discussing female comics and I asked why there's never more than one female comedian on the bill and he said, oh we wouldn't take that risk," she explains. O'Keefe has been taking the 'risk' ever since.  In short, Laughing Cows aims to showcase and champion women in comedy and to provide performance opportunities to female comics in a warm and supportive atmosphere. Originally set up in 1998, Laughing Cows currently runs nights in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Berlin.
 
How did you two meet, and do you often gig together?
M: We met on the circuit.  There’s a lot of travelling involved in stand up so we have spent many a car journey together.  Shazia is a Laughing Cows favorite so she often appears at our nights and I’ve also supported Shazia on the tour of her one-woman show 'A Portrait of Shazia Mirza’.
S: We gig together so often, people think we're sleeping together. But believe me I can just about cope with Maureen on stage never mind in bed. We met on the circuit doing gigs and realized we were both as sad as each other so we became friends.

Shazia, you made your name as the first Muslim comedian in a hijab. What happened to your headscarf?
S: I wore that tea cosy for 6 months as part of a character I was developing. That was it. It was never anything to do with religion or politics for me.

You both live in London now, how does performing in London differ to performing in Berlin?
M: Berlin crowds are definitely less raucous than some London crowds can be.  That can be a bit of a shock to the system if you’ve been gigging a lot at the more ‘lively’ London comedy nights.  Also German audiences aren’t used to the kind of banter that’s normal at a UK club, heckling doesn’t really exist and of course no one’s drunk!
S: The difference is that in London people understand what I’m saying and laugh. In Berlin they think I'm a maid and look at me like I'm a documentary.

What has been your worst away from home gig?
M: I did an afternoon gig in German the last time I was in Berlin and basically I died a slow and painful death.  One woman even walked out.  I can safely say I learned that day that some jokes do not translate!  In Germany you’re meant to go back on stage at the end of the show (something that never happens in the UK) and I decided to stay in the green room instead for obvious reasons.  After the show I thought I would wander round what looked like a local park to cheer myself up and it turned out to be a cemetery, which I thought, was quite appropriate.  On the plus side I happened to stumble across the grave of Bertolt Brecht.
S: I performed in Kosovo once in a cave with no electricity; no stage no microphone and no chairs. People still managed to laugh but Rotweilers chased me out of the venue, so clearly they didn't find it as funny.

Shazia, what has been your favorite gig and why?
S: A show I did in the US. It was 500 gay men in a small room in San Francisco. It was hot, camp, but very sexy.

Before we go, can you tell us your favorite one liner, and why your Berlin gig with Time Out is going to be so great?
M: Here’s one of my favorite jokes by Lee Mack, "My old man used to say, "When in Rome do as the Romans do..." That was just before he got locked up in an Italian prison for murdering 20,000 Christians".
S: "Things in Greece are tough at the moment. They've had to shut the Tzatziki and Taramasalata factories.  It's a double dip recession". Some bloke I met on holiday told me this joke, and I nearly drowned in the sea i thought it was so funny.

Laughing Cows Berlin will be great. What more do the Germans want but two gorgeous funny women?

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves. Quite frankly Time Out Berlin and London Laughs English Comedy Night is going to be a blast with these two at the helm.

Kookaburra Comedy Club

Time Out Berlin and London Laughs presents Shazia Mirza and Maureen Younger Live, Kookaburra Comedy Club, Schönhauser Allee 184, 10119 Berlin (030 486 231 86, www.comedyclub.de). U2 Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Date Tue 31 Jan. Admission €10.00 or €8.00 for students.