Shazia Mirza brings new show to Bridgnorth
Comedy fans can strap in for a hilarious and uplifting joyride into the art of survival in a world of crocodiles, coconuts, solitary confinement and alpha males in the award-winning, critically-acclaimed new show from Shazia Mirza.
Following the success of her last solo shows, ‘With Love From St. Tropez’, a riot of Brexit and burqas through the lens of the periodic table, and ‘The Kardashians Made Me Do It’, a searing and urgent exploration of life, love and Jihadi brides, Shazia is now taking on the burning issues of our time.
What’s going on? Why is everyone fighting? Why does everyone hate each other? Who the hell is Alexa? And why are there no women left with real eyebrows? Women are in fashion now but the eyebrows come and go? And why do all the right-wing papers keep calling her for answers every time there is a paedophile with the same skin colour as her? Can we really educate people? Can we drag anyone forward against their will?
Recently seen back to absolute basics in Channel 4’s Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, taking a speedy turn (2.07 seconds to be exact) in BBC2’s Top Gear and temporarily enjoying the high life in Channel 4’s Travel Man – 48 Hours In… Côte d’Azur, Shazia has also guested on ITV’s Jonathan Ross and Loose Women, BBC1’s The One Show, and is a regular panellist on Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff.
In 2008 she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, won ‘Columnist of the Year’ at the prestigious PPA Awards for her fortnightly column in The New Statesman and won The GG2 Young Achiever of the Year Award.
She has performed all over the world, selling out performances from Singapore to Kosovo, and regularly writes for various publications, including The Guardian, The Financial Times and New Internationalist.
Shazia is happy to be on the road: “The show is based on me doing Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls. There were five men and five women. More women survived than men and it’s about that. Some people didn’t like me and I didn’t like them either, but we kept our hatred under wraps. People were bickering and we didn’t get on but we knew we were there for a month. If we’d started falling out with each other in the beginning it would have been difficult to survive. In the end, the people who didn’t like each other survived.”
Shazia says there are parallels with modern times, where the national discourse has become divisive.
“The Archbishop of Canterbury said there was a time when we kept our hatred to ourselves and as a result of that we were kind of faking it until we made it. Since Brexit, we know that everybody hates each other and there’s no going back. It’s all out there. We know what people really think. That’s what happened on the island too. I lived that. When we came off we forgot why we didn’t like each other. We realised it was just the situation with no water and food and terrible weather and a tsunami. Afterwards, we got on. But now, it’s all out there and everybody feels they can say anything and it’s okay.
“I think the Archbishop was right. I use the island as a metaphor for the world. It’s also about being a woman. I made it to the end and did the fishing and constantly when I came off people were saying [you’re a strong woman’. I was wondering what a ‘strong woman’ was. What is that label we put on them? The men were referred to as alpha males. Mark Watson was on the island and described himself as not an alpha male.”
Shazia says her experience on the island was unique and provided her with plenty of material for her show. “I had to think about what I want to say about this. it was a unique experience being stranded on a desert island who didn’t know each other. I have a bit about the stigma about people who do reality TV. Josie long did the series before and said it was a once in a lifetime thing. It was more survival than reality.”
Shazia is looking forward to returning to the Midlands, having been brought up in Birmingham. “I lived there for the first 19 years of my life. My parents and one of my brothers are still there.
“I don’t think you can ever escape the place you came from. It dictates a lot about you. You remember the people there. The girls I went to school with got married there, work there and will die there. Not everybody gets up and get out as I did. When I meet people from Birmingham who are not even comedians, I just start laughing. They’re just naturally funny.”
Shazia Mirza plays Bridgnorth’s Theatre on the Steps on Saturday, March 14.
