| Ref No | BSUCA/OD/1/30 |
| Collection | Oliver Double Collection |
| Title | Shazia Mirza interviewed by Oliver Double |
| Name of creator | Double, Oliver, 1965- |
| Date | 28/06/2004 |
| Duration | 19 min. 55 sec. |
| Extent | 1 sound disc (MiniDisc) (80min) |
| 1 audio file Broadcast WAVE Format (BWF) |
| Description | Shazia Mirza interviewed by Oliver Double by telephone, 28th June 2004 This interview was conducted by Double for his book 'Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy' (2005)
Summary:
[0.04] OD asks SM how long she has been doing stand-up [0.13] SM says she first started 4 years ago and got into it by accident. She went to drama school and after this she just wanted to be on stage. She tried out some material and couldn't stop. But at first she knew nothing about stand-up or the comedy circuit [1.07] OD asks what venues SM started out in [1.09] SM says she started out in terrible venues, downstairs in pubs with 3 or 4 people [1.28] OD asks SM how her career then 'took off' [1.30] SM says at first it was terrible material but then, after watching other comedians, she understood more about what it was all about, telling her own stories. She found that her stories were much different from the traditional white male comics [2.45] OD asks about SM's process of preparation for a show [3.02] SM says she used to have a pair of trousers which she wore on her first ever show. But she's glad she forced herself to throw the trousers away because she realised she doesn't need anything like that to make her funny [4.04] OD asks how SM generates her material
[4.20] SM said her methods have changed recently. Because she has only been doing stand-up for 4 years, she is just starting to realise what she really wants to say. At the start her material would be very tight with lots of punchlines, but she found this did represent what she really wanted to say. She now wants to write about her real experiences. She will now think of an idea and talk to someone about it and then record that conversation and types it up and learns this [7.08] OD asks about how SM structures her set especially when she was doing gag-based sets [7.22] SM said she would start with one-liners and then go into certain topics and practice a lot to ensure getting the punch-line right [9.18] OD asks whether SM's performance style has changed to fit with the changed in material [9.31] SM says that when she began she was very scared, but now she is very relaxed on stage and she is very much the same on and off stage [10.43] OD talks about the relationship between audience and performer and how SM feels being a young, British-Muslim female comedian [11.48] SM says she does lots of gigs and in some situations she is very different from the audience such as in working men's clubs, gay & lesbian venues etc. However the audience seems to feel like they have something in common with her [14.36] OD asks about SM's feelings towards people drinking at her gigs, when this is something she does not do [14.46] SM says this does not bother her too much because she has grown up in a society where a lot of people drink [15.11] OD asks whether SM gets frustrated being asked about her faith [15.20] SM says she does tire of this and it does impact on how she is perceived and how she is labelled for example she said it was the reason why she was labelled one of the top 20 inspirational women of the year [16.44] OD briefly apologises for using such labels in his questioning but explains that he has done this for several interviewees in order to really explore the voice and perspective the comedians takes. OD then asks if any of SM's live material is available to buy [17.22] SM says she has recently done 60 minutes in America and this came out recently and is available on video [17.55] OD thanks SM for her interview [18.14] recording ends. |
| Notes | 1 MiniDisc, digitised to LPCM wave 16 bit 44.1kHz. Digitised using Sony Minidisc Deck MDS-JE53; Roland Edirol UA-25; and Adobe Audition CC 2014. 2016-03-21. |
| Category | Audio recordings |
| Access conditions | Available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU. Access is available via digital listening copies. The University of Kent acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors in this recording and the rights of those not identified. |
| Copyright | Oliver Double; Shazia Mirza |
| Level | Item |