Shappi Korsandi – Stand up

BBC Learning 1 EnglishWeekenderShappi Korsandi – Stand upCallum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender.
　　The EdinburghInternational festival is a month-long arts and culturalfestival held in August in Scotland's capital city,Edinburgh. A large part of the Festival is known as thefestival fringe 2 which puts on performances of theatre,comedy and music.
　　In today's programme we feature Shappi Khorsandi an artistwho performed a stand-up comedy show at this year'sEdinburgh Festival Fringe. Our reporter Claire Mace 3 caughtup with her after her show. Where does Shappi come from andhow when did she start doing stand up?
　　Shappi KorsandiMy name is Shappi Korsandi and I'm from London but I'mIranian and I'm doing a show at the Edinburgh festivalcalled Asylum 4 Speaker.
　　How did you become a female 5 stand-up comedienne?
　　Well, I've always been a female and the stand-up comedycame later in my life when I started to go to lots and lotsof comedy clubs and I realised that it was the job for me.
　　And finally when I was about 23 or 24 I started to do showsat little comedy clubs around London and slowly that gotbigger and better and I became professional.
　　Callum: Shappi is Iranian by descent 6 but comes from London.
　　She started doing stand up in her early twenties. And inher act, what kind of jokes does she tell?
　　Shappi KorsandiI make jokes about a lot of things, pop music, stuff 7 that'sgoing on in my life, for example I'm getting married inSeptember. I was born in Iran, so that's a rich source ofhumour, talkingabout my background and the culture that I come from. Beingmiddle-eastern anything that's going on in the middle-eastis a source of material for me. And I talk about morecommon things like boyfriends and clothes and being shy andall sorts of things, so just things that are personal. Ithink that my humour is all based on personal stuff that'shappened to me or that I'm going through.
　　Callum: Shappi's jokes are based on her personalexperiences, such as her getting married, everyday topicslike pop music, clothes and boyfriends and also her Iranianheritage. She describes her middle-eastern background as arich source of material – a rich source of material – attopic which has lots of opportunities for humour.
　　Being a Londoner with an Iranian background gives Shappi aninsight into both cultures – do the British and Iranianshave similar senses of humour? What difference does shemention?
　　Shappi KorsandiI think that British people have a very self-deprecatingsense of humour. And Iranian humour tends to be a lot morephilosophical I guess in some ways. We don't laugh atourselves as much as the British do.
　　Callum: She says that the British have a self-deprecatingsense of humour – self- deprecating – we often make funof ourselves more than Iranians do. She goes on to explainmore about the differences between British and Iranians.
　　She talks about 'cracking jokes' which is anotherexpression for making jokes and'breaking the ice' which refers to doing something in asituation where people don't know each other to makeeveryone feel more relaxed and comfortable. Listen out forthose expressions.
　　Shappi KorsandiBut I have to say that the biggest difference betweenIranians and British people is thatIranian people have all sorts of formalities that you havewith people you don't know butBritish people you can meet someone in a shop or atpassport control and you can crack a joke. And that's thebiggest difference I think. What I love about Britishhumour is that whoeveryou are, whoever you meet people crack jokes and it breaksthe ice. Perhaps that's because British culture tends to bemore reserved so you need to crack the ice, Iranian peopletend to get intimate 8 with each other a lot quicker thanBritish people do so perhaps there's not that immediateneed for humour. So that I think is the main difference.
　　Callum: British people, she says, use humour as a way tobreak the ice and crack jokes with strangers in a way thatIranians don't. She thinks this may be because the Britishare more reserved.
　　Well that's all from this edition of Weekender.