Shazia Mirza performed in the very first Funny Women event 14 years ago. Even then she was receiving death threats for daring to be a Muslim woman who told jokes about 9/11 and since then her bag of hate mail has continued to grow. Brave, provocative and incredibly funny, Shazia has never shirked her faith and her brutally honest portrayal of an urban first-generation Pakistani British upbringing dominates her material.
Shazia’s latest show The Kardashians Made Me Do It first surfaced as a work in progress at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Inspired by the three girls who left Bethnal Green to join ISIS, and an unrelated radio piece Shazia contributed to the BBC which subsequently received a record number of complaints, the show explores the nature of offence.
Contemplating the life of a Jehadi bride isn’t a natural theme for comedy but as Shazia says: “The weather in Britain isn’t great, and the sunsets and landscape in Syria are meant to be very romantic…” She considers why the three teenage graduates from the Bethnal Green ‘Jehademy’ swapped GCSEs for romance in the desert.
Even some of Shazia’s old material gets a face lift, demonstrating that a good joke never goes to waste in experienced comedy hands. In contrast the show ends with a hardcore dose of disturbing newsreel and video footage of ISIS with weapons and executions, demonstrating that comedy is never far away from tragedy.
Shazia’s recent appearance on the Jonathan Ross Show, where she upstaged her A-lister fellow guests (Hugh Jackman, Taron Egerton, Luke Evans and Primal Scream) attracted more attention from female fans about her hair, blouse and shoes rather than what she said, which was hilarious – if you don’t believe me check her Twitter feed!
Although it’s sad that women often judge other women on appearance rather than what they have to say, the glamour attracts attention and makes them listen so it can’t be all bad. Shazia is using all her best ammunition to show us that she is one of the most talented female comics on the circuit today.
Extra dates of The Kardashians Made Me Do It, will run at the Soho Theatre from Monday 4th to Thursday 7th April, 7.30pm. Shazia is also on tour, for more information click here!
