Shazia Mirza looks into the nature of offence at Brighton's Komedia

People just love to take offence, says award-winning comedian Shazia Mirza.
Shazia Mirza. Picture by Linda NylindShazia Mirza. Picture by Linda Nylind
Shazia Mirza. Picture by Linda Nylind

She doesn’t know why, but they do – and it’s one of the key threads in her most successful show ever, The Kardashians Made Me Do It.

“I did this show last year from February to May, and the whole tour sold out. I am now doing the extended dates. It is something that has never happened to me before.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She plays Brighton Komedia on Thursday, March 2 (08452 938 480).

Inspired by 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 tells of the confusion it caused as she looks into the nature of offence.

Shazia looks at the dangers of politically-correct liberalism versus the sinister and terrifying intrusion of ISIS into the lives of young British Asian women and explores the phenomenon of jihadi brides.

“The show is about four things really, and one of them is about people being offended. It is the new national pastime. Everybody is offended. Some people don’t know why they are offended; other people are offended on behalf of other people; and some people are offended because other people are not offended enough. I don’t know why!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“A woman wrote to me and said ‘I came to see your show and I was very offended, but I can’t remember why.’ She asked which bits might have offended her, so I suggested some of the topics. I was thinking ‘This is great! I can use it in my show!’

“I just don’t know why so many people are offended by so many things. I don’t get offended really. As a comedian, you hear a lot of stuff and people say a lot of stuff to me, but really I can’t remember the last time I was offended. But the rest of the show is about ISIS. It is so ridiculous what these girls did.

“After these girls left, their families were called before the home affairs select committee and were asked why these girls went to Syria. The sister of one of them said ‘I can’t understand why she went. She used to watch The Kardashians.’ I thought ‘Oh well, I am going to do some comedy about that!’ And it is very funny. People are loving it. It’s a subject that people never thought they could laugh about.

“I give my opinion on as to why I think they have gone. I have done a lot of research into this, and it is a long, long routine. That part is 25 minutes, and I do explain why I think they went. I do say that if you look at their life, their family, their parents… These girls didn’t feel they fitted in… There are various factors.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Comedian and columnist Shaziz has appeared on various TV and radio shows including Have I Got News For You (BBC), NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Beautiful People (BBC2), The World Stands Up (Paramount Comedy), and a regular slot on Radio 2’s Vanessa Feltz Show and Radio 4’s The Now Show.

She has performed internationally from Texas to Kosovo and has been a regular contributor to The Financial Times, The Daily Mail and wrote a weekly column in The Guardian entitled Dairy of a Disappointing Daughter and was recently a guest on ITV’s Jonathan Ross Show and Loose Women.

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 PPA Awards for her fortnightly column in The New Statesman and won The GG2 Young Achiever of the Year Award.

Click here to buy tickets.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page

3 Follow us on Twitter

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

Be part of it.

Related topics: