Comedy with an Accent Kuan-wen Huang

Comedy powerhouse Arielle Souma is the very first French guest on this podcast after more than thirty episodes (FINALLY!). Unapologetic, unfiltered and oozing “I don’t give a f**k” energy, Arielle is known for her commanding stage presence and her punchy, intense and impactful comedy delivery. Arielle talks about keeping her English simple and accessible, thus easier to understand for non-native English speakers in the audience. Also, some of those long words are just too pompous for her liking.
Arielle also talks about how English works better for her rhythms as a language than her native French. The cheeky French comic claims it makes sense to pronounce various words à la française, since that’s the origin of those English words. Unless it’s words like paedophilia that requires a bit of phonetic precision.
As a mixed-race black woman raised by a white French family, Arielle talks about her hilarious over-compensating “trying to be more black than black” phase in the past. Surprisingly, the UK black comedy circuit does not particularly welcome her with open arms, just because her blackness does not fit in the several archetypes. She may be too confusing to tick a box for the industry and too saucy for the mainstream media, but if you are a London comedy club regulars, chances are you will get blown away when Arielle rocks up at the show.
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Follow Arielle on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram
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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com
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01:08 Pre-recording chat (trashing Ivorians and Nigerians)
03:07 Intro
04:43 Unfiltered and blunt
05:54 A French accent and using it
09:49 Arielle prefers her name pronounced in English
10:30 Opening a comedy set by addressing the French accent
11:29 An African identity in addition to the French identity
12:45 A black girl raised by a white family
16:11 How Arielle raised her son to be proud of the colour of his skin
17:03 Pros and cons of a French speaker learning English
18:26 What kind of English pronunciation does a non-native speaker pursue?
20:12 An example where Arielle had to correct her pronunciation to ensure the audience understand her
22:09 Keeping the words used simple
25:04 A boxing-like comedy rhythm
27:13 On swearing
31:21 Racism in France v.s. in the UK
39:06 Being othered on the black comedy circuit in the UK
42:36 Too spicy for mainstream media?
46:14 Running a French comedy show in London
48:58 Arielle’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Gino Christofaro is the podcast’s first guest whose home city is not indicated in the episode title. He simply cannot name one.
Being an embassy kid, Gino never had a childhood home like many of us do.
Gino has been featured on Comedy Central Germany’s Roast Battle and is a now TV writer in both English and German for Comedy Central, ZDF, Paramount+ and Amazon.
Born in São Paolo, Brazil, Gino was brought “back” to Bonn, Germany then moved with his parents to Saudi Arabia, Argentina…. just to name a few. Not in once place has Gino stayed for more than three years. He had one year to make good friends, another year to enjoy the friendships only to lose those friends later. Now Berlin-based, Gino identifies more with New York that dominated his childhood TV and where he started performing (but he is not even an American to call NYC home).
A running gag in this interview is how Gino pays so much attention to his hairs, which your host mocks as a “First World Problem”. But the hair issue runs deep and reflects the childhood anxiety of a constant outsider always trying to fit in a new environment. The “embassy kid” journey forged Gino’s unique cadence in his mother tongue and influenced his approach to stand up comedy and to the audience.
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Gino is going on tour in April! Check out Gino’s shows here
Follow Gino on Instagram
Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter
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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com
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00:42 Intro
02:16 What is his name “Gino” short for?
03:11 A German Brazilian (of Italian descent)
05:54 A New York English accent and a “weird” German accent
08:13 Gino’s hair issues (one key theme throughout the interview)
10:18 On Gino’s Jersey/New York accent again
10:52 A little rant on Little Italy, Italian New Yorkers, Albanians
14:25 Why Gino was constantly during his childhood
16:15 On Gino’s hair issues again
18:57 Where does Gino consider to be home? Berlin or New York?
20:17 An identity-less guy, a German perceived to be faking American
22:31 Identity-less or little traits of all different places?
26:06 How much does Gino have to explain his identity at the start of his comedy set?
28:26 Gino’s German-ness questioned
29:27 A comedian’s attire and audience’s expectation
32:03 From anxious comic to not caring about what people think
39:20 Sadness and depression and how it’s reflected in his comedy (and social media)
45:23 The German (language) comedy scene
47:21 What Gino represents as an English comedy performer
52:27 Does liberal Berlin give Gino a false sense of comfort?
54:20 Gino’s social media
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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

This is a special episode recorded in Mandarin with our Chinese guest Jamie Wang from last week. For the non-Mandarin-speaking guests, our regular episode in English will be updated next Tuesday April 9th at 7am. （It's the normally bi-weekly schedule so this bonus episode does not come at the expense of regular English episodes！）

延續上一集，本節目特別用中文額外錄製一段主持人 Kuan-wen 與來自上海的表演人 Jamie Wang 訪談內容。Jamie 回顧自己如何站上舞台開始表演單口喜劇，又為何偏好透過英文表演。Jamie 也談到語言特性以及就喜劇的節奏和喜感，台灣所用中文與中國所用中文間的區別。
另外本集也未通篇針對喜劇討論，Jamie 在聊的過程中分享在台身為陸生/中國學生一點心得、台灣人基於媒體塑造形象對中國人可能偏扁平化的認知。
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在 IG 上訂閱追蹤本集來賓 Jamie
在 IG 上訂閱追蹤主持人 Kuan-wen
在 IG 上訂閱追蹤本節目 Comedy with an Accent
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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

How do you perform stand up comedy when half of the audience sees you as the enemy at worst, or not knowing what to think of you at best, in a language that is neither your or the majority audience’s mother tongue?
Given the complex relationship between China and Taiwan, how does one position herself when they are known as “The Chinese comedian” in Taiwan?
Jamie Wang is a student from Shanghai, China, who came to Taiwan for her master degree but became the rising star of the relatively small English stand up comedy scene on the predominantly Mandarin- and Taiwanese-speaking island. She opened for Atsuko Okatsuka when the latter paid Taiwan a surprising visit in May 2023.
Jamie talks about audience lowering their expectation on the performer’s language fluency in a non English-speaking country. She also shares why she is determined to give voices to two otherwise two-dimensional groups - Chinese people in the eyes of Taiwanese (even though she does not want to be pigeon-holed as the comedian who bangs on about politics between China and Taiwan); Asian women in the eyes of caucasian male expats. If those white expats can be so demeaning to Asian women when they tell English jokes in Asian countries, why can't Asian women return the favour?

*For Mandarin speakers, there will be an additional episode recorded in Mandarin to be released on Tuesday 2 April
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Follow Jamie on Instagram
Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter
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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com
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00:41 Intro
01:59 How Jamie learned English through an (French langugage) exchange programme in Belgium
03:34 How different types of audiences perceive Jamie’s English and her accent
06:45 Whether Jamie reveals her Chinese identity at an English stand up comedy show in Taiwan
08:57 Taiwanese audience’s mixed attitude/hostility towards Jamie as a Chinese performer
11:00 Jamie’s stage persona and the real-life Jamie
16:24 “You are the ONLY Chinese person I like!”
17:21 Jamie joking about the white male expats in Asia
19:44 “Is my **** bigger than the Asian ****s?”
22:02 Taiwanese people’s ability to laugh at themselves
25:39 One trick pony - if a comedian is only known for a “thing”
27:31 Where does Jamie go from performing English stand up comedy in Taiwan?
29:09 The comfort of performing in a second language; free from judgment
30:56 Jamie v.s. her social media
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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Could you ever imagine no longer having a fixed place you call home, not even having a storage space to keep your belongings, that you are just constantly on the road, crossing borders at times, moving from one city to another?
Such is the life style of Victor Patrascan, a truly nomadic comedian who has been on the road since 2020, all for his love for performing stand up comedy.  In 2022 alone, he has traveled to 27 countries across 2 continents and performed in 70 cities.
In the first episode of this podcast’s long due second season, your host was reunited with this old friend of his when Victor came to the UK for a few shows.  Well respected by his peers, Victor’s line was quoted by three other guests from foreign backgrounds, all of who were previously featured on this podcast:
“Before I came to the UK, I was just a guy.  Now I am a Romanian.”
Victor used to be a London-based act, until despairs caused by  Covid lockdowns energised him to sell his belongings and start travelling and performing in continental European countries.  He now performs to a mixture of local and expat crowds, although the majority of them are not native English speakers.
In this episode, Victor talks about the differences between his old days of gigging in the UK and now on the road.  There is a significant amount of disagreement between your host and Victor in this episode, as they have varying views on the boundaries of stand up comedy.  But what they have in common was to agree to disagree agreeably.
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Follow Victor on Instagram  Victor is touring, find him when he comes to your town
Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter
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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com
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00:43 Prelude - explaining why the episode is released late
01:33 Intro - chitchat
03:19 Victor’s home town; Romanian immigrants in Europe
05:51 Where’s the line when you mock and criticise another country?
07:40 Agree to disagree agreeably
09:51 A comedian who is constantly touring
12:25 Is there a trade off being constantly on the road?
14:54 Proud of his own accent, “This is who I am”
18:55 Having to explain his accent and he’s Romanian facing the UK audience in the past
21:31 Fair game to mock someone’s accent at a comedy show?
30:43 Racism faced in continental Europe for being Romanian; some credit to the UK
34:05 Ever feeling lonely on the road?
36:14 Now performing to other foreigners
38:55 Difference of use of English between continental European and UK audiences
42:53 Crowd work (audience interactions) - social media clips
49:01 Ultimately it’s about being funny
50:42 Victor’s social media
51:04 Both people on the left and right sees Victor as if he had horns
52:31 Being funny and/or being philosophical

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Comedy with an Accent is back! Sorry for the prolonged break but we are back with another fun season, First episode will be out at 7am (GMT) on Tuesday 12 March. See you then!