Donatas Kveselys is the second Lithuanian comedian featured on this podcast. This episode, however, feels half-dedicated to the Kingdom and the people of Sweden, for Gothenburg, Sweden is where Donatas currently lives and where he started performing stand up comedy (in English).

Donatas is a London Comedy Store Gong Show winner. He also secured the 3rd spot in the Roast Battles’ 2024 International Western Division League table.

Having already left his Eastern European homeland Lithuania to move to Sweden for work, Donatas gave stand up comedy a go in his adopted country where the majority of population do not speak English as their mother tongues (but are known to proficient English speakers). Talking about layers of cultural and linguistic code switching!

Donatas discusses how he got to understand the reserved Swedish folks inside out from a foreigner’s perspective. He talks about doing Swedish jokes for Swedish crowds - If you don’t know already, you should definitely google “SNUS” and “SWEDEN” - but also explains why he is now travelling and gigging elsewhere in Europe for a broader reach.

Content warning - from 34:47 onwards there's a brief mention of suicidal feelings as part of a discussion on anxieties

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01:02 Intro

04:12 A Lithuanian comedian performing English stand up comedy in Sweden

05:18 An East European accent

07:13 The odd foreign performer who performs in English at Swedish comedy shows

10:18 Lithuania in Swedish people’s eyes

12:57 Dissecting the “Chernobyl Survivor” joke and Lithuanian stereotypes

16:21 Lithuanians’ views of HBO’s series Chernobyl being shot in Vilnius

19:20 A white comedian with a foreign accent vs a Swedish comedian from ethnic minority backgrounds

23:45 Lithuanian as an East European language but not a Slavic language - it’s a Baltic language

25:11 Swedish people in Donatas’ words

28:30 Jokes for Swedish audience only; “SNUS” in Sweden

30:41 Travelling around to perform to difference audiences

32:03 What does Donatas like about performing for the Swedish audience

33:10 Bad at imitating his comedy idols, finding his own voice

34:47 Penchant for dark humour

37:35 Returning to his home country to perform in Lithuanian?

40:09 Donatas’ social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Winner of the prestigious So You Think You Are Funny competition in 2023, Samira Banks is a bright new star making waves on the UK comedy circuit. Her trademark jokes include her family’s journey fleeing their homeland as refugees. The crowd’s laughters are often raucous but some sensitive souls amongst them also pull their faces wondering. “Are we supposed to joke about refugees?”

On stage, Samira refers to her heritage as a broad “from the Middle East.” She never specifies which specific country that is. This question thus forms the central discussion of this episode and explains why in the episode title, both her mother tongue and her native country remain unspecified.

Growing up in Germany and moving to the UK for work, Samira is another guest with an international accent that is hard for others to associate it with a specific place. Samira shares her family’s stories and why a reunion of her extended family would turn into a mishmash of accents.

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00:58 Intro

03:58 An international accent that is hard to pin down

06:58 Picking up multiple languages growing up

08:31 Why Samira chooses not to specify her home country when performing

13:09 Family history of fleeing and becoming refugees settling in different western countries

16:51 A closely-knit family and the elders’ funny views on romance and marriage

18:39 Between the English language, the German language and her mother tongue

19:48 German speakers refusing to see Samira as German

20:50 Some other complaints about German speakers

23:50 German v.s. British

25:22 Samira’s past naive assumption of anyone with accents from the north of England

27:04 Middle class refugees’ “privileges”

29:29 Difficulties of handling refugee experiences as comedy materials

31:52 What does Samira think about her position telling her parents’ life experiences?

35:59 Samira’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

How do you perform and progress on the comedy circuit, when you as a native English speaker already moved to an Asian country where the population does not speak English as their mother tongue (and there really isn’t much stand up comedy going on)?

Such is the story of Sam Yarb, co-founder of the leading comedy club in Taiwan - Two Three Comedy Club 二三喜劇. Sam started by arranging road trips to cities and towns of all sizes on the East Asian island to target the scattered English-speaking expats. Gradually, along came the Taiwanese people.

As stand up comedy becomes more popular and the Mandarin scene outgrows the English scene, Sam becomes the instrumental figure in bringing international acts to the island and connecting the English performers with neighbouring Asian countries.

We hear from Sam how he manages a comedy club in a foreign land and Sam’s observations on the local Taiwanese v.s. expat audience

The Firelight Chat podcast episode with Sam quoted in this episode:

On Apple Podcast

On Spotify

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Two Three Comedy Club on Facebook

Two Three Comedy Club on Instagram

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00:44 Intro

02:51 Sam’s accent

05:03 How Sam started performing comedy in Southern Taiwan (a short Northern v.s. Southern Taiwan debate)

06:36 Comedy road trips in Taiwan

08:51 Audience make-ups in small Taiwanese towns and tailoring materials

10:57 A self-deprecating American comic in front of a Taiwanese audience

15:50 Expat v.s. Taiwanese audiences

19:56 Taiwanese approaching stand up comedy shows with curiosity

23:07 Taiwan - China relations as comedy material?

26:12 Expat audience in Taiwan v.s. US audience

26:57 Nationality comparison based comedy materials

28:34 Being a comedy promoter/producer in Asia

30:31 How the small town gigs are organised and promoted

31:31 Writing all funny ideas that come to mind and making selections later

35:03 Sam’s Social Media and 23 Comedy Club in Taipei

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Polish stand up comedian Kat Nip is a Berlin-based but globe-trotting performer. She runs her own comedy show in Berlin but is also a regular at comedy clubs in London, including the popular Top Secret Comedy Club.

Winner of London Comedy Store gong show, Kat Nip has written for and acted in Comedy Central Poland’s “Mini-Mock” series in 2022 and 2023. She has also appeared on Arte and Buzzfeed UK.

Having lived half of her live outside her native Poland, Kat’s native slavic sound is quite hard to detect. Yet her accent morphs where she moves to, so she ends up with a funny scenario of a faint German accent even if she does not speak fluent German.

Kat also shares how changes in her health and lifestyle led her to reflect on her comedy materials and directions as well as her stage persona.

Kat's comedy special "Traitor" can be seen on OUTtv

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00:37 Intro

01:51 Guessing Kat’s nationality based on her accent

03:45 A Berlin-based polish comedian who lived in the UK and almost everywhere, hence the confusing accent

07:45 Ending the podcast policy

09:41 Unfiltered

10:34 Polish stereotypes

12:45 More of a Berlin girl than a Polish lady on stage?

15:25 Quit drinking but continuing to do a show about jokes on drinking

19:00 Moving on from the easy jokes

21:53 Traumatic experience of performing in Polish to the kind of Polish crowd that made her leave Poland

24:46 Specific type of fellow Polish netizens that are easily offended

28:13 Is the “Polish builder” stereotype still valid?

31:12 Kat’s journey and why she left her village

32:48 Difference being a Polish comedian between London and Berlin

35:03 Comedy reflecting life’s changes (moving on from typical Berlin expat lifestyle)

39:14 Just live your life the way you want

41:43 Why choosing “Kat Nip (presents)” as stage name?

43:49 Hastag gross food on Instagram

45:07 Kat’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

As one of the founding members of Becomedy - a comedy show production team in the English as well as Italian languages in both Italy and the UK - Tiziano La Bella is a stand up comedian performing professionaly in both languages. He has appeared on Comedy Central Italia and Amazon Prime and only just recently relocated from London back to his home town Rome. Tiziano came to the UK with a clear objective to hone his craft, at a time when there simply wasn’t much stage time for stand up comics - Italy was not yet familiar with the concept of modern stand up comedy and would confuse it with their traditional cabaret. (He definitely did not come for the British weather and sky!)

As a result of the migration of Italians in the UK, Becomedy has been able organise stand up comedy shows in Italian in London and Tiziano has performed more frequently in Italian in recent years, leading to more gigs booked in his native Italy. Tiziano has made use of what he learned from English stand up to shift more focus on performing in Italian and eventually decided to move back as the stand up comedy scene in Italy is now fast growing.

On the eve of his relocation, this podcast invited Tiziano to talk about his accent which carries a hint of Australian English, his creative process in both languages and how he dissect the audience into four different groups. We also talked about the Italian stereotypes and how the Italian accent is the endless bottom of the joke, even though Tiziano does not find doing accents particularly offensive.

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00:46 Intro

04:14 An evolving accent and now a hint of an Aussie accent

08:03 The W-word between British English and Australian English and how Americans and British audiences perceive the C-word differently

10:56 Foreign/minority comedians doing accents on stage?

12:35 Young Italians’ improved English fluency

15:13 Italian stereotypes mined by influencers on social media

16:43 Choosing the funny-sounding words and the formality level of words

20:06 Weird Duolingo scenarios

21:13 Italian immigrants not necessarily able to improve their English fluency

27:05 Forced to use English regularly during Erasmus and starting to perform stand up comedy

29:54 Start of stand up comedy journey and how Tiziano never intended to settle in the UK

32:06 Returning to Italy; shifting to content and performance in Italian

35:19 The reality of living in Roma (Garbage collection) v.s. garbage collection in Taiwan

36:07 “Is this joke about Chinese offensive?”

37:50 Italian accent being the only accent everyone is comfortable with doing

42:10 Not having a stereotypical Italian appearance (based South Italians)

44:23 Differences between performing in different languages to difference crowds

47:47 BeComedy with Italian/English shows in the UK and in Italy

49:17 Tiziano’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Our first returning guest is Singaporean comedian Sam See, previously featured in Episode 25 of the first season.

Since the last recording in January 2023, Sam has uprooted himself and relocated from Singapore to the UK as - in his own words - he has reached the ceiling in Singapore. Sam shares his gentle criticism of the comedy audience in Singapore.

Sam also just finished supporting Ed Byrne on tour in 17 locations, including some well-off towns and some run down places. The bulk of this episode focuses on Sam’s approach to perform as a newly settled immigrant act in these small English towns in front of audience that are predominantly old and white.

Sam is at Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year (2024) with two shows:

The Asian Comedy Showcase

Sam See: And I Can't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

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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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00:44 Intro; why Sam is invited back

03:37 Sam moving from Singapore to the UK

05:04 The tour - opening for Ed Byrne

06:53 The reason Sam swapped Singapore for UK

08:54 Has Sam considered US or Australia instead?

09:40 First time Sam living on his own

13:17 How Sam was asked to be Ed Byrne’s tour support act

15:48 More on the actual tour

16:46 Winning over an older, predominantly white audience

19:32 Research fun facts before arriving in a new town for performance

28:16 Some British cities/towns with tricky pronunciations

29:35 Audience demographic

31:00 Singaporean audience trained Sam to always write generally

33:00 Example of Sam employing local references in his jokes

34:19 Sam’s own touring plan

37:45 Sam’s shows at 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and his social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Marjolein Robertson is a Shetlandic comedian, actor and storyteller. She was Scots Speaker of the Year in 2022, ranked number three in The List’s Hot 100 as one of the top Scottish cultural contributors. Hey 2023 Edinburgh Fringe show “Marj” also received award nominations and was one of the best reviewed show at the Fringe. Technically, Marjolein is this podcast’s second guest from Scotland, but same with every other island, Shetlanders see themselves as Shetlanders first and Scottish second.

The interview largely revolves the concept of “knapping”. The verb “to knap” for Shetlanders means to change the way you speak to accommodate the listener, as you do not expect the listener would understand your original way of talking. It is an equivalent to code-switching, but the process is probably more automatic when a Shetlander meets a non-Shetlander. It explains Marjolein’s accent shift as she performs and gets interviewed down south.

We also talk about how Marjolein weaves Shetland folktales into her comedy and takes advantage of general audience’s ignorance when it comes to her native island.

This is probably the episode with the densest discussion on linguistics and cultural identity to date; it is therefore slightly longer.

Marjolein is performing at Edinburgh Fringe this year! Her new show “O” is at Monkey Barrel The Hive at 17:40 daily (except Aug 12th). Reserve your tickets here.

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00:48 Intro

03:10 On Shetland and islanders’ identities

06:34 How Shetland is indicated on a map

09:41 Marjolein’s comedy CV & her Wikipedia page

11:34 “Knapping” - a Shetlandic word meaning changing one’s way of speaking to make oneself better understand for the other person

15:51 Marjolein’s “American voice” v “Shetland voice”

18:48 How Marjolein’s accent shits on stage

21:40 New movement in Shetland - the “No Knapping” badge———

25:15 Shetland’s extinct old tongue “Norn”

26:53 “Scots” as a language tangled with Scottish independence

28:53 How A Faroese man - Jakob Jacobsen - helped preserve evidence of the old Norm language

30:37 Audience in England knows Shetland even less than Scottish audience

33:04 Marjolein plays with people’s ignorance when it comes to Shetland

38:50 On her Shetlandic not being “broad” enough for some fellow Shetland’s

46:29 A Storyteller

52:44 Marjolein’s 2024 Edinburgh Fringe show “O”

54:31 A poem in Shetlandic

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Making headway to big comedy clubs’ paid spots within two years of arriving in the UK, Blank got into almost all the major Comedy New Act Competition finals and collected gong show wins like a dedicated Pokemon player collecting the Poke gym badges.

“Blank is an incognito bilingual stand-up comic,” so goes her comedy profile on some of London’s top comedy clubs’ websites. It is not by accident she’s named Blank; it’s a deliberate choice of a stage name to keep her quite literally incognito - for understandable reasons, given part of Blank’s stand up incudes commentary on her native China. Your host to this day does not know her full real name in Mandarin.

Blank shares a more nuanced picture of her home country’s censorship on the burgeoning stand up comedy scene, how comedians work with the script pre-approval compliance requirements and why places like her more obscure province’s scene allows more leeway.

Having started performing stand up comedy in Mandarin first (and already doing very well), Blank is one of the fewer guests of this podcast who did not start performing in English. Instead, she had to transition into an English stand up comedy performer. She talks about why her Mandarin and English jokes are separate and why she is happy to stick to just English stand up comedy in the UK, despite the growing number of Chinese students and immigrants.

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00:57 Bonus episode in Mandarin

01:25 Intro

02:24 A Chinese national considered having a Taiwanese accent?

04:00 More British than American influences

05:31 Unsolicited feedback on her accent from audience members

06:12 Mandarin stand up comedy performer before English stand up

08:34 Coming from a “third-rate” Chinese city

10:54 Comedy New Act Competitions and Gong Shows

13:40 Comedy censorship in China

22:12 Turning into a more unique performer in the UK

23:17 Separate comedy materials between Mandarin and English stand up

24:56 Blank’s stage persona in Mandarin stand up

26:29 Ethnic minority comedy performers and hack jakes

31:05 Blank’s racially self-deprecating jokes and the principle of fairness

32:20 No longer performing Mandarin stand up in the UK

35:51 Why “Blank”?

36:40 Why “Blank404” for Instagram>

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe