Brown Women Comedy – Seeing the funny side of Besharam (shame)

Several brown women comedians are performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year and doing so as Brown Women Comedy – almost a movement, led by Aussie Daizy Maan…

THESE are women not frightened of telling it like it is – whether that be about their personal habits or what they do when slapped with the term, ‘Besharam’ (meaning Shameless across much of South Asia).

“We all grew up being called Besharam,” joked Daizy Maan, who along with fellow Aussie Shyaire Ganglani has brought a fellow group of brown women comedians to perform as one, to the Edinburgh Fringe. “It’s the UK’s most besharam group of women,” she continued laughingly to www.asianculturevulture.com.

“White people may not consider a lot of what we do shameful but in South Asian culture – people would.”

“We are reclaiming that word – positively.”

She isn’t comfortable about her parents seeing her performing standup – and says they are waiting for her to end her “unemployment”…

“I’d be mortified if they ever turned up to my show – I would probably not make eye contact. I would remove any jokes referring to anything about my love life,” Mann said, chuckling and being more colourful in her language. “And half my material is about my mother…”

She came to comedy noticing how few brown women comedians there were performing at Comedy Festivals in her native Australia.

“There seemed to be a lot of performers called Laura and the audiences were almost exclusively white.”

She found brown women comedians in Australia first, played to increasingly packed houses and was then encouraged by a friend to join them as a standup.

“I’d done TikTok and funny videos in Punjabi (she is a fluent in her native tongue) and these had reached like 30 odd million people.”

She took her Punjabi gags and turned them into an English standup routine.

“My mum would just say I am ‘jaloos’ (Punjabi and which can translate as embarrassment or humiliating her) – she’s a pretty private person – I really don’t think she’d enjoy the show.”

She connected with several UK brown women comedians and said they also “have no sharam” – they don’t care what their nearest and dearest might think about their material – they are there to make people laugh and to share openly and without embarrassment – or the shame sometimes heaped on them from men and other women quick to pass judgement.

“We won’t be holding back.”

The online reviews acv saw were positive and one gave **** out of five. Acv has not seen this show and has only seen one of these comedians before – more about Urooj Ashfaq below.

Maan told us more recently the shows have been going well and quipped: “We were told Edinburgh Fringe is very…white…but to our pleasant surprise, the entire brown population of Scotland has managed to find our show.”

The shows have (and had) different line ups on the ten nights they were scheduled to perform from August 15. Brown Women Comedy ends this Sunday (August 25 and a day before Edfringe officially closes).

Best Edfringe comedy newcomer 2023 Mumbai-based Ashfaq performed earlier in the run for three nights in Edinburgh this year, as one of the eight brown women comedians Maan organised; the last four performances (August 21-24) now have UK comedians Kiran Saggu, Alex Bertulis Fernandes and Vidya Divarkaran on stage too, alongside Maan and Ganglani.

Ganglani added: “It’s fair say your parents won’t approve, as you trauma bond watching these women turn culturally rich stories into comedy gold.”

Saggu describes herself as “savage” in the manner of pop icon Megan Thee Stallion and is one of the presenter-comedians, behind London comedy night, Slay24.

Bertulis Fernandes is a rising star too, having impressed at several comedy competitions and was shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Awards; while Divakaran is “a fresh faced standup/musical comedian/masked clown who is upbeat, personal and zany”. Dating, internet culture and identity are just three subjects she enjoys joking about and she co-hosts East London ‘alt night’, Soft Play Area.

The other women, who have already come and gone now as Brown Women Comedy, were UK-based presenter and standup Zara Janjua and Indian-born UK based Shalaka Kurup.

This is an exciting time for Brown Women Comedy, Maan posited – as part of a wider cultural exchange between Australia and India, the government there are putting money into training and taking some of these brown women comedians to India and supporting Indian women comedians who want to try their material in Australia.

“It’s not Brown Women Comedy as such,” explained Maan, “but a similar idea of Australian and Indian women comedians joining forces and we’re looking to tour across cities such as Chandigarh, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.”

This new initiative was announced only recently and is part of the Maitri Cultural Partnerships – backed by the Centre for Australia-India relations and the Australian government.

There are other Asian comedians in Edinburgh that acv know – ‘Little English’ actor Viraj Juneja and standup Tez Ilyas present their Rifco Theatre & Soho debut show, ‘Pali and Jay’s Ultimate Wedding DJ Roadshow’. (See listing below).

Woman comedian Sharlin Jahan continues to host Brown Sauce Comedy Club in London – a collection of mostly South Asian comedians who present stand up monthly, with established names and new ones. The next show is Friday, September 13 (See listings below for details).

Listings

Brown Women Comedy August 21-25, Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh EH2 3JP
Edfringe – https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Brown%20Women%20Comedy%22

https://brownwomencomedy.com/uk/

Pali and Jay’s Ultimate Asian Wedding DJ Roadshow August 21-25 – link here to details and booking – https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Pali%20and%20Jay’s%20Ultimate%20Asian%20Wedding%20DJ%20Roadshow%22

Sharlin Jahan and Brown Sauce Comedy Club – Friday, September 13 – See Instagram – @BrownSauce