An Indian comedian has won the prestigious comedy newcomer award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time in its 40-year history. Urooj Ashfaq's show "Oh No!" earned her the Best Newcomer title, a recognition that has launched the careers of well-known comedians like Eddie Izzard and Natalie Palamides on a global scale.
Urooj, a 28-year-old stand-up comedian from Mumbai, made her UK debut and was shortlisted for the award. Her show addresses sensitive topics, discussing cultural differences, therapy experiences, and her parents' divorce in a relatable manner. Soho Theatre and OML collaborated to produce her show.
This achievement is significant as she is the first India-based comedian to win this award. Additionally, she is the first comedian of South Asian heritage to win since 1997.
In a conversation with Asian Voice, Urooj talks about her experience performing in the UK, the art of comedy and her latest achievement.
How has it been performing in the UK and at the Fringe?
It's really fun to perform at a festival because you perform every day. It's just a good experience and your art gets better. But performing in the UK, because the audience here is from a lot of different countries, you just have to make sure everybody understands your material. You have to give them content. And I have to translate a few punch lines, not a lot, and it's a new experience.
Shifting from a Hindi-speaking audience to an English-speaking one, how has the process of translating the humour been?
I feel like every language has a rhythm in which you perform, so the rhythm changes when translating, but that's why it takes a couple of tries. I think you just have to try a couple of times until it just fits smoothly. You have to find the same beat and then you can do it.
Is incorporating personal experiences into comedy an easy task?
I'm not quite sure if it’s a “one way or the other” answer. Sometimes it just happens when something happens and you can see the humour in it immediately and sometimes you go back to it and you're like, “Oh no, that was actually funny!” So then it takes some time and then later you're like “I can use this material”, but usually it takes a lot of polishing.
Have you encountered heckling in the UK? If so, how did you handle it?
I didn't face any major heckling here actually. The few times I did it was from Indian students Otherwise they don't really heckle.
They didn’t heckle me at least. They probably thought, “Apne desh ki hai, rehne dete hai”. The thing is that when they did heckle, it made for good moments in the show. I didn't mind it at all because then you can really go after them and they know where you're coming from. They were also laughing did not get offended. It doesn't mess with the mood of the room.
What was it like when you met Phoebe Waller Bridge?
It was just great and what it was flattering that she came to my show. She's such a great artist and also just a very nice person. I was very happy that she came to watch and I was done with everything after that. I was like, I want to go back to India now, no more performing. I've achieved greatness now.
The main thing is that she gave me her time.
Could you share a particularly embarrassing moment from your stand-up career?
I think the most embarrassing moment has to be when I tried to do some random opening act at a lineup show. I thought I'll open with a dance move and that really confused the audiences. I had just thought of it before walking on the stage and I started doing the dance move and the audience was like, “what are you doing?” It was really embarrassing because after that I performed to silence for 15 minutes, and rightly so. It was very misplaced to do the dance move, and the audience's reaction was very understandable. But I had obviously misjudged.
What are your plans upon returning home to India?
I'm performing actually. I'm doing a show in Delhi and it's a slightly bigger show, audience wise, and that’s really good. After that, I just go around different cities in India and that's the plan. And then in October I come back to the UK and might go around to a couple of cities here and that's it. The plan is just to keep doing stand-up wherever I can go do it.
What was it like going from nominee to winning Best Comedy Newcomer?
I was very happy when I was nominated and I was actually hoping to be nominated. The festival sends a lot of reviewers and panellists to your show and when they started coming to the show over and over again, I wanted to be nominated and I was.
I think after that I was just chilling because the nomination was enough. I was not expecting the win at all and so when they asked me to give an acceptance speech, I gave a lame one because I was not prepared. I wish I could change that.
Which city in India is your favorite to perform in?
Even if you said world, the city would be in India itself because I’ve performed there only. (Laughs) I think I'm going to have to say Mumbai because that's where I build all my materials, there's a lot of Mumbai connection obviously.
