In Philipp’s comedy set, he likes to open with “Hi, my name is Philipp. I come from Austria, America and Slovenia.” In real life, sometimes Austrians do not see him as Austrians (He left Austria at the age of four), Slovenians may not seen him as Slovenians, Americans might find something a bit off about him. Those Americans not familiar with an English accent might even think his accent is English.

A breakout star turned a regular at many best known comedy clubs across the UK, including The Comedy Store and Top Secret Comedy Club, Philipp could be mistaken as another American act who moved across the pond, whereas he in fact grew up in Slovenia but went to an international school and studied in English. It is only after he became an adult he is catching up with his Slovenian fluency with the help of a private tutor, motivated by a bit of regret.

Philipp shares how he feels not being tethered to one specific place and your host Kuan-wen describes him as an American born out of Europe. He talks about his belief in an international approach to his comedy, based on his own experience of feeling alienated at a comedy show in Edinburgh Fringe. He also talks about finally feeling at ease with himself, embracing the goofiness and silliness and becoming a better performer as a result.

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Follow Philipp on Instagram and his website

You can order Philipp's Comedy Special on line

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 [email protected]

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00:48 Intro

05:23 Why Philipp was not invited to appear on Season One of the Podcast

08:56 Americans who treat family heritage as ethnicity

09:33 Growing up in Slovenia speaking English and German only (no Slovenian)

15:30 Where’s home? No where is Philipp tethered to

24:14 When did Philipp drop his middle name on stage?

26:18 An international approach to stand up comedy, not making any audience member alienated

29:05 How Philipps has changed as a performer since 2018

34:02 Producing student radio show at Royal Holloway University

37:37 Being comfortable with one’s true self

42:55 How to deal with the sense of not belonging anywhere

44:26 Philipp’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Best known as the mischievous private investigator on Channel; 4's Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, Mark Silcox is an accomplishment stand up comedian in his own right, even though he claims not to be a very ambitious comedian himself. For comedy "is just a way of spending time with friends"

Apologies for the delay in publishing this week's episode

Mark's distinct deadpan and at times anti=comedy style makes him many comedians' comedian.

Mark talks about not being listened to or taken seriously by students in his semi-retired day job as a supply teacher, also the only immigrant in his own family - after thirty years, he still feels fresh off the boat. Both push him to grab the microphone on stage so that he feels listened out.

In the last six minutes of this episode, we dive into Mark's childhood as a middle child with eight siblings. We then learn why this trained scientist and teacher is catching up on the fun he could have had and should have had but missed from the distant childhood.

Mark Silcox's really name is not Mark Silcox. The initials are AA. If you want to find out, you got to listen to this episode.

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Follow Mark on Instagram, and Twitter

If you are going to Edinburgh Fringe this year, Mark will bring his show "Women Only" for the first two weeks of the Fringe this year (Aug 3 - 18) at PBH - Voodoo Room at 2pm. See info here.

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 [email protected]

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00:47 Intro

04:02 Not just an Indian accent - Mark’s unique way of speaking

07:10 A supply teacher that students do not listen to

08:20 Mocked by students but refusing to change his accent

12:26 In the world of comedy, Mark’s accent is his USP

14:24 Mark’s distinct style performing stand up

16:21 Opening line to address the accent

18:12 Private Investigator on Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back

20:15 Not relying on facial expressions

23:27 First gen v second gen immigrants

28:26 Comedy just a hobby to speak time with friends

30:34 Comedy offers freedom of expression (and the chance to wind somebody up)

33:45 Inventing a new identity

37:13 Childhood experience

42:18 Upcoming 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Show

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Alice Frick is a comedian, writer, producer originally from Vienna, Austria, who is also the show runner of "Laughing Labia", an all-female line up comedy show and one of the longest-running LGBTQ+ comedy show in London with a loyal following.

Alice talks about the articulation lessons she has been having and how her English went from American-sounding to more obviously German when she decided to switch to British pronunciation. We also learn why Alice is happy to go with the Alpine Milk Maid stereotype and why certain stereotypes about Austria seem to be based on an element of truth.

This episodes concludes on The Anti Self Help Book written and published by Alice, a body of work that mocks the self help book genre (as pointed out by Alice, there's no regulation in publishing a self-help book) while gathers Alice's otherworldly thoughts, jokes and anecdotes.

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Alice's Anti Self Help book can be found on Amazon (Kindle version/Paperback)

Follow Alice on Instagram and Youtube

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 [email protected]

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00:45 Intro and some German grammar chat

02:27 A comedy show in German in London

04:43 An Austrian having a dig at Germans

07:42 Two immigrants complain about the English greeting “How are you?”

11:45 Alice’s Articulation lesson

17:56 Some tongue twisters

18:26 Accents and actor casting

24:17 Laughing Labia - an all Female line up comedy show

29:06 Unsolicited feedback from fellow Male comedian

33:57 A stronger accent on stage

40:34 Alice's more subtle humour outside the "milk maid" character - The Anti Self Help Book

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

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 [email protected]

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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 [email protected]

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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 [email protected]

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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 [email protected]

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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!

One of the fastest rising stars selling out venues across European cities, Sri Lankan born Vidura spent his childhood, his teenage years and his young adulthood in small chunks of time in different countries, Vidura is a globe-trotter. To him, Berlin sometime feels more like home than Colombo.

In the final episode of the first season of this podcast, Vidura is our perfect guest to illustrate how conventional definitions of "homeland", "mother tongue" no longer make senses to the globally mobile young population. An accent that cannot be easily located.

Having lived in the United States and reading mostly in English, at times Vidura feels like English is more like his most fluent language, similar to lots of young immigrants who move to big cities for a brighter future, better career and a fun life, Unsurprisingly, these are also the bulk of Vidura's dedicated audience.

A thinker and a prolific reader, Vidura sheds light on his cultural commentary approach to comedy and why he only write jokes that he has emotional attachments to or from ideas he has been mulling over in his head.

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Follow Vidura on Instagram and his website

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 [email protected]

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00:54 Intro

02:45 The infamous Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka (no relations to Vidura)

04:02 Vidura’s weird mixed/ Netflix accent

05:37 Sinhala and other languages in Sri Lanka

06:59 Moving between USA and Sri Lanka and Vidura’s first language

10:46 Do British people ask Vidura about his accent?

12:31 Vidura’s audience’s profile

13:49 Vidura’s unique perspective because of his life journey

15:16 Too foreign to be a Sri Lankan

17:40 Wanting to leave Sri Lanka

19:54 More on Vidura’s connection with Sri Lanka and Colombo

22:47 Berlin feels like home

23:57 Not tailoring material too much

26:18 View on South Asian comedians doing the “accents”

29:24 Cult leader look and chilled energy

31:02 Only talk about things he actually cares about

34:38 A habit of reading

35:17 British people trying to seem smart

36:30 Vidura’s way wit words

39:51 Telling jokes as minority/an immigrant

43:26 Vidura’s high-quality video clips on Instagram

46:38 Vidura’s website and social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe