Shazia Mirza - Bath Comedy Show Review
Posted on: 2017-01-19
Our rating:
"ISIS are the One Direction of Islam". This particular line from Shazia Mirza's show last night has stayed in my mind because it's controversial, political, hilarious and in some ways true. And those words are exactly how I would describe Shazia Mirza's brand of comedy in her new show 'The Kardashians Made Me Do It'.
Shazia Mirza has been on many UK television shows including The Wright Stuff, The Jonathan Ross Show and Loose Women. She speaks out on Radio 4 and is a guest writer on national newspapers like The Guardian and the Financial Times. She is known for her risqué religion-based comedy where she comments on Islam, being from a Muslim family herself, and race relations. If you aren't familiar with her comedy just take a look at the poster for her current tour (pictured below), and you'll see that it's not made for people who are easily offended. If anything, she likes to teeter on the edge of being dangerously offensive but like most comedians that's what people love about her; she isn't afraid to speak her mind.
Shazia is a brilliant comedienne who mixes celebrity culture with the political controversies we see on the news every day. She refers a lot to the three teenage girls who went to Syria last year to join ISIS and she's sure the girls are a bit confused about what they're getting into, "do they think they're going to Ibiza?" she said, which of course received a roar of laughter from the audience. She talks about young sexually frustrated girls who think ISIS are 'hot' and pack up their bags, with an epilator intact, to join Syria and become a Jihadi bride. Shazia quips "they're not going to be let out of the cave let alone do their bikini line".
She fits in perfectly with this political era where there's a new accusation of rape, racism and sexism almost every day on the news, because it's the best ammo for her controversial comedy. At some points she has us squirming in our seats at how uncomfortable some of her jokes are, but those are usually the best parts because we love it when she gives it to us straight without the frills. Joking that Prince Charles killed Diana, or that "someone shouldn't have left that banana skin on Cilla's balcony" isn't something that every comedian can do, but Shazia can and we couldn't help but find ourselves laughing and cringing at the same time.
Towards the end of the show a completely different feeling emerged as Shazia picked up a book called the Hadith, which is a collection of sayings and stories told by the Prophet Muhammad, and with a serious tone she began to read some quotes from it. The quotes are predictions from the Prophet about a group bearing a black flag who would use the Qur'an for their own gain and twist its words, who would fight and cause terror and are called 'the worst of the creation'. This group is ISIS and Shazia was eager to demonstrate to us that the Prophet predicted that they would come along one day and that they will defeat themselves through mutual conflict. It was a thought-provoking and interesting end to a comedy show and when I met Shazia after the show I had to congratulate her on a job very well done. She was humble, sweet and a genuinely lovely person, thanking me for coming to the show and asking if I would watch Donald Trump's inauguration, to which we both agreed we probably couldn't bear ourselves to.
She mentioned she had performed in Bath several times before and it's quite different to other places she has performed at. Her audience last night were mainly made up of over 55 middle class white men and women, a completely different demographic than I thought she would have because of her type of comedy, but a typical sample of people who live in Bath and clearly something that interested Shazia too. She definitely made an impression on us, but it's nice to think we made an impression on her too!
The tour ends in March so if you have a chance to get to one of her shows you'll be glad you did. Find tickets here.
Article by:
Born in Bath, Safia has lived on the outskirts of the city her whole life. After studying journalism in Bristol she now spends a lot of her time searching for new things to see in Bath and soaking up the beautiful culture. You're most likely to find her sipping a soya latte in a lovely little independent cafe! Call Safia on 07468 516375 or email editor@365Bath.com.
