Comedy with an Accent – Details, episodes & analysis

Name a stand up comedian who’s like the ambassador of both the English and French cultures? Many of you probably think of her bright pink hairs straight away. Yes, you have Tatty Macleod in mind, and she really has been given the title of an honourary ambassador for the British Council and was invited to host the alumni day by the French embassy in the UK.

THE Anglo-French (or Franglais/ Frenglish) stand up comedian and social media star is well known for her hilarious online sketches on observations of both cultures in both languages. Her debut comedy hour - FUGUE - sold out its entire 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival run. The subsequent tour has sold over 10,000 tickets and counting, with the continental European leg now extended to 2025. This includes four nights at the Soho Theatre and two nights at Clapham Grand in London as well as three nights at Théâtre des ateliers in Paris - with three more nights at Théâtres des variétés in Paris booked in this May.

Among Tatty’s 600k+ followers across Instagram & TikTok, many are nomads themselves who are attracted to what Tatty personifies as a Third Culture Kid - a fluid identity and multilayers of heritage, accompanied by bi- or trilingualism. Born in Zimbabwe to British parents and raised in France by her ethnically Scottish/Welsh but culturally English mum, Tatty talks about code-switching, fine-tuning her accent to fit in and how accent, languages become intertwined with emotions and her identity in this fantastic episode.

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Tatty is on Tour in Europe in 2025. Check Tatty’s website (click here) for tickets.

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:55 Intro

02:04 A true bilingual guest and how she thinks accents reflect one’s life journey

04:35 Coming to terms with a tinge of an English accent when she speaks French now

06:36 Moving between countries - a quick summary of Tatty’s childhood and adolescence

07:41 Accents, languages, identities - and a sense of belonging

10:39 A very subtle accent but visual clues of a non French person

14:30 How Kuan-wen learned to speak French and dislike Parisians

15:40 Choosing what language to speak in v.s. being rude to foreigners?

21:09 A Third Culture Kid; a bicultural upbringing

23:41 People remain determined to ask Tatty to pick a side (between her dual cultural heritages)

26:48 Tatty’s specific fan base

30:18 What did this question/terms of phrasing “like we say in French (Comment on dit en français)” imply?

34:07 Are the cultural nomads an ultra niche group?

36:17 All identifies are relative; shall we say British or English?

39:17 Tatty’s diction when she speaks English; an accent from a time capsule

43:30 Changing one’s accent to fit in

44:54 Jokes/comedy sketches based on stereotypes grounded in reality

46:32 Tatty’s debut solo show (currently on the European leg of the tour)

49:31 Nearly didn’t do the comedy sketches online

52:00 Tatty’s social media

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This is a one-off monologue (without a guest!!) before 2024 comes to an end. But hey. monologo(s) do also mean stand up comedy in Spanish and Italian.

This episode covers the 2024 Spotify for Podcast unwrapped to share with the listeners data of your consumption of this Podcast this year, supplemented by statistics from the podcast’s hosting platform. There is in addition a mid-point summary of season 2, with a roadmap of episode recommendations for different types of listeners.

Your host Kuan-wen then shares the original idea of the podcast, his thoughts on guest invitations - maybe a bit of frustration, too - and his recent experience of studying and brushing up his *Taiwanese for a podcast interview.

*For context, the use of Taiwanese is in constant decline in Taiwan owing to past government policies, with ever fewer people from younger generations being able to master it. Its circumstances are comparable to those of Welsh and Irish.

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Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:33 Reasons for a no-guest episode

03:59 Alternative idea of the host of the podcast turning into the guest for a one-off (nah)

05:45 Outline for this episode

07:44 2024 - Season 2 mid-point review and some stats

08:45 Season 2 episode recommendations (based on the type of listeners)

17:08 Data from 2024 Spotify for Podcasters Unwrapped

18:30 More data on Podcast consumption from the hosting platform

24:50 The idea behind Comedy with an Accent since the launch - a moving Venn diagram

27:51 Criteria for guest invitations/selection

31:34 Kuan-wen’s apologies for occasional grammatical and pronunciation errors

34:04 Kuan-wen prepping for an interview conducted entirely in Taiwanese

38:17 Thoughts on producing the monologue episode

40:34 How much discussion about languages should be included in the podcast?

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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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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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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 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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Follow Marjolein 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 comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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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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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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00:57 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

Describing her accent as “a beautiful mess”, comedian Micky Overman’s show “The Recipe” was amongst the best reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. The excellent show is now free for viewing on Micky’s Youtube channel and forms the basis of this interview.

Micky has one of those accents of a proficient non-native English speaker that not everyone can work out what her mother tongue is. Despite this, unsolicited advice still found its way to Micky, that she should play up her foreignness and even present herself as a Dutch cliché on stage.

Except it is clear to Micky she does comedy for herself and wants to be herself performing comedy rather than a caricature. Micky was fed up with notion that a person could be largely definite merely by their nationality, she even wrote a show to mock this idea in 2018.

But Micky’s latest critically acclaimed show does quite the opposite. “The Precipice” has little to do with her being Dutch. It has to do with her thinking about mental health, motherhood amongst other subjects that most other millennials would be wondering. The writing is sharp; the humour is universal.

Watch Micky’s show “The Precipice”

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Follow Micky on Instagram

Micky will perform at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 with a new show “Hold On”. July 30th to Aug 25th (no Aug 13th) daily at Monkey Barrel The Tron at 5:50. For Tickets, click 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 comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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00:43 First Impression of Micky’s accent

02:19 Intro

05:35 Everyone interprets Micky’s accent differently

07:40 Micky’s accent shifts based on the people she talks to

08:35 Micky’s opting for British pronunciation in her comedy sets for jokes to land

10:38 Deliberately mispronouncing words to make them funnier

12:55 Why would someone pretend to be Dutch? On national stereotypes

15:55 Foreign comedians SHOULD use their “otherness”?

21:11 Practicing not to over-introduce herself in the 2023 show

25:07 Micky in English not having the same perceptions by others when speaking Dutch

26:38 Micky’s critically acclaimed 2023 show “Precipice”: her worldview through how the jokes were structured

28:22 Micky’d turns of phrase

30:48 Show not tell; trust your audience and do not talk them down

33:23 Comedy writing as music

34:02 Enjoying being dumb, not taking herself too seriously

35:36 Micky performed in a deadpan style at the very beginning

37:14 Micky’s 2023 show Precipice on Youtube

37:25 Micky at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Guido Garcia Lueches is a theatre maker, actor from Uruguay. His one man show “Playing Latinx” - though categorised as Theatre rather than Comedy in last year’s Edinburgh Fringe - packed in so many jokes that it was probably funnier than many shows under “Comedy” had to offer.

To be fair, the show was also marketed as “Half stand up”, but to its creator, genre is not something he’d bother. It’s whether the audience gets his intent that counts.

The show weaves in multiple Latino stereotypes and is first and foremast silly. But beneath the silliness and stupidity lies a message that is mostly definitely political in nature. The show was based on all the audition experiences Guido had to endure over the years. All the exaggerated characters were roles Guido were asked to perform as and if he is lucky, typecast in.

When Guido speaks in English without too heavy a Spanish influence, he was instructed to “just do your accent” even though he was speaking with his accent. Then he realised what the casting directors were after, dialled up his Spanish tongue, got one Mexican drug lord role after another one of a sexy pool cleaner.

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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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00:41 Intro

02:26 Kuan-wen’s poor knowledge about Uruguay

05:04 Guido’s accent in English that he is not sure how to describe

07:13 Wrong prepositions gives Guido away

08:40 The standout characteristic of Guido’s accent

10:50 Facing questions about his accents from British people

13:06 Singer, Actor, Comedian and Dramaturg

14:51 Guido’s show “Playing LatinX”

16:30 Idea of the show coming from bad audition experiences

19:36 Different accents featured and changed in the show

22:40 “Could you just do your accent?”

24:09 The industry’s attitude towards a needed foreign accent

27:30 In a perfect world, how would people know a small country without stereotypes?

30:16 Why humour is crucial to Guido’s show design

34:15 What if the audience doesn’t get the irony? What if the jokes reinforce the stereotypes instead?

37:41 Silliness and drama; theatre in the UK as observed by Guido

43:36 Why Latin”X” ?

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

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 comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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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 comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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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

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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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00:45 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