Alice Cairns talks to Shappi Khorsandi about humour, history and the hero that England forgot
Shappi Khorsandi is well and truly out of the jungle – and she has absolutely no intention of returning. An established star of Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News for You, QI and other such piquant comic fare – as well as the author of a memoir, A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English, and the novel Nina Is Not Ok – Shappi was the first to be voted off in the 2017 season of TV’s I’m a Celebrity. And getting out of there was bliss.
“I missed my world too much, hated sleeping in my clothes and couldn’t understand why the others cared so much about winning food,” she tells me. “The food we did win was weird and a faff to cook.”
Now she’s back doing what she loves: live performance. Her current one-woman show, Mistress and Misfit, is based on the life of Emma, Lady Hamilton: a woman who hauled herself up from humble beginnings as a scullery maid to land the role of Lord Nelson’s mistress, taking in a brothel or two along the way. She is, says Shappi, “England’s unsung hero”. Lord Nelson may stand atop his plinth in Trafalgar Square, but the woman he loved should be basking in the sunlight too.
Initially Shappi tried to write a novel about Emma, but found it too hard. A stand-up show, she tells me, was “easier and funner” to create, albeit at the cost of some rigorous research.
“I did a lot, yes, because that’s how you find the nuggets to build jokes around. My process for a long show is to gather the most interesting facts and stories and then sprinkle nonsense over them. I’m silly. Silly is a serious business.”
But Mistress and Misfit is no mere history lesson. On the contrary, Emma Hamilton’s tragic life feels disconcertingly relevant to our world today. Not only was she treated cruelly during her own lifetime, insists Shappi, but she has also been demonized and sidelined by history.
“Emma wasn’t ignored, as such – she was trashed.”
Spinning a show around a woman routinely derided as a harlot could, of course, be interpreted as a feminist statement. Shappi, however, is wary of claiming any such didactic purpose for her work.
“I don’t think any comic sits downand says: ‘I’m going to make a political and social statement!’ It depends who you are, and what you’re like, as to whether or not there’s a political aspect that spills into your work. I like people to laugh. I’m not an actor, I’m not a satirist, I’m a comic, so funny comes first. Comedy should be a force for laughter.”
The one-woman format suits her: neither loneliness nor the weight of sole responsibility are enough to get her down.
“The time on stage is always brilliant fun. Each show is different and I love every second. It’s true that the hours of travelling and being alone in between performances can be extremely lonely, but you get used to it.”
Does she get nervous before shows?
“Never ever!” she says firmly.
Shappi comes from a family of performers. Her father, Iranian satirist Hadi Khorsandi, criticised the Islamic Republic – his country’s theocratic regime since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 – and was forced to flee his homeland. Both he and Shappi’s brother have performed stand-up. Yet this family heritage has proved somewhat less of a boon than one might instinctively suppose.
“It didn’t help because the bar was so high, and the scrutiny and criticism so fierce. On the other hand, I’ve learned from my dad’s style to be on the same level as your audience; to be a friend on stage. Never snobby, never smug, never superior. It’s not everyone’s style, but it’s mine and I get it from watching my dad.”
When not performing or writing, Shappi is president of Humanists UK, a national charity that works on behalf of non-religious people. Potentially controversial, her involvement has in fact created no ripples.
“No one bats an eyelid at my being an atheist in this country,” she says. “I’m as ‘open’ about it as I am about having flat feet.”
And a final thought. If she could go back in time and meet any historical figure, who would it be?
“Emma Hamilton, of course! She was a right laugh and tremendously clever and charming. I think we’d have a hoot.”
Shappi Khorsandi: Mistress and Misfit comes to South Hill Park, Ringmead, Bracknell on June 5-6. For details visit: southhillpark.org.uk
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