Entertaining Others: Shappi Khorsandi and Andi Osho

Abstract

As we have frequently noted throughout this book, both the shows and audiences that have been the focus of our case studies have been overwhelmingly white. This reflects the state of play in Britain across the vast majority of theatre and performance media, irrespective of genre. Casting around for examples of mainstream practice that would allow us to explore popular feminisms in relation to issues of gender and ethnicity, however, we were especially surprised to find them most readily in the field of stand-up comedy. Further, while partly for reasons of geographical accessibility to shows, we have chosen to focus on performances by Shappi Khorsandi and Andi Osho, our case studies might well have included, amongst others, Angie Le Mar,¹ Shazia Mirza, Gina Yashere, Jocelyn Jee Esien or Ava Vidal.