PREVIEW

Ayesha Hazarika's State of the Nation tour

The Neeld, Chippenham

Friday, June 2

The Merlin, Frome

Thursday June 8

WHEN comedian Ayesha Hazarika sat down to write her new show, she didn’t imagine that she’d be ripping up the script on opening night - until on April 18, hours before the first gig, Theresa May announced a snap general election. The comedian, political commentator and former special advisor to Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband found herself forced into full-on rewriting mode, which has become the norm as the tour has moved round the country.

“My show has a lot of topical stuff and a general election is good for that as there’s always something new happening every day. Material I did last week that is no longer relevant will need to be replaced with new material. But that’s a good discipline for a comic, and that’s also good for the audience, as it shows that your work is fresh and they know that they’re coming to a political comedy show that’s really current,” she said.

But it's not all about the election - though its hard to imagine the Frome show, on election night itself, will have room for much more. “I try to make a wider point about why British politics has found itself in this massive mess, and talk about my own journey in the Labour Party and what I experienced. One of the reasons that we’re in this slightly mad place is that politics is quite out of touch with where people are in the country. When I was a special advisor, there weren’t many people like me: there weren’t many women, or people who weren’t from London or from an ethnic or working class background. It was quite a mono-culture.”

Her message for the audience in Chippenham and Frome? “You’ll enjoy it if you’re interested in politics but you don’t have to have a deep knowledge of it. I think it’s really accessible. People have said it’s a nice bit of light relief and therapy with everything that’s going on in politics. It’s essentially one woman and a mic, one exciting mystery prop, and a lot of hairspray.”

There will be plenty of jokes and anecdotes from her time within the corridors of power, (her biog says she 'started her career as a stand-up comedian playing clubs across the country and then took what she thought was a natural diversion into the Labour Party as a special adviser working for Gordon Brown'), and Ayesha will be taking the temperature of her audience’s political mood with a Q&A section.

“I’ll be having a discussion that will be partly focus group, partly therapy session. I’m keen to hear what people thought about my show and what people think about what’s happening in politics now. In the early shows in London the question that came up the most is why hasn’t Labour been able to have a female leader?”

Politics has always been important to her - as a child her car journey games involved naming members of the cabinet rather than playing I-spy. Describing herself as “painfully shy” due to feeling very different within a predominantly white environment, she forced herself to “snap out of it. "From an early age, I cottoned on to the fact that I was funny, which was a good way to stop being bullied.”

Ayesha later joined a comedy course which was attended by Rhod Gilbert and Greg Davies: “They did really well and became millionaires while I went off to join the Labour Party and help it to a stunning electoral defeat,” she laughs. Does she think there is anything that stand-ups and politicians have in common? “I genuinely believe everybody can be funny; everyone has a funny story or has a quirk in them, but to do it properly you have to find an authentic voice. You can’t pretend to be someone you’re not and that’s how it can go wrong for some politicians. Both politicians and comedians have a desire to show off but also have a crippling insecurity, and a lot of them are thin-skinned. Politicians and comedians have things they want to get out into the wider world whether it’s a set of policies or a bunch of jokes. In politics, nothing comes closer to a stand-up club than Prime Minister’s Questions. There’s a lot of heckling and you have to go in there with chutzpah and swagger: if you go out on stage and show that you’re nervous, the audience will pick up on that.”

Tickets from: The Neeld, Chippenham, 01249 446699/www.neeld.co.uk; The Merlin, Frome, 01373 465949/www.merlintheatre.co.uk