Words: Claire Smith

You are returning to the Fringe for the first time since winning the Newcomer Award in 2023. What is your show about?

In this show I will be a bad girl. Actually it is mostly about a reaction to a review I had in 2023 – which was about me being ‘conservative.’ So I’m trying to be a bad girl now.

Where did your comedy career begin?

I started in comedy clubs in Mumbai, which is where I’m from. I started meeting other comics who gave me tips.  Then I started doing sketch comedy on Youtube with a comedy collective called All India Batchod (which means All India Jokers).

I did some TV stuff – a web series on Prime Video and now I have my own YouTube channel with stand up comedy.

But live comedy is the main thing. I work with Soho Theatre and have toured Europe and done the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

What is the Indian comedy scene like?

It is quite a big thing. The great thing about comedy in India is that you can switch between English and Hindi.  Hindi has emotions that are really hard to capture in English. It’s a very funny language and very playful and also self-aware.

So what will you bring to your audience in Edinburgh?

One thing I’m trying to do is to challenge the idea of what you think is ‘edgy’ and what you think is ‘liberal’.  There are people in comedy who are trying to be ‘edgy’ and they are just saying hateful, misogynistic, transphobic trash.

What struck me about that review was that it was completely unaware of what it takes to be a female Muslim stand-up comedian in India. That’s how it started – but the show is about so many other things now.

Urooj Ashfaq: How to Be a Baddie
Monkey Barrel 4 at Monkey Barrel Comedy
30th July – 24th August
18.25