A year end review based on 2025 Spotify Unwrapped and the podcast platform statistics, released on the penultimate day of 2025!

In case you are not a stats nerd on where the podcast is consumed, this monologue episode also includes a brief discussion on the Bennet scale, also called the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The framework was developed to analyse how people react to cultural differences and can be a useful tool when someone experiences cultural shocks. Your host came across this framework listening to an *international career coaching podcast (in Mandarin) and interprets this framework as a stand up comedian.

Wrapping up this monologue episodes, your host Kuan-wen shares his observations on changes to comedy rooms after a far-right rally in London.

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Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/kuanwencomedy/

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00:32 Intro

03:11 2025 Spotify Unwrapped

07:50 2025 statistics (July to December) from the podcast platform

11:55 Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennet Scale)

14:37 Six intercultural sensitivity stages

20:09 What if the audience is at a different of intercultural sensitivity for a foreign stand up comedian?

22:50 A non comedy example of mutual cultural understandings when it comes to toasting

25:45 Accents v.s. speaking English “wrong”

30:40 Changing political climate/Impact of Tommy Robinson rally in the UK on comedy shows

37:49 Some final encouraging words

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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 https://www.instagram.com/comedywithanaccent/ or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Language itself should be a neutral issue; but it never is in the real world. Dimitri Bakanov is a London-based Ukrainian comedian. He is also a native Russian speaker, having lost the full fluency of his Ukrainian when he moved away with his family at the age of 11. When languages are tangled with identity, life throws in a big warfare on top of the existing nationalist tensions, things get complicated.

Dimitri talks about his accent (when he speaks English) that can fool other foreigners but remains nonetheless foreign in the ears of the Brits. Having come to the UK as a young child, he is no longer able to “do” an East European accent naturally. But he would not have even if he could, as explained in this episode.

The fairly anglicised accent of Dimitri’s also reflects a more westernised life style/value system, as he remarks on certain cultural differences between him and some other immigrants from Ukraine. The use of language becomes a more evident issue after the second Russian invasion of in 2022, as his native tongue is considered the language of the aggressor, the use of which is deemed unpatriotic by many of his compatriots.

Dimitri explains in this episode his curious and complex relationship with the land he was born in and left as a child and shares his thoughts why as a comedian, he does not mind having an irreverent persona on stage when talking about the war in Ukraine.

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Follow Dimitri in Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:07 Intro

02:39 Anglicised pronunciation of Dimitri’s name

03:50 A Russian-speaking Ukrainian

05:28 An accent that non-native English speakers believe to be British but actual British people know it’s foreign

08:29 Incapable of doing “an East European” accent; timing of learning English

11:07 When native English speakers not knowing their language (eg your vs you’re) and foreign English learners getting too pedantic

14:57 Wouldn’t do a great East European accent even if he could

17:54 How comfortable Dimitri feels claiming the “Ukrainian comedian in the UK” label?

19:04 Cultural differences/clashes with some other Ukrainian immigrants

21:26 Do comedians “have to” explain their accents? Dimitri’s take

26:28 Strong Ukrainian accent when Dimitri speaks Russian

29:16 Impacts of Russian invasion on Dimitri’s comedy career and choices he made on stage

31:26 Not wishing to lecture the western audience the war support

36:15 Divided reactions from Ukrainian audience with the irreverent jokes

37:47 How Media fishes for someone to be on TV in the case of an invasion

39:02 Dimitri’s complex relationship with Ukraine

44:17 Dimitri’s complex relationship with the Ukrainian language

49:55 How the timeline of the Russian invasion is defined in western Media

50:42 Summary and caveats

53:39 Life goes on in Ukraine despite the war

55:52 Dimitri’s social media

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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

Is it possible to perform stand up in yet another language (aka not English, not your mother tongue, also less fluent) but relying solely on translating whatever existing materials in English you have? Technically - yes. Though some jokes are simply not translatable. Some can be translated but it would not make sense or would not work. Some might still work but the effect could be heavily discounted. There are your host Kuan-wen own experiences.

The third instalment of your host’s monologue geeks out on foreign languages and comedy again. He summarised a few thoughts from performing at French It Up Comedy Club by accident (Season 2 Episode 26) and dabbling in a few sentences in Italiano at another night called Italian-ish.

The podcast will have a short summer break as your host is bringing another solo show to Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We will be back in autumn and have a nice summer break!

*The mix-up of languages and feeling unsure about the fluency level became even more evident through editing this episode. Your host said “the habitants of London” when in hindsight, it probably would have been more natural to say “the inhabitants of London’. Then he realised it’s because he was jumping back and forth between English and French. In French, they are more used to saying “les habitants”

Also, he is still not sure if it should be “J’ai l’air de lesbienne”, “J’ai l’air lesbienne’ or “J’ai l’air dune lesbienne”?? Any French speaker that can shed some light on this?

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Kuan-wen’s 2025 Edinburgh Fringe show Andrews Are The Worst

(This will be performed in Scotland, where their Patron Saint is St Andrew 😆)

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/kuan-wen-andrews-are-the-worst

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:32 Intro - summary of what this monologue episode is about

02:10 Why another monologue episode?

04:19 Discussion on comedy and translation in prior episodes

05:09 English being the comedy language for most guests on this podcast

07:25 Performing in a second foreign language - Your host Kuan-wen’s experience of performing at French It Up Comedy Club

09:39 Kuan-wen’s estimate of his fluency in either language

13:56 Some joke types are not cut out for translation (eg puns)

17:51 Different social norms for the speakers of another language

19:45 Unsure about whether the exact words are used

24:42 A phonetically sounding word may not sound funny anymore in another language

29:00 Less capable of riffing in French on stage

29:57 Jokes written specifically in French

31:55 What would a French native speaker fluent in English prefer?

33:55 Cross-language puns

37:18 Conclusion

41:28 How multiple languages co-exist in one’s brain? Kuan’wen’s own example - the distance between some languages seems to be wider

45:02 Cities where comedy shows in different languages are available

46:45 Latest podcast statistics

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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

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Mike Rice is probably THE guest this podcast has had so far who proved to be the best at impersonations and accent mimicry. During the course of this interview alone, he improvised a South London, a posh West London, a stereotypical Essex woman and a generic American accent. In his comedy routines and comedy special on Youtube, Mike has done a German accent in the context of WWIII jokes and he has also done an Indian accent. Did the last one cross the line? Between Mike’s inclination for dark jokes, there’s a lengthy discussion why it may not have and Mike’s intention with his jokes.

Mike explains the catholic hangover in the Irish parlance and how he went from semi-consciously ditching his Irish accent to pick up an American twang in the USA to embrace his Irishness and appreciate the beauty of how his father talks and what growing on a farm means.

Slightly further from the usual focus on accents, identity of this podcast, Mike accounts for his rebellious teenage years and the depression in his twenties, how he changed his outlook in life and how he balances a creative soul that isn’t afraid of showing vulnerability with an upbringing where he was expected to toughen up.

Mike’s podcast: Mike and Vittorio’s Guide to Parenting

Mike’s special on Youtube: An Irish Disgrace & Nasty Character

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Follow Mike on Instagram

Mike’s 2025 Edinburgh Fringe show

Mike is going on tour starting from November 2025. See his Instagram for tickets

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:00 Intro

04:37 People making remarks about the Irish accent

05:23 An accent from rural Ireland and the catholic hangover

09:24 Mike’s family dynamics

11:24 Mike trouble-making teenage years and the school trip to Andorra (Part 1)

13:36 A discussion on using “That’s gay” as a punchline to a joke

17:09 When does a joke go too far? The intention and the context of a joke

19:22 Personality developed to deal with the environment

20:45 On doing accents

25:05 The school trip to Andorra (Part 2)

28:00 Rebellious teenager but also a sensitive soul

31:24 Pain and unhappiness in his 20s

34:50 Mike’s podcast output

35:42 Mike not seen as an outsider despite his accent

38:09 From disliking his Irishness to embracing it; an inferiority complex from not being able to wash away the farm smells

43:54 An advantage to be an Irish act in metropolitan England

45:37 Gigging in continental European cities

46:19 Irish descendants

47:38 Mike’s use of the English language and the books he read

51:19 Mike’s online following and his consistent stage/podcast/real-life persona

53:53 Mike’s social media

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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

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language so hard, that it influences and moulds your speech pattern in your native tongue? That you moved to a foreign land to learn that foreign language, consequently your English vocabulary becomes restricted to the more common words, just so people around you could understand?

Such is the story of Spring Day (Comedian, not the weather), a fluent Japanese speaker who lived in Japan for over 16 years and who started learning this language at the age of 13. Spring tells the random nature of her life story how she ended up in Japan, how she became a comedy performer in both Japanese and English in Tokyo, and why she decided to leave after she realised her identity would always be an outsider （外人, gaijin） in Japan

Spring now happily calls London and the UK home. She was featured on Live at the Apollo on TV, one of the highest achievements comedians in the UK can have. In this episode, Spring recounts the tales in Midwestern America where she used to call home and left behind, becoming the minority American who has a passport and travel abroad, and her long and complex, entangled history with the land of Nihon (and all the obscure observations of this island nation that are no longer her comedy materials)

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Follow Spring on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:12 Intro

03:28 Leaving behind her identity as an outsider （外人, gaijin）in Japan

05:14 “Just the right level of passive-aggressiveness” in the UK - compared to Japan and the US

07:58 Do American comedians have an “accent” for British audiences?

09:08 Spring’s aversion to American centralism

12:22 Immigrants? Expats?

14:02 How fluent is Spring in Japanese now?

16:05 A mid-western American accent influenced by Japanese and British expats

18:56 Why Spring moved to Japan and started performing comedy in Tokyo?

21:18 Spring’s accent when speaking Japanese

23:39 The foreign loaned words in Japanese making it harder for English speakers

26:56 Performing stand up in Japanese and why some of Spring’s jokes couldn’t translate

29:50 How Spring’s time in Japan shaped her stand up and her speech pattern

31:41 Onomatopoeia （オノマトペ） in Japanese

34:24 All the dark sadness and tragedy in Japanese Rakugo（落語, “fallen words”）, folk music and literature

35:58 The tales of two Kansas Cities in Kansas and in Missouri

37:49 Spring’s Mid-western accent

39:36 A stage character of a rural American?

41:57 Living on the same street with serial killers

43:59 Caricatures/characters of rural Americans

47:06 Some of Spring’d weird experiences in Japan that became her comedy materials

50:47 Transition to the UK and finding out who she is outside Japan

53:10 London is now home

55:04 Spring’s social media

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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

Martin Durchov has never done any podcast interview - not until this episode popped his podcast cherry. You can find his Instagram profile, but be warned there’s not a single comedy-related content on it.

The Bulgarian native is one giggly and happy chap, described by your host Kuan-wen as a very “settled” immigrant in the UK. Even his accent mellowed over the years he stays in the UK - a fun fact your host found out when he checked Martin’s stand up clips in preparation of the interview and noticed the accent shift pre- and post- Covid.

Martin talks about the wider “East European” brand, how Bulgaria often gets lumped together with its neighbour Romania, what national stereotypes he incorporated into his comedy routines and how he gradually edit down the percentage of jokes based on his nationality. He learned early on that it is better as a performer to address the obvious, for him that is the accent and the hairs on his arms.

For listeners who are gigging comedians, Martin also shares why he Is not set on pursuing the comedy career progression even though he had a very promising start pre-pandemic (winning the Comedy Store gong show, getting into the final of So You Think You Are Funny and getting paid work within a year or two)

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You can find Martin on Instagram, but there might not be any comedy-related content there….

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:10 Intro

04:14 Citing his accent and foreignness as the opening joke but unaware of the accent at the start

08:19 “It’s good to mention obvious things”

11:43 Bulgarian stereotypes as an East European country and why it tends to be bundled with Romania

19:45 Bulgaria Searches For Talent

23:29 Getting requests to do certain jokes

24:42 Between jokes and portraying your own country’s image

27:00 A gentler and silly stage persona

30:58 Martin’s accent mellowed over the years

32:22 Not pursuing comedy career progression and not into the social media game

37:14 On being the face of one’s own small country

41:36 Foreignness does not weigh much on Martin’s mind

44:04 Without hearing Martin accent, others not able to work out where he’s from

45:28 Not having too many connections with Bulgaria in the UK

49:06 Martin’s (non-)used social media

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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

Shalaka is a self-proclaimed nerd with a PHD in trains whilst loading herself with Millennial angst. Those are supposed to be the most interesting and unique things about her. However, just because she’s from India, the audiences in the UK expect her to talk about being Indian or South Asian.

In this episode, Shalaka eloquently explains her own code switching, detailing her accent automatically adjusts based on the people she talks. This is the result of a racist “friend” at Uni constantly mocking her accent for years. As a first generation immigrant, she is also surprised by the gap between how the British Indians’ idea of India and the India she knows from growing up in Bangalore.

Her ethnicity becomes an easy target for the sometimes lazy opponents during Comedy Roast Battles, which only serves Shalaka as she excels in this specific format of comedy shows (UK Roast Battle Champion and International Roast Battle MVP).

You can catch Shalaka at the following work-in-progress shows:

May 24th - The Boathouse, Cambridge Fringe (tickets)

June 6th - Canal Café, Chichester Fringe (tickets)

*Your host Kuan-wen referenced Ronny Chieng's bit on The Daily Show, the idea being "Indians are not Asians (in America)" It was a topical line when Rishi Sunak became the UK's first Prime Minister of Indian heritage. See the clip here.

Another reference is to Russell Peters. We cannot find the exact clip but there is a similar clip of crowd interaction from Russell Peters mocking a Taiwanese American (or maybe Canadian) for having an Anglicised name. See the clip here.

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Follow Shalaka on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:00 Intro

03:25 Not insisting on the correct pronunciation for her name

04:30 Hilarious caption typo in Shabaka’s Comedy Central clip

05:55 Code switching - Shabaka’s accent changes depending on who she talks to

09:48 What do people (in the UK) mean when they say “Asian”?

11:29 Shalaka’s different way of speaking at South Asian gigs

12:46 An idea of India frozen in time

17:03 Attitude towards women also frozen in time

21:28 People’s view on India from British Indians vs from Indians

25:30 Clownery of your own culture in front of audience that are not South Asian

27:33 Shalaka’s light Indian accent is the result of befriending someone racist to her

32:05 More self-reflection on her accent

34:18 Minority comedians mimicking an accent that is not genuinely theirs

39:58 How Schlaka’s ethnicity is used as attack lines during Roast Battle matches

42:04 White racism not as hurtful as Indian to Indian racism

45:34 Not focusing on being the Indian comic; not pandering

50:33 Shalaka’s own memory of India also has a gap with India today

55:31 Shalaka’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

“French It Up est LE comedy club français à Londres. Lancé en 2016 par Jeff Vitale, depuis rejoint par Fabrice Edouard Laroche Francoeur, le concept séduit un public francophone de plus en plus large et fait émerger une nouvelle scène d'humoristes français à Londres.”

After introducing London’s Comedy show in the Spanish language Comedy Por Favor in episode 19, we turn our attention in this episode to London’s French comedy club “French It Up”, whose shows currently rotate between the trendy Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell and nestled next to the beer garden in Vauxhall. The mastermind behind this, Jeff Vitale, talks about the specific “expat humour” and makes a careful distinction between French speakers and French expats, as a good percentage of the audience also comes from other francophone countries. He shares how he has grown and plans to continue to grow this comedy club from strength to strength in this English city that boasts enough French citizen to be France’s fifth or sixth largest city.

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Follow French It Up Comedy Show on Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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00:51 Intro

02:39 An episode about a comedy show in a foreign language

04:47 French It Up audience’s specific sense of humour (expat Francophones)

07:36 Work office observations as popular joke materials

09:52 French speaking audience does not equal French people

11:58 Reasons for stopping bilingual French/English shows

15:51 Comedy materials about migration and cross cultural differences

17:00 Doubters and continuing to attract non comedy fans

19:48 Why French It Up was set up

22:57 “Intermittents du spectacle” - French government support for actors

24:38 More efforts into organising and promoting shows post Covid

27:15 Cross over with English stand up scene? French It Up’s own eco-system of performers

30:18 Not to be confused as a show in English (but talking about France)

30:53 Where the show name “French It Up” comes from

32:00 Jeff speaks too fast for non native French speakers to understand

33:04 How fluent one’s French has to be to go to a French It Up show?

35:18 The French language’s fluidity and rythmn

38:59 French It Up being a relief for nostalgia?

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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