Humour #2
Gina Yashere
For this second week I have decided to share one of my favourites British comedian: Gina Yashere, live at the Apollo, in London.
She has a very specific way of creating laughter: through a lot of mimic, self-deprecation and relentless repetitions which anchor her message. She might repeat one sentence 3 to 4 times. And yet, everytime we laugh some more, because it adds so much empahis on what she is saying and it’s hilarious. She is also extremely clever on how she builds her story and brings a punchline at the exact right moment, creating surprise and explosive laughter every time. Her transitions between stories are well prepared and smooth. It’s as if we were having a drink with her at the bar and she would tell us one story, even though she manages to tackle a lot of various topics.
Gina mainly uses her life experiences to make us think about bigger concepts like racism, homophobia, poverty, immigration, culture, etc. She is from Nigeria, was raised in the UK and now live in the USA: this makes her very aware of culture differences and she is perfect to funnily criticised some aspects of each. Self-deprecation is her strength.
The “Sorry ma’m, I thought you were Black” cracks me up every time and is a perfect example on how unconscious bias play out — it’s an exemple I often use in my trainings to explain how the brain works!
And her experience in the Nigerian Airlines plane or in the American hospital are just the cherry and icing on top of the cake!
Enjoy! And stay tuned for future videos, coming every week!
For the last two years, I have been watching stand up comedy on youtube almost everyday. I have laughed, learned and laughed again thanks to a very diverse bunch of comedians. This year, I have decided to share my top favourite acts so that even more people laugh and learn!