IMMIGRANT DIARIES: Sajeela Kershi and Guests Returns

Multi Award Winning...
Immigrant Diaries: Sajeela Kershi and Guests

Guests include: Patrick Monahan, Ayesha Hazrika, Shazia Mirza, Javier Jarquin,
Dave Cohen, Yuriko Kotani, Viv Groskrop, Juliet Meyers, Paul Sinha, Jing Lusi, Bisha K Ali and Brendon Burns.

The Stand Comedy Club
August 4 - 13 @ 3pm

Immigration, migrants, the refugee crisis; these are hot topics dividing Britain and the rest of Europe too. How many are there? Why are they coming here? What do they want? And who exactly are these 'bloody foreigners' anyway?

Multi award-winning show, Immigrant Diaries returns post-Brexit/Trump and the anti-immigration/refugee rhetoric blamed for the rise of hate crimes in the past year. Irrespective of which side of the debate you sit, this show is for all. A chance to hear some sublime true stories from a multicultural Fringe full of performers from somewhere else. All with one thing in common: statistics don't tell the story, people do.

Telling stories that are true, funny, moving and uplifting, guests from the world of entertainment and beyond (previous examples include Hollywood character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, actors Jing Lusi and Sanjeev Kohli and MP David Lammy) provide a a much-needed positive antidote to negative anti immigration/refugee rhetoric.

The creation of comedian and broadcaster Sajeela Kershi, Immigrant Diaries is a multi award-winning show that has enjoyed acclaimed runs at London's Southbank, the Brighton Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe, WOMAD, the House of Lords and recently packed houses at the Prague Fringe Festival!

The show was born of Sajeela's frustration at being bombarded with anti-immigration rhetoric, her response was to bring audiences captivating true-life immigration stories from special guests. As part of her hosting role, Sajeela also tells her own story - of how her grandparents were refugees during the partition of India, migrating around what was the newly formed Pakistan, before settling briefly in Germany, and then arriving in the UK in the early hours of a cold winter's morning with all their posses- sions, three children and 3000 cigarettes stuffed into a Scooby-Doo van!

Sajeela has been performing stand-up internationally since 2006, infamously getting her big break starring in Brendon Burns's 2007 Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show, So I Suppose This is Offensive Now? which played in venues across the UK such as the Pleasance Grand Edinburgh, The Garrick Theatre, The Soho Theatre and The Duchess Theatre where the DVD was recorded. She made her Edinburgh Fringe solo debut in 2009 and was Hackney Empire New Act Award Finalist in 2011. In 2015 she won the Asian Women of Achievement Award for Arts and Culture, the Angel Award for Artistic Excellence and the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Club for the second time. She has been voted as one of the Huffington Post's Top 50 Funniest Women to Follow on Twitter (@SajeelaKershi).

Aside from stand-up, Sajeela was commissioned to write and perform a series of four comedy monologues for BBC Radio Scotland around the theme of holidays and recently wrote for a Muslim/Jewish collaborative sketch pilot for BBC Radio 4 comedy. Earlier this year Sajeela was commissioned by Southbank Centre's Alchemy to devise and write a spoken word theatre show Mother Tongues From Father Lands which was performed as part of the Alchemy roadshow to great acclaim. She is a regular on BBC London 94.9, BBC Asian Network, BBC Surrey, BBC Sussex, LBC and was featured on Clive Anderson's BBC Radio 4 show, Loose Ends, BBC Scotland's The Kaye Adams Programme as well as making television appearances on Comedy Central and ITV2's Comedy Cuts, ITV's The Big Debate with Nina Hossain among other things. Sajeela also contributed to and appears in the UK's first ever daily viral topical comedy show, Britain's Got People - brainchild of BAFTA Award-winner Dave Cohen.

Title: Immigrant Diaries
Venue: The Stand Comedy Club, 28 York Place, EH1 3EP
Tel: 0131 558 9005
Web: www.thestand.co.uk
Tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/immigrant-diaries-sajeela-kershi-and-guests
Dates: August 4 - 13
Time: 3pm
Reviewers welcome from: August 4
Duration: 1 hour
Entry: £10 (£9 concessions)
Age: 14+

Trailer: