I feel disappointed in myself that I was unable to communicate that sooner.” “I always found confidence through singing but speaking authentically is a very vulnerable thing and I think it was what I always wanted to do when I was younger. She attributes this to a lack of performers to whom she could relate. Her only regret, she said, is not starting her career in comedy sooner. Having been well received by audiences in her local community in Surrey, Ms Woodland has no reservations about her West End debut. “I would not necessarily be treading on eggshells but because of my background I have always felt misunderstood and in a way have always been treading on eggshells.” “I am very early on in my comedy career and I have to try out stuff that’s going to upset people or that’s going to come out the wrong way,” she added. I am almost 37 now and think, how much does this even matter? I tried to fit in with posh, white people. “I am this woman who has spent her 20s trying to grapple with her own identity,” she said. Ms Woodland said her struggle to create an identity for herself as a British woman of mixed ethnicity was an experience to which many others could relate. He will be joined by Hajar Woodland, a comedian who is also keen to use her Middle Eastern background to entertain.īorn to an Iranian father and a British mother, she lived in Iran as a toddler before returning to the UK. “It’s terrifying and I don’t know why I do it!” “The stories I tell mostly come from generational refugee experiences, like my family’s experiences in Iraq and their journey to the UK and the effect it’s had on me. “I have done Weapons of Mass Hilarity shows before and the audience is about 90 per cent Middle Eastern,” he said. Mr Elzubaidi admitted that while he finds the idea of jumping on stage to tell his story daunting, he just gets on with the task at hand. “We just felt that this is a way that we can raise some money and help people.” “It’s really important, especially because the news coverage of the earthquake and the relief efforts have been shockingly brief. It’s almost like a reflex - something happens and we do what we can. “It’s something that our community in the UK is very used to. “I think from my own experience of constantly seeing people in Iraq who have to go through such awful things, fund-raising a very necessary thing and it’s something that I am very used to,” he said. He told The National that using his talents to raise cash important because of how much his native country has suffered.
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