Anisa Nandaula is in the midst of her first Australian comedy tour entitled You Can’t Say That. She reflects on her journey from Uganda to Rockhampton, where she expected a multicultural paradise, but instead found cows and cultural confusion. We had an opportunity to chat with her and discuss her comedy experience.
Hi Anisa. How has the tour been so far?
Ah, it’s been a dream come true. I’ve had an amazing time. I’ve done Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, I’ve just got into Melbourne, then Brisbane and New Zealand.
How different is it between live shows and pre-recording something?
Oh, it’s totally different, because on TikTok and Instagram, it’s an algorithm. When you create content, it will target people who think like you, believe the same things as you, so you can target it to reach whoever want. But in real life, you don’t know the lives these people have lived or what they believe. You have to try to be funny.
Do you find any differences between audiences in different places?
Oh, yeah. Like, Queensland is not very politically correct, and then Melbourne is very like, oh, should we be laughing at that? But that’s really enjoyable to play with.
I know that your family moved to Rockhampton when you were young. In my mind, that’s the most redneck Aussie place you could probably go. Did that help shape your comedy?
Yeah, just the experiences that I had, I felt like when I lived in Rockhampton, a lot of my identity was kind of around otherness, like I’d never felt a part of the majority. I always felt like I was on the outside looking into society. Slowly that has changed as I’ve lived in Australia, but that was definitely like the starting point of a lot of the stories that I share.
Your tour is called “You Can’t Say That” so I’m guessing that you would have grown up with a lot of things that people shouldn’t have said.
Oh, yeah, 100%. Like in Rockhampton, every single thing people say to you, you’re like, what just happened? It’s weird because I was a kid, but sometimes people say things to me, and I’m like, Oh, that’s not right. But I didn’t quite know why, but the things would be so outlandish, like, “are you fast because there’s no cars in Africa”? Stuff like that on a daily basis. In my mind, I felt that this is not okay, but it gave me an empathy that I feel most Australians don’t have. They kind of just write someone off for being racist or backwards. But I’m like, people don’t know, and that’s okay.
You’ve done a lot; you’ve been on TV; you’ve done poetry, comedy tours and social media. What’s your favourite thing to do? Which do you prefer?
My favourite thing, hands down, is live stand-up comedy. Like, I love it so much because I’ve done this show like, I don’t know, 60 times, but every show is different, and I love that.
What sort of feedback do you get from the audiences after the show?
I think they’re generally quite happy. I like to make every show I go into, “IT”. This is not going to be the same as last night. This is going to be special. This is a moment that only we share right now in this hour. I like them to feel how special it is, because even though I have jokes, I’m still myself, I’m still very present with them. I’m also thinking of every single person in the crowd. They have their own personalities. I feel like I’m an empath. So, every joke, everything I say, is different based off of the personalities in the room.
I start off my show just talking about jokes that I made up based off of things that I’ve experienced here, like the way Melburnians act on the trans is nothing like I’ve ever seen. There’s always a crazy person on the tram and a Melburnian’s composure is like nothing else. Someone could be banging their head in the wall, and everyone just keeps talking.
I think that people enjoy hearing about their own place or their own reflections from somebody else’s point of view.
Usually, every city that I go to, at the start of the show, I’ll just talk about things that I’ve noticed in their city, maybe for like five, six minutes before I go into the show. So, every show is special, I’m being present. I’m here with you. You tell me things I’ll make jokes about; the things you tell me now in this moment.
I also read that you performed at the Sydney Opera House. How was that experience?
It was amazing. That was me doing slam poetry. I used to be a professional poet for like five, six years. So that was very cool, but yet different art form, but still cool.
You’ve also appeared on the TV show “Thank God You’re Here”. I always wonder what that must be like for the participants. Is that a real “think on your feet” type of moment?
Oh, totally. I didn’t realise how intense it was, but they won’t even let you walk around on set. You’re blindfolded everywhere you go. If you want to go to the toilet, they have to make sure everything’s hidden. You can only use this path, so you don’t see anything. You only see the socks you’re wearing as you’re putting them on.
That’s intense, but that would be a really good training experience.
My God yes, but it’s so terrifying, because they were like, have you done improv before? I’m like, no. I feel like this isn’t gonna go well, but I can’t say that, because they took a risk of having me on there to be positive.
The most recent TV show you’ve been on is Task Master, which hasn’t actually been released yet. Do you learn things from the TV experience that you can then put into your comedy show?
I definitely think they’re transferable skills. When I’m on TV, I feel like an imposter. You have Rove McManus and Guy Montgomery. I feel like I don’t belong here, but you just have to fake it until you make it and just be funny. Even though I’ve been doing stand-up for five years, I sometimes feel like I try to just fake that confidence.
I feel that stand-up is one of the hardest comedy things to do. You’re telling stories for an hour and keeping people interested. They’re focused on you and nothing else. To me, that must be an intense feeling.
Yeah, it’s petrifying. So, I’m just trying to remind myself, if I can do that, then the other things should be fine, because that’s so humiliating if it goes wrong. I try to make sure that my stand-up is a reflection of my life. So, whatever happens in my life, I’m just updating people through my stand-up. But I also think stand-ups are very judgmental and irritable people. I’m irritated by everything, whatever irritates me, I will make a video about it. I’ll talk about it, and it’ll become a joke, maybe.
I feel that’s where the success of stand-up comes from; it becomes relatable to people. I think lot of people go, oh, I can relate to that. That makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I feel like the average person is also very irritable. But we just, you just keep it in to yourself.
Where are you based now?
I’m based in Brisbane, which is my favourite place ever. I love how friendly people are. You can walk down the street in Brisbane and just strike up a conversation with someone. You can look someone in the eyes, and you can smile at them, and that’ll just be a beautiful moment. I’ve been doing that in Melbourne and it’s weird. People are trying to follow you, or yell at you. I think people are just cold as well, so they’re trying to get out of the cold. So yeah, they’re not as friendly.
What do you attribute your success to? What do you think is the reason that some 200,000 social media followers?
Um, I’d say a couple of reasons. The first thing is community. I’m so reliant on a community of comedians, and I use them, and I ask them for advice. I’m constantly getting advice and help and mentorship from comedians who know more than me. All the things I’ve learned from them have been very helpful, and I would not be where I am without the community of people I’m surrounded by. Honestly, probably just that. The reason I started posting is because a comedian told me to. The reason I learned the algorithm is because a comedian explained it to me.
The difference between comedy and music is that you can hear the same song over and over and over again, whereas “I’ve heard that joke before”. Being a comedian must be the hardest form of entertaining.
For sure, because the jokes that helped me get all those followers – I worked so hard on them, but the moment they’re out there, it’s like they’re done, and now you have to do it all again.
So, comedy is your main interest then?
Comedy is like every second of my life, and then hopefully helps me be good at the TV stuff.
And what about your mom? What does she think about your comedy as a career?
I mean, she says, as long as you’re happy. It’s crazy. How do you explain it to someone? Even before I started stand-up, I didn’t know how anything worked. So, to explain this world to someone else, it’s like, you can’t really.
I think that’s one thing that a lot of artists suffer from – parents sort of going, hmm, but do you have a real job in the background ready to fall back on?
That’s so funny, because I was doing a gig, and this woman’s like, I saw you on this TV show, and you’re doing a show, and I’ve seen you gigging, and she’s like, what else do you do? Like, that’s a lot of stuff.
Well, I was gonna say, how do you fit it all in? Because it feels to me that you have a really busy life.
Yeah, I’m just grateful that it’s also fun. It doesn’t feel busy, it just feels joyful.
Catch Anisa Nandaula in her final week of the Melbourne Comedy Festival until April 20th
Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane tickets are on sale here
