S02E04 Arielle Souma, French speaker - From Bossise-le-Roi, France 🇫🇷
Comedy powerhouse Arielle Souma is the very first French guest on this podcast after more than thirty episodes (FINALLY!). Unapologetic, unfiltered and oozing “I don’t give a f**k” energy, Arielle is known for her commanding stage presence and her punchy, intense and impactful comedy delivery. Arielle talks about keeping her English simple and accessible, thus easier to understand for non-native English speakers in the audience. Also, some of those long words are just too pompous for her liking.
Arielle also talks about how English works better for her rhythms as a language than her native French. The cheeky French comic claims it makes sense to pronounce various words à la française, since that’s the origin of those English words. Unless it’s words like paedophilia that requires a bit of phonetic precision.
As a mixed-race black woman raised by a white French family, Arielle talks about her hilarious over-compensating “trying to be more black than black” phase in the past. Surprisingly, the UK black comedy circuit does not particularly welcome her with open arms, just because her blackness does not fit in the several archetypes. She may be too confusing to tick a box for the industry and too saucy for the mainstream media, but if you are a London comedy club regulars, chances are you will get blown away when Arielle rocks up at the show.
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Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram
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Pre-recording chat (trashing Ivorians and Nigerians)
Intro
Unfiltered and blunt
A French accent and using it
Arielle prefers her name pronounced in English
Opening a comedy set by addressing the French accent
An African identity in addition to the French identity
A black girl raised by a white family
How Arielle raised her son to be proud of the colour of his skin
Pros and cons of a French speaker learning English
What kind of English pronunciation does a non-native speaker pursue?
An example where Arielle had to correct her pronunciation to ensure the audience understand her
Keeping the words used simple
A boxing-like comedy rhythm
On swearing
Racism in France v.s. in the UK
Being othered on the black comedy circuit in the UK
Too spicy for mainstream media?
Running a French comedy show in London
Arielle’s social media
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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe
