April: comedian of the month #12 - Gina Yashere

As one of the latest guests on Stuart Goldsmith's Comedian Comedian Podcast, Gina Yashere was brought to my attention earlier this month, and the way she conducted herself on the show, as well as the hilarious and often shocking anecdotes she told, made me interested in learning more about her comedy.

Interview: Gina Yashere ahead of Playhouse show

With Gina Yashere now blazing a trail across America, where she has been based for three years, it is hard to believe that the razor sharp comedienne had never planned a career on stage.

Gina Yashere interview

The east London-raised standup reflects on life in the US, braving shark-like audiences who can smell fear - and John Cleese's disastrous turn as an MC.

Review - Gina Yashere: Laugh Riot - Oxford Playhouse

East London-born comedian Gina Yashere undoubtedly has a talent for making people laugh.

The dating interview - Gina Yashere, comedian

At 40, Gina is technically still single (though she does talk rather excitedly of an American professor who she is currently seeing).

Gina Yashere: Having The Last Laugh

Gina Yashere on finding fame in America after years of seeing black performers "fighting over one crumb" in the UK.

Gina Yashere interview

Many young Brits daydream of what it'd be like to live in America. We see the films, the high-school sitcoms, the endless Friends repeats, and wonder what life across the pond would hold. Gina Yashere is no different. But her daydream involved fixing lifts.

See how Gordon Brown's mouth falls down after he speaks? See how Dawn French is fat? See how Scottish people are smack heads? What about some celebrities? Don't they get DRUNK? See children? Aren't they sexy? See cricket? Isn't it boring? See stand-ups? When they guest on Mock The Week, don't they get to choose a round that allows them to recite a big chunk of their stand-up routine?

Mock The Week grows ever more popular, being the sole mainstream comedy satire show not peopled by authority figures and old favourites whose laughs grow more grating by the week. It is The Frankie Boyle Show, of course. While the others flail around him fighting, often pointedly, for applause, he can deliver the audience into a paroxysm of frenzied self-congratulation merely by suggesting that John Prescott is fat/Gordon Brown has one eye/David Cameron is posh.

Of course, the comedians (Boyle in particular) are capable of wit. But that's not the main outcome of the show. It's not about laughs. It's a show about concision, speed and nastiness. Get a clear run on the mic before anyone else and suggest that MTW stands for Mediocre Television Spamfilter and you'd get a laugh just for having replaced an initial with a rude word.

The most telling point is the guest comedians. Whether total rubbish (Gina Yashere) average (Jon Richardson) or brilliant (Stewart Lee, who described his own appearance thus: 'I must have looked like a competition winner, who'd won a prize to sit silent on an unfunny topical quiz show') they never make any impact. They're always less important than Andy Parsons. Think about how that must feel.

Other than the editor and owners of The Daily Telegraph, the only folk actively praying for the expenses ballyhoo to continue are Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis and that bloke who looks like Matt Lucas' character out of Krod Mandoon (Andy Parsons). Let's hope they make the most of it as guests Frank Skinner and Gina Yashere join the teams.