"You can believe she hates to say it: as an hour in her company makes clear, Bamgboye is a searching thinker, a caretaker of words, playfully alert to their connotations. This is not a woman to drop a hackneyed phrase or at least, not without wondering why the London Borough of Hackney is getting the blame for it. Several times during our chat, she withdraws a notebook to jot down idioms that sound curious to her African incomer's ear."
"Reader, Bamgboye avoided this fate, and then some. A fringe first-timer with a very slender comedy CV behind her, the Londoner-via-Lagos arrived at the festival with a fresh-minted show, Swings and Roundabouts, and left clutching the prestigious best newcomer award, as formerly won by Harry Hill, Sarah Millican and Tim Minchin. (She was the first Black woman to win the award.) It's a ticket to the big time and Bamgboye is still reeling."
"These past months have been very difficult, getting out of my head and out of my own way. That question of: why me, why this, why now? Sometimes, only a cliche will cover it. It changed my life, says Bamgboye flatly. I hate to say stuff like that, but it did. Every single day was such a variation' Bamgboye at the Edinburgh fringe in 2025."
Ayoade Bamgboye, a 31-year-old Londoner via Lagos with a slender comedy CV, debuted Swings and Roundabouts at the Edinburgh Fringe and won the prestigious best newcomer award, becoming the first Black woman recipient. She approached the debut with dread and anxiety about making a single irreversible mistake. The show explores cross-cultural identity and British idioms that connote misery, alternating between well-spoken English and Nigerian-accented delivery. Bamgboye treats language with care, jotting down idioms and examining connotations. The prize has been transformative and disorienting, prompting difficult months of adjustment and self-questioning.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]