It’s an interesting show that touches on politics, class, race and identity, but doesn’t strike too hard. Athena shares some funny and thoughtful observations that captivate the audience.
Athena is one of those rare souls who can make you gasp, laugh and feel at a deeper level at the same time. She is a nominee for 99 Club Female Comedian Bursary and a former finalist for the BBC New Comedy Award. Fantastic Athena Kugblenu wrote for BBC Radio 4, recorded a stand-up for the BBC in 2017 and performed at the Johannesburg International Comedy Festival.
The Fantastic Athena Kugblenu took two critically acclaimed hours at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, followed by The Leader in 2018. After her successful debut, she returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year to present The Following Leader from 1-27 August. The leader is the president, and I don’t blame the people who elected him, they chose the wrong men in their lives.
Athena Kugblenu was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a few years ago, and this year she is making her debut at the KMT. It seems to have come at the perfect time, as it promises to find new ways to talk about class, race, and identity politics, this time at both ends of the political spectrum, and not just further away.
Athena Kugblenu (b. November 14, 1981) is a British stand-up comedian and author. She wrote for Radio 4 “s news and quiz show and the multicultural sketch show Sketchtopia.
Athena Kugblenu performed at the Johannesburg International Comedy Festival in 2017 and followed her debut at Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. She speaks confidently and gently, teasing about the nature of secrecy and covering up her views. It is an eloquent expression of the fresh new perspectives swirling around them, and a tacit acknowledgement of a critical lack of intelligent, politically aware black women’s voices in progressive comedy circles.
The variety of materials is impressive and it is easy for comics to fulfil their stereotypes. Clumsy humor, laying legs on chairs, bending over tables, little audience sewing, etc. The show is an excellent mix of styles and the comics clash.
It’s a testament to Athena’s natural charm that there are no awkward moments on set. References to previous routines from the show are common among comedians, but Allen throws back to past jokes and goes so far as to quote Ruffell’s gags. This is impressive not only because it shows that she pays attention to previous sets, but also because it helps establish the comics as a team.
She has a stand-up style that leads with intelligent, up-to-date and thought-provoking jokes with an edgy sting. Her first solo show with KMT, which won a four-out-of-five star rating at the Edinburgh Fringe, was her follow-up to Follow the Leader 2018.
She is a member of BBC Comedy Room 2019-20 and in 2020 was awarded BAME by BBC Felix Dexter Bursary for up-and-coming comedy writers. She is currently hosting a new podcast called Keeping Athena Company, in which she interviews interesting people about eating fried plantains. A self-taught stand-up comedian, she has appeared on Radio 4 “s Comedy Club, Museum of Curiosity and Loose End Art Club.
Autobiographical plays and circus plays exploring identity, heritage and the effects of trauma and memory. Symone invites the audience to take her on a journey through changed realities and manipulations of the mind.
It tells my story because it’s everybody’s story, it doesn’t happen in isolation, I don’t live in a vacuum. KMT is a show that covers all kinds of topics including politics, race, class, sexism, what is happening in the world, events and I use my personal experience to explore the idea that we are all wrong. I hope people come because they thirst to see more comedians talking about these things, talking about their positions on these things and thinking about it.
We need a society of intellectuals who exchange ideas and thirst to learn more from each other. It’s when people deny that we have our similarities because it doesn’t suit them. But I get the impression that we all have more in common than we think.
What follows is a series of questions about name, address, date and year of birth. Brexit, Trump, police violence, the election and the fact that her Indian mother and her Ghanaian father gave her a Greek name gave her a political era name. After an hour, here are some of the things I have experienced and observed that make me a KMT and make you think about who I am and what we say about KMT.
I think a lot of these shows have real problems with curation and quality control – it’s difficult for the audience to decide what to see, and they’re often disappointed with littered venues and dodgy acts, which is reflected in the fringes. I know he’s bigger than some of the other references I’ve compared him to.
It is open to black, Asian and other writers from ethnic minorities and writing duos under 18. I am thrilled and a little perplexed to have received a scholarship named after an undeniable comedy genius.
She performed in Johannesburg in 2017, making her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of a second installment of The Leaders Tour. As a regular co-host of the Guilty Feminist Podcast, Kathena shares her views and is an exciting voice who brings her unique perspective on the issues of race and gender equality that shape our modern lives.