The Minarets of Comedy Rise Over Switzerland

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan 06, 2010 -
Despite the ban on minarets, Shazia Mirza, Britain’s premier female Muslim comic is due to perform to Swiss audiences from 12 to 15 January 2010. “I can't wait to come and perform in Switzerland, I hope they don't ban me and I'd better not wear that new hat I bought from The Lahore Bazaar! The Muslims should have just stuck a cuckoo clock on top (of the minarets) then there wouldn’t have been a problem!” 

A steadily-growing Swiss fan base for the regular Funny Laundry stand-up nights, whose past headliners include Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard, Nina Conti and Ed Byrne, reflects “a deep-seated local appreciation of ‘Anglo’ humour and culture” says Guy Stevens, a domiciled Brit who started the comedy club nights in Zurich in May 2006. Now that more than a quarter of the population in Switzerland speak English at work (mainly in global companies), he claims a series like The Office is suddenly understood by a Swiss audience because it transcends national humour divides, thereby whetting the appetite for live laughs at Funny Laundry.

Funny Laundry; "the name’s a tortured pun for an often unfairly tortured nation" says Stevens, holds comedy nights in Switzerland’s main cities; Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich and is possibly the closest model to a UK  stand-up circuit in Europe outside the British Isles. While its rising audience of ‘internationals’ (mother-tongue and fluent second-language English speakers who live and work in the country) was always a ‘given’, the embracing of Anglo-stand-up by the Swiss – who now make up anything from 20 to 30 percent of the audience at the Zurich nights alone – seems to be bridging cultural gaps, encouraging new social networks and banishing the image of the Swiss as uptight and rather ‘stiff’. Sabine Pfiefle is native to the city and regularly goes to the shows with her friends. "I love being able to laugh out loud at comedians from all over the world in this famously ‘serious’ Swiss city of finance. I also get to meet interesting, open-minded people, both locals and internationals. There really hasn’t been anything like it around here before!"

Meanwhile, comedian Arthur Smith, who had previously claimed that Switzerland and Belgium were the two countries in which you should “never do stand-up”, has valiantly taken-up the gauntlet and was one of the earliest comics to 'funny launder' to Swiss audiences. He’s now Funny Laundry’s unofficial ambassador and has performed three times in the country. So, has the new Swiss response to stand-up changed his view on Switzerland? "It's always interesting to go to a foreign country and test the local cultural waters and Switzerland's a beautiful place and the audiences are delightful, but never before have I done a gig where they heckled me for being untidy!"

Uptight, meticulous and protective; while these stereotypes about the Swiss dominate the headlines, their grass roots culture seems to be challenging this view, demonstrating a love of the lighter side of life… with a few laughs along the way.

Details:
Email: info@funnylaundry.com

Web: http://www.funnylaundry.com