Edinburgh Fringe 2024: Interview with Diya Shah

Diya Shah, photographed in the Fellows' Garden, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, June 2024.

So, how has your final year as a Sidney undergraduate been? 

‘It's been really lovely! It's been a lot of fun. Everyone’s been working really hard, but I think - because we all knew it was our final year - we’ve also been focusing on hanging out with each other while we can.’

And you’ve managed to not only complete your degree, but write and perform a one woman show, and co-write and star in this year’s Footlights Spring Revue.

‘Yes, in January, before Spring Revue, I did a one-off, one-hour, one-woman standup show called ‘The Good, The Bad and the Humbling’ at the ADC Theatre. It was a really, really lovely night. I had made a graph with ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, ‘Humbling’ and ‘Ego Boosting’ on it, and I went through some stories and experiences I’d had and - with the help of the audience - I put all those moments on the graph. 

‘I suppose the idea came from realising that my standup sets were always about something embarrassing that had happened to me, or they involved me making fun of myself in some way. I came up with the name of the show in April last year and had it in my Notes app for a while, along with the idea of the graph. I pitched it in October or November. I just thought, ‘Now is the time.’

‘We had the graph propped up on an easel during the show, and it fell down in the middle of the performance, which felt like a whole new humbling moment being created…

Writing an hour-long show must have been a big challenge, particularly when you're the only person on stage. 

‘Yes, I’ve done lots of short form comedy writing before, but the arc of an hour-long show is quite different.

‘I needed to make it engaging the whole way through. I had a projector to add a visual element, and we had audience participation halfway through as well, to make sure that the audience were still awake and paying attention!

‘But, yes, I was worried. I thought, am I going to get dehydrated? Am I going to want to sit down halfway through? Am I going to lose my voice? But it was just very natural when I was onstage. It didn't feel like an hour.

‘And I got a standing ovation at the end of the night, which was just the icing on the cake! I’m very proud of it. I think it was the best night of my life, to be honest!'

‘The whole show was a 9,000 word document by the end of it. One of my friends suggested that if I didn't have time to write my actual dissertation because I was too busy doing the show, I should just submit my script and call it ‘The linguistics of comedy’.

When we talked last year, you'd taken your first steps onto the stage and you told me you'd never done anything like this before coming to Cambridge. The experience of performing your own one woman show, in particular, sounds quite empowering. How would you describe it? 

‘A few minutes before the show, I was terrified. I stood backstage thinking, “I can't do this!” There were so many people there. We were due to start at 11pm. It was a few minutes past 11, but there were still people milling about in the auditorium. Then we got a call from the venue manager to say, “You can't start yet. There's a queue of people going out the doors trying to get tickets.” And as soon as he said that, all the fear was gone. I thought, “Okay, let's do this!” I knew it was going to be a good night.

‘And as soon as you step onto the stage, especially when you're doing a one woman show, I think you know the audience is going to be rooting for you.  It is a very empowering thing. And the great thing was all my friends were there, my family was there, and it was really nice that they could see me in my element.’

And you have also been involved in the Footlights Spring Revue. How did that go?

‘I absolutely loved it! We started brainstorming themes for the show in December. We decided on ‘Washed Up’ as the theme – the idea was that we were shipwrecked on a desert island and were telling stories to pass the time.

‘Over December and January we started writing sketches. We were assigned writing partners by the directors so we would rotate and write with different people. Then we were rehearsing throughout January and February.

‘In Week Five of Lent Term we did the show at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge. There were eleven cast members and we did six shows over five nights, which was a blast. And I also got a free sailor suit…

And do you have a favourite moment from that show?

‘There was one sketch called ‘Coconut Shy’, which my friends Miranda and Beck wrote. It was a poem from the perspective of the coconuts on coconut shies at funfairs, getting struck down. 

‘It was a very funny sketch. I was positioned in the audience for it, so I could see everyone on stage, and I could always see one person who was about to start laughing, but trying their best not to, and then another member of the cast would notice that they were struggling to hold it together and they'd also start laughing, and it was like dominoes - everyone corpsing on stage and not being able to hold it together. So I loved doing that every night. We were all meant to be standing there looking very solemn and very serious, but it was impossible to do that!’

So you mentioned the Footlights tour, so when did the tour start, where have you been and where are you going? 

‘We started in Cambridge in June and have just finished the first UK shows. We're then spending the month of August in Edinburgh at the Fringe. 

‘It's already been the most fun I've had doing a show. I've never been to the Fringe before either, so that'll be a big ‘bucket list’ moment. 

‘In September, I think we're going to Europe - we're doing a couple of shows over there as well as some more shows across the UK and Ireland. And then in October we come back to the ADC and we do one last run in Cambridge to finish it all off.’

So, alongside all this, you’ve completed your undergraduate degree. Has it been a good three years?

‘Oh, I’ve had the best three years of my life here. I'm just very grateful for my group of friends at Sidney - I just can't imagine how dull everything would've been without them these past three years. And I know we're going to stay in touch and stay close.

‘Some of my best memories have been having picnics and barbecues with them in Tennis Court Gardens. 

‘And at the very end, we had Sidney May Ball. That was a very, very good night. I think the highlight was the bouncy castle. I don’t think any of us had been on a bouncy castle in probably over a decade. And we had our silent disco headphones on and we were on there for a very, very long time, just bouncing, headphones on... I lost track of time! 

‘It was just so nice to all be together, celebrating our time here. So, yes, as I look back on three years, that's what I'm most grateful for - my friends at Sidney.’