GENERAL INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW // Brown Girls Do It Too start their live tour
The award-winning podcast Brown Girls Do It Too is set to take to the stage for the first time – kicking off with two exclusive ‘work in progress’ performances at London’s prestigious Soho Theatre this week ahead of its national tour in 2022.
The critically acclaimed podcast is hosted by Poppy Jay and Rubina Pabani, and explores the messy realities, fantasies, sexpectations and navigating life and relationships as British Asian women. It was the winner of the Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards 2020 and of the Best Podcast honour at the 2021 Asian Media Awards.
Now, Brown Girls Do It Too LIVE has been developed by Tilted, and includes sketches, songs and a no-holds-barred discussion about their experiences. It covers topics such as first orgasms and loves, racism and family politics – and also the backlash they have faced by doing the podcast.
We caught up with Rubina and Poppy to find out more about the show!
How does the show build on the podcast?
This surreal live show at Soho theatre is our podcast on speed. We’ve taken our frank, honest and sometimes uncomfortable chat and turned it into sketches, songs and salacious banter.
Do you think being in a room with the audience might change the dynamic of the show?
Absolutely – taking some of our most intimate moments on stage and revealing parts of ourselves we normally keep hidden is terrifying and exciting. Before it was just the two of us whispering fanny to each other, now we’re shouting dick in everyone’s face.
You’re looking for ambassadors from the Asian community to be part of the show’s development. Could you tell us a bit about why this is important?
Asian females aren’t represented in mainstream media accurately or fairly – so it’s important we include them in this process. Theatre isn’t the most accessible place for minorities at the best of times, so we wanted to engage young Asian women in these important conversations to help us make this a show that they’d be proud of.
What parts of the show are you most excited about?
Rubina is 7 months pregnant and bouncing around on a space hopper and Poppy is channelling Beyoncé mixed with Chabuddy G for a musical number. It’s all anarchic fun, that would embarrass your mum.
Anything else you’d like to add that I’ve missed?
We’re not just taking ourselves out of the studio and onto the stage – we’re embarking on a mad experiment of what happens when you give two brown girls a chance to wank in public.