Comedy / stand up comedy
Indian comedian returns to Bristol for How To Be A Baddie UK tour
A promising Indian comedian, known for her witty humour, is set to return to Bristol as part of her latest UK tour.
Urooj Ashfaq believes How To Be A Baddie to be her most “sensitive” show yet, which blends a variety of “sexy, dirty, edgy topics”.
After nearly a two-week run at Soho Theatre in London, the Edinburgh Comedy Award’s Best Newcomer 2023 winner kicks off her UK tour on Tuesday, including a Bristol show at The Hen & Chicken on November 26.
Urooj Ashfaq will be returning to Bristol as part of her latest UK tour, How To Be A Baddie – photo: Ray Roberts
Urooj recalls being a student at Jai Hind College in Mumbai when she first started making jokes with her then peer and now comedian, Sumaira Shaikh.
“We would pass notes in class,” Urooj said. “We would make these jokes with everybody around us, and they would laugh at everything we said. So they were like, ‘why don’t you guys try stand-up?’”
Urooj emphasised that having “another girl” with her at the start of her journey in 2016 was what made it less scary.
Soon, the two of them went on to do an internship at All India Backchod (AIB), which is known to have caused a stir and revolutionised Indian comedy.
Thought-provoking and rebellious sketches, parodies and conceptual videos from the Mumbai-based comedy company created a new wave of stand-up fans amongst Indian youth – often also acting as stepping stones for beginners, like Urooj.
Urooj said: “Once we got our internship at AIB, we never looked back. They went so easy on us. Tanmay Bhatt (one of the founders of AIB) is the coolest boss ever. We were 21 years old, right out of college, and they were actual comedy writers.”
Urooj Ashfaq starred in If Apps Were People, one of the many sketches by All India Bakchod – photo: All India Bakchod
From contributing one-liner jokes to learning how to write sketched from Tanmay, Rohan Joshi, Gursimran Khamba, Ashish Shakya and others at AIB, Urooj and Sumaira felt fully welcomed into the small circuit of Indian comedy.
Years later, Urooj has had two successful UK tours, with her Edinburgh Fringe 2025 appearance being named as one of the festival’s most anticipated shows in The Guardian, Time Out and The Times.
The Dubai-born artist believes her first YouTube video, a sketch called ‘Uber Driver and Grandmother’ from a live show at the Habitat in Mumbai, helped her find “her own audience”.
“Until then, I was reliant on other people’s YouTube channels and other people’s everything – their sketches, their panel shows,” Urooj told Bristol24/7. “So when I put out my first YouTube video, I think it gave me a direct connection to my audience, and that changed everything for me.”
Calling the vibes at her Bristol show in 2024 “immaculate”, Urooj said: “I thought the vibes were really good.
“In my mind, even though I don’t recall exact details, I remember Bristol and Manchester being fun. I’m excited about coming back to Bristol and Manchester now.”
Urooj Ashfaq’s How To Be A Baddie comes to Bristol on November 26, at the Hen & Chicken on North Street. Tickets for Bristol and other UK cities can be purchased here: sohotheatre.com/events/urooj-ashfaq-how-to-be-a-baddie-uk-tour/
Main photo: Ashiq MK
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