What is your new comedy show about? Moving from Paris to Birmingham without a plan in 2014, trying to fit in with “Britishness”, and learning to swim at the age of 25. It’s a fish out of water story – if the fish had evolved and ended up working in a call centre outside Birmingham for two years. What made you get into comedy? I’ve always loved words. When I was 13, I used to write jokes on my phone for myself like an absolute nerd/legend (depending how you see it). I saw my first live standup gig on a trip home to Paris in 2016 and returned to Birmingham desperate to give it a go, but didn’t for about eight months. It was only when a friend pushed me to hop on her gig in 2017 I finally did. I couldn’t sleep for three days before, and went on stage with a glass of red wine to do five minutes like I was recording my last ever special. I got a couple of laughs and couldn’t think about anything else for three weeks. Can you remember a gig so bad, it’s now funny? I once did a run of gigs in caravan parks in Wales. On the way there, I dropped my phone in the toilets at Gloucester services and had to get on stage as soon as I arrived. I died on my arse for 15 minutes and couldn’t even bury my head in my phone afterwards to soften the blow. It was like experiencing emotions in HD. Instead, I rushed around trying to find rice to put my phone in and could only source rice flour from the chip shop next door. As my phone was lowering into a pool of rice flour (which does not work by the way), the fire alarm went off at the gig and the entire audience had to come out and watch me hunched over a bucket of rice flour crying. Best heckle? At a new material night in 2018 someone shouted, “It’s just more relatable than funny.” I hit them with a putdown you only get with a quick comedian’s mind: “Cheers”. How are you feeling about taking your debut hour to the Edinburgh fringe? I’ve enjoyed the whole process of writing it and figuring out how to plan an hour. This feels like a comeback year for the festival, there’s a real buzz around it. I’m proud of the show and hope people like it. What do you miss most about Paris? My hometown is the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis so going into Paris always felt like an event. What I miss most is hearing French around me. If I need to tune back into it to speak to my family, I listen to a full album of French hip-hop beforehand, which means that by the time I speak to my mum I’m really angry at the government. What is something that surprised you about moving to Birmingham? How long I stayed there (in a nice way!). I was only meant to be there in passing but I found myself completely welcomed by the city. Brummies are some of my favourite people in the world and I consider it my second home. Any preshow rituals? Now I hate how stereotypically French this is, but I just can’t be myself without first having a black coffee and storming the Bastille. Who on the circuit always makes you laugh? Sean McLoughlin, Josh Pugh, Anna Thomas, Fatiha El Ghorri, Chelsea Birkby, Jamie D’Souza and Glenn Moore all make me laugh in different ways but I could go on for ever. Worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Most standups get used to having drunk people come up to them after gigs with some “tips”. My brain filters them out now so I don’t really hear bad advice any more. Celya AB: Swimming is at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 3-29 August.