Gina Yashere

As a UK comic based in LA, have you had to change your comedy to be more America-friendly? Obviously I talk about the fact that I am British and in America so that aspect of my material has changed somewhat because I have to introduce myself to the audience, but other than that, no: my act hasn't changed a hell of a lot. The only thing I've ever had to do is slow down my speech so that people can understand me better.

Anything you particularly miss from home? Chocolate. American chocolate is shit – which is probably a good thing cos I have a ridiculously sweet tooth.

You are clearly used to being in the female minority in your working life. Does it ever get too much? Not really. It makes me stand out from the crowd because I'm female and I'm good. There are fewer female comedians generally and in this industry you always want to stand out. So no, it never gets too much. Compared to my life as an engineer this is a walk in the park

How was being a lift engineer? All I remember is that when I worked at Canary Wharf we didn't have any female toilets and so I used to have to go into the mens toilets with my hard hat pulled down over my face so people didn't know that I was a girl. We had no female facilities because they had no idea that there were women engineers and builders. I was the only woman on a building site of over 3000 people, the only other women being the canteen ladies and the nurse. I learned to hold my own!

Have you ever had to retire a joke? Well I've never had an audience member tell me to retire a joke; that would be terrible. Usually I'll know when it's done, when I start to get bored of it and if I don't perform it in the same way then audiences don't respond the same way.

What was your greatest moment as a comedian? Probably when I first realised I could sell theatres out by myself. The first time people came just to see me. That was one of my first big moments and that was within a year of starting comedy. I did this little hundred-seater theatre and it was sold out and I thought "Oh my god, these hundred people have come just to see me". That was a big moment for me. Obviously it has gotten bigger since then, I can do two thousand seaters in England but that was the first big moment. Oh yeah!

Any sage advice for young aspiring Australian comics? Work hard, write your own material, don't steal, and expect to earn no money for a while!

What can we expect from the new show? The new show has lots of joke and funniness, that's about it. I can't even tell you what its about – I don't even know what I'm really doing yet. Emily Lloyd-Tait