I recently had the pleasure of email interviewing comic Jackie Kashian. Here’s her official bio before jumping into the actual interview: “Jackie Kashian has a half-hour special on Comedy Central and has appeared on CBS, NBC, and VH1. She has been a national touring comic for over 10 years and has performed at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, the Bumbershoot Arts Festival in Seattle, Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and has toured Australia for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.” My thanks to Kashian for her time and to Mary Jo Pehl for helping facilitate the interview. (Photo by Michael Helms)

Tim O’Shea: I noticed in your bio that you did a successful tour of Australia. While clearly Australia is an English-speaking country, their culture/interests/lives are different in some ways than Americans. How much did you have to customize your material for an Australian audience?

Jackie Kashian: When you do other countries there are two things to remember: The audience is full of a people with a long, rich culture that is complex and beautiful. And that every country’s television station buys Cops. So – everyone knows more about the US than you’ll know about their country, but find something local to talk about. Even if they get every reference and joke – if you don’t have ANYTHING to say about their lovely civilization – you’re an ass and they won’t laugh at any of it.

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