Making the Money Work: Shappi Khorsandi on getting comedy to pay the bills?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Making the Money Work podcast, comedian Shappi Khorsandi joins Andi Peters and Simon Lambert to discuss how she built a career in comedy, her unusual life as the daughter of an exiled Iranian poet - and how she once hired Alan Carr to work in a charity call centre.

This is the final episode of five in the Making the Money Work series, in partnership with FSCS, that has appeared in the This is Money podcast feed every fortnight since the start of the year. We hope you have enjoyed them.

Your usual This is Money podcast will continue to be published every Friday

How do you make comedy pay the bills?

That’s not a problem for the handful of star names with giant arena tours, but what about the majority of comedians who’ve dedicated a life’s work to standing up and making people laugh without raking in millions?

Shappi tells of her route to becoming a comedian and how she realised a job in an office wasn’t for her early on, swapping that for being a cleaner and nude life model for art students - because she could do those jobs while daydreaming.

Later on, she says having stripped off to sit for artists meant she was less worried about getting up on stage and doing stand-up in front of a crowd.

The comedian, who has appeared on popular TV shows including Have I Got News for You, QI, Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week, is a single mother-of-two who supports her and her two children alone and has struggled to make ends meet.

Shappi says she spent many years being ‘skint’ but that when her career took off, she was so taken aback at suddenly having money that she had to learn she had earned it and was worth it, and not to be overly generous in giving it away.

She says she loves her work so much that she cannot imagine ever doing anything else, but now plans her comedy and writing so that the money she earns enables her to spend the time she wants to with her children.

And as for the money she earned for doing I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here?

That, says Shappi, bought her entire year of bedtimes with her children.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Simon Lambert, the editor of This Is Money, and this podcast is the fifth episode in the Making the Money work series, sponsored by FSCS. On these shows, I join host Andy Peters and a fascinating range of guests with unconventional lives and finances to find out how they make their money work. The episodes will be arriving in your usual This Is Money podcast feed. We hope you enjoy listening to them and learning about some lives less ordinary.
0:24.3	This week we speak to comedian Shappi Corseandi.
0:27.9	This podcast is brought to you in association with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
0:33.4	Check your financial products are FSCS protected.
0:36.3	Visit fscs.org.uk forward slash this is money to find out more.
0:42.9	Hello and welcome to the final episode in the first series of making the money work.
0:48.2	Over the course of this series, we've been delving into the inspiring lives of high-profile people
0:53.0	who have rejected the 9-to-5 routine
0:55.4	and embraced a unique career path. Is that you, madam?
0:58.8	I think so. Hi.
1:00.1	Hallelujah. It's not your turn yet. Got to introduce Simon first.
1:04.0	With us as always is our financial guru and expert, Simon.
1:08.6	Hi, Andy. Thanks, Simon. Today, Simon and I are joined by a genuine living legend.
1:14.3	Hello, legend.
1:15.4	Hello.
1:16.2	Hello.
1:16.8	Our living legend is a bastion of British comedy.
1:19.3	She's a TV, radio and stand-up comedian who's not only written a novel and a memoir,
1:24.7	but continues to support worthy charitable causes through her work.
1:28.2	Shapi, Corrassandi, welcome.
1:30.2	Hello, Andy.
1:31.1	How are you?
	...

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