Podcast aficionados may well be aware of Rubina Pabani and Poppy Jay of ‘Brown Girls Do It Too’, an award winning staple of BBC Sounds.

It’s built a huge following of fans who love its honesty and openness, as well as provoking a backlash for breaking the silence on sex in Asian communities. 

‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ is a show that’s born out of said podcast, a comical mash-up of sketch, song, chat and more, and it’s just done a well received run up at the Edinburgh Fringe. 

I was excited to hear that Rubina and Poppy would be performing the show in London, so I arranged a quick chat ahead of their run at Soho Theatre in Walthamstow. 

CM: Can you start by telling us what to expect from ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come?’ – what kind of performance is it? 
PJ: The show’s a hot mess. It’s part sketch, part improv, with some singing, dancing and chat. We spin real-life moments into something bigger, sillier and more theatrical, people can expect jokes, cusses and filth with the odd curveball to catch you off guard.

RP: It’s a sketch comedy with splashes of improvisational chat inspired by the conversations we had with each other on our podcast ‘Brown Girls Do It Too’. We draw on experiences from our real lives to create something quite silly, funny and surprising. 

CM: What are the primary themes of the show? What topics do you cover?
PJ: We get into family baggage, our bodies, cultural clashes, and the way sex, shame and secrecy shape us. It’s personal but playful, we talk about desire, fantasies, and the awkwardness of growing up brown and female in this country we call Great Britain.

RP: We talk about our relationships with our families and bodies and explore what being a minority in a white country can do to your sense of self. The show is quite saucy, so we have very honest conversations about masturbating as children and share some of our sexual fantasies. 

CM: How does the show compare to the podcast?
RP: It’s quite different to the podcast, but has a lot of the key elements – we talk to each other, make each other laugh and share the most honest reflections about our lives. 

PJ: It’s more physical and more heightened than the podcast. The heart of it is the same – two brown mates laughing and oversharing – but on stage we get to bring it alive with sketches, set-pieces and visuals you can’t do in the audio world.

CM: For those who don’t know about the podcast, can you tell us more about it, and how it all began and came together?
RP: ‘Brown Girls’ was the brainchild of a Bengali man called Rayhan. He was curious to understand his mother’s stories and wanted brown women to have a place they could go to hear themselves reflected back. I was making podcasts and videos and landed on his radar, and the rest is history.

PJ: Yes, we were thrown together like the brown Spice Girls by Rayhan, who knew he’d never get the romantic story of his conservative mum. Without realising it, he gave us space to be loud and honest about sex, culture and identity, none of us had a clue what it would turn into. We are just as surprised as everyone else tbh.

CM: What creative process did you go through in creating this show?
PJ: We wrote, rewrote, improvised, disagreed on stuff, and wrote the best version of a sketch until we were all laughing from the same hymn sheet.

With our brilliant directors – Sam Hodges and Aneesha Srinivasan – steering us, we learnt how to shape our material for theatre rather than audio.

Neither of us went to drama school, we aren’t professional actors or comedians, so meeting the rest of the theatre crew – lighting, sound, set design etc – was eye opening for us. Theatre is a different kettle of fish.

RP: We developed the show across many months, writing jokes, trying scenes and trying to find the funniest parts of ourselves to bring out on stage.

Under the guidance of Sam and Aneesha we learnt lots of new theatre terminology and, with the help of our wonderful lighting designer Beth, together we made a show that hopefully brings the audience on a journey that feels intimate and funny.

CM: How did your Edinburgh run go and did you have a good time there? Would you go back? 
PJ: Brutal but epic, I’d go back in a flash, just with less flyering next time…

RP: Edinburgh was exhilarating and exhausting – such a bucket list moment. Having two kids up there with me, while trying to see shows, meet performers and spend time with our audience was chaotic, but totally thrilling.

The Fringe is so special and I would love to go back!

CM: Can you tell us about the things you do other than ‘Brown Girls Do It Too’?
PJ: I direct and develop documentaries, often tackling social issues that have a human impact.

RP: I look after videos and podcasts at ITN Productions, where I pitch business and make content for digital audiences. 

CM: Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’? How did you come to be pursuing creative careers and how did they begin?
PJ: My career path is classic brown millennial, my parents thought I’d be a doctor, but I had other plans. I went into directing documentaries and love being behind the camera as much as on stage.

With my self-diagnosed ADHD I like to try everything, but nothing is as exhilarating or terrifying as performing live. I can sit with ISIS supporters, drug dealers, even the far right and be fine, but put me in front of a live audience and I want to shit myself.

RP: A long old journey has led me here, from working at the BFI as a cinema usher to interning at comedy companies and BAFTA, I’ve worked on documentaries, formatted shows, current affairs programmes and many podcasts.

Ever since I was young I was always filming things and editing them and trying to make sense of the world by making things. 

CM: What would you say have been the highlights of your creative lives thus far? 
PJ: Without a doubt, co-creating this live show. That high of standing on stage, watching a room full of people laugh at something we wrote, seeing how it resonates and knowing that our stories are just as much theirs, nothing beats that.

And hearing young brown women say the podcast made them feel less alone means the world to me.

RP: It’s definitely just having a raw idea in your head, writing it down and then sharing it with people to make it better – the process is so much fun. Then when you perform something on stage and see the audience totally get it and feel it and it’s like they’re in your head – it’s a remarkable feeling. 

CM: What aims and ambitions do you have for the future? 
PJ: To keep making work that feels bold and risky. To keep experimenting with form whether that’s theatre, film or TV, and see how far we can push it. And to always keep my voice political, funny, and brown AF.

RP: Total world domination, end racism and make enough money that I can spend all day writing jokes. 

CM: What’s coming up next for you after this?
RP: We have a bunch of exciting things in the pipeline, but nothing we can reveal just yet. 

PJ: Yes, a little something-something is brewing… keep your eyes and ears peeled on our ‘Brown Girls Do It Too’ Insta for news soon.

‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ is on at Soho Theatre Walthamstow from 9-13 Sep. See the venue website here for more information and to book tickets. 

LINKS: sohotheatre.com | instagram.com/browngirlsdoittoo