Nish Kumar looks back: ‘My parents had to bribe me with Crunchies and Batman pens to stay in school’ | Nish Kumar

Portrait of Nish Kumar as a toddler, sitting at a desk at house doing drawing, and replicating the pose as a grownipNish Kumar in 1991 and 2025. Most important portrait: Pål Hansen. Styling: Andie Redman. Grooming: Neusa Neves at Arlington Artists utilizing Stila cosmetics and Colour Wow Hair. Archive picture: courtesy of Nish KumarBorn in 1985 in Tooting, London, Nish Kumar is a comic book and presenter. He began standup whereas at Durham College and has twice been nominated for finest present on the Edinburgh comedy awards. He fronted topical comedy information collection The Mash Report and co-hosts political podcast Pod Save the UK with the journalist Coco Khan. He takes his present to the Edinburgh pageant fringe this month.This image was taken at our home in Croydon, and I’m sitting reverse a ThunderCats guide. At 5, the central pillars of my life had been ThunderCats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was obsessive concerning the issues I liked and I didn’t have a very good distinction between actuality and fantasy. Throughout one intense interval of SuperTed fandom, I even referred to as my mum Spotty.The hair is sort of telling on this picture. My dad and mom have clearly tried to comb my curls right into a neat aspect parting, however a couple of minutes later it might have sprung again up once more. This completely encapsulates my childhood: the whole lot about me was unruly. My dad is an ordered man and had no concept how he birthed such a toddler. On a couple of event he has stated, “If you happen to didn’t look a lot like me, I’d have assumed your mom was having an affair.”As an odd, loudmouth, barely geeky baby who liked to learn, I used to be precocious in all of the improper methods. After my first day in school, Mum stated, “How was it?” I replied, “Yeah, it’s fairly good. I don’t suppose I’ll be going again. An attention-grabbing expertise however not my factor.” They needed to bribe me to maintain going. Crunchie bars, Batman pens, no matter it took to get me by the gates. I discovered it onerous to make mates, largely as I used to be actually younger in my college 12 months, but in addition as a result of I used to be a dweeb, blissful in his personal world.As an adolescent, I used to be an actual piece of shit. Half my lecturers discovered me deeply irritating; the opposite half inspired my “audible engagements” with their makes an attempt to teach me. One even advised my dad and mom I used to be going to be the primary non-white prime minister. I do not know what that was based mostly on, however my dad and mom took it as a solemn promise. Once I turned out to be a comic, they had been like, “Effectively, this product has not met its assure.”As I obtained older, I labored out that making different individuals giggle was a approach I might join and ingratiate myself into wider society. At college I joined the Durham Revue, which is the place I met Ed Gamble and Tom Neenan. They had been enterprising individuals and determined they had been going to arrange their very own comedy night time. They employed the upstairs of a neighborhood bar and, with out asking, signed me up for one of many first exhibits. I used to be terrible for the primary 5 years of standup, however slowly the momentum constructed. It’s solely as a result of I met that group of individuals and had the house and time to experiment at college that I now have this job.There have been a few years the place I needed to stability being a horrible temp employee, doing information entry and photocopying for the Central Workplace of Info, with gigging. However by September 2013 issues had been going nicely and I might depart workplace work behind.There have been newspaper columnists who didn’t consider that somebody of my pores and skin color ought to have an opinion on the the governmentBy the time I obtained on TV, I used to be 30 and felt well-adjusted sufficient for the ruthlessness of the business. I did Have I Obtained Information for You and Reside on the Apollo, and although some individuals would get wound up by my political jokes, I used to be ready to face criticism for my comedy and prided myself on my resilience. However nothing might have ready me for the ferocity of the suggestions when The Mash Report got here out. That inbuilt resilience took me as much as about 2019, once I began getting loss of life threats. Then it evaporated.It was then that my pal Brett Goldstein and my companion Amy [Annette] advised me to see a therapist. I’m undecided what they observed in my character to counsel it’s what I wanted, however it was doable I had stopped having the ability to handle my feelings. I was reluctant at first – I believed I might stand up to something and that needing remedy as a result of my dream job was anxious can be indulgent. However I was improper. As a result of in addition to being extremely conceited, I’ve generalised nervousness, and that interval of my life was essentially the most relentless buildup of strain.The media protection, on reflection, was past hysterical. The present turned a sort of proxy battle about the BBC and political stability. Some individuals stated, “Nish Kumar is a menace, and the BBC has to do away with him” and others stated, “Nobody’s watching this present.” I stored pondering, “Each of these items can’t be true.” On prime of that, there have been newspaper columnists who didn’t consider that somebody of my pores and skin color ought to be capable to have an opinion on the operation of the British authorities, and that any criticism I expressed was a type of ingratitude.skip previous publication promotionSign as much as Inside SaturdayThe solely strategy to get a glance behind the scenes of the Saturday journal. Signal as much as get the within story from our prime writers in addition to all of the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox each weekend.Privateness Discover: Newsletters might comprise data about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by exterior events. For extra data see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after publication promotionWhen I used to be a child, my dad and mom – just like the dad and mom of most ethnic minority children – would always inform me, “You want to preserve your head down. Keep protected, get a correct job.” I believed it was as a result of they lacked creativeness, however my mum arrived in England in 1973, when the Nationwide Entrance had been on the streets. It wasn’t that my dad and mom didn’t “get me” and my artistic ambitions – they only needed me to be a lawyer or physician as a result of it’s tougher for them to kick you in a foreign country when that point inevitably comes. Top-of-the-line issues my therapist has stated is, “People who find themselves kids of immigrants have to understand their dad and mom are each paranoid and proper.” I grew up surrounded by a stage of hysteria that was disproportionate however not unfounded, and coming to phrases with that has actually been the lesson for me.That’s to not say I remorse doing the job I’ve executed or making the jokes I’ve made, however possibly I used to be naive about how private the response to me on TV can be. Now I’m in a significantly better place: I did a remedy programme for post-traumatic stress dysfunction as a result of my mind had internalised the loss of life threats, and my assist system features a psychological well being skilled.It additionally helps that I’ve so many good individuals round me. From being a child who struggled to make mates, I now realise how lucky I’m to be surrounded by my companion and a peer group in comedy that basically have one another’s backs. All of us got here up at a time when there have been tons of alternatives, and as an alternative of attempting to destroy one another on panel exhibits, we had been supportive. Not as a result of we’re particularly virtuous individuals, however as a result of we had been very sociable, and when you had been a dick to a comic on Mock the Week on Wednesday, it might make X individual’s birthday drinks fairly fucking awkward on Friday.Generally, on dangerous days, I really feel as if I’ve let my youthful self down. Like I’ve fallen in need of my ambitions for the kind of individual I needed to be. Then, on higher days, I believe, “All I needed to do was get contained in the TV, and I’ve executed that.” As a result of, deep down, I’m nonetheless that obsessive, unusual, loudmouth geek. All that’s totally different, actually, is the beard and gray hairs.