Maria Tea (aka Maria Tsartsali) is a stand up comedian, clown, performance artist, and poet from Greece. She has a cult following among comedy fans at the Edinburgh Fringe.
PODCASTTRANSCRIPTKEYWORDS
Maria Tea origin, Greek comedian, star tickler, comedy course, Brexit impact, vintage shop, Love Pigeon sketch, poetry books, Cherries by XXX, Down and Out, Amazon books, punctuation issues, Touch Typing.
Welcome back to On the Mic: Origin Stories. I’m Martin Walker. Maria Tea is a Greek comedian who I met performing in Edinburgh, a unique personality and an unusual approach to stand up comedy. This is Maria’s origin story.
I was in this very house. I was thinking about that because it never happens that I’m in my house, and I’m having a conversation, you know. So when I was in this house as a child, I was speaking with my granddad in this corner, I’m telling you, it’s very emotional to me. He was asking me what I want to be when I grow up. And my granddad had his idea of things, you know, he’d expect for me to say something serious, even though I was four years old. So he did ask me that question of what I want to do when I grew up, and I said that I want to be a “star tickler”, like a person that tickles. In Greece, we had a star tickler that went around and tickled people, and that was the character that I wanted to be. So I said that to him, and he was really disappointed. I remember, I think, “why?” And then that was my wish. And then many years later, I was very upset, and I was having a conversation with my boyfriend at the time, and I was telling him that the only time that I ever made a sort of, kind of career plan was when I was four, and I wanted to star tickler, and then I had to get back to it. And he agreed that I have to go out and do some comedy.
Right So how did you do that? How did you become… I’ve never heard of this… How did you become a star tickler?
So I went to the city, because I was living in London… those were the days… so I started a course for comedians, and that was hilarious. That was really one of the funniest things I’ve ever done in my life, is that course, it was just pure comedy. It was just so awkward and so like, ridiculous, that it was really worth it, and plus, was really beneficial in terms of what I got out of it, like I learned a lot, but really the structure of it and everything, if there was a camera, it was really funny to watch, but I recommend it.
But you left London to move back to Greece?
Yes, I left when, when people fight. I had to leave, and then I came here, and everyone else was fighting, because I live in Greece now, so I feel like there was a gloomy period where Brexit was voted and everyone was like against each other, and people were unfriending each other. It was very sad, really. And then I left, but that was a coincidence, and then I came here, and everyone was very sad for different things. So I guess my point is that the establishment wants us to be very sad, right? That’s kind of my theory, and I want to be very happy just to piss everyone off. So I’m like, persevering. But you know, my life in London was like It lasted for like, 20 years. So it seems like a lifetime for me, because it was what years like a real sort of stretch, and I wrote some books.
Okay, so we’ll get to your books in a sec, but if I may, I’m curious, what do you do in Greece? Do you perform comedy?
To be honest, I haven’t done anything in Greece. I just go to Edinburgh every year, and I do my performing, and then I sleep. But I do have a shop that’s got vintage clothes. And then I tell everyone that I do comedy. So I’m very funny, really. It’s in a very edgy area. I call it Exarchia. That’s like the Hackney of Athens, let’s just say, what Hackney used to be, or even like Brixton. Yeah, it’s more Brixton. Not, not Brixton now, though. Well, it’s kind of Brixton now, because it’s super gentrified So, and it’s a, you know, it’s a project. It’s something that I wanted to, like, have as a space, and then I wanted to do things from there. So there is one thing that I want to do which I’m going to talk about now, right? So it’s called the “Love Pigeon”, and it’s about, so it’s like a sketch, actually, if. You’ve been to my show, the “Clownfish”. One of the sketches is called the “Love Pigeon”. So the idea is that we bring a story. So it’s like a sketch thing where I am indeed the “Love Pigeon”, and I have a French accent, and I speak like this, and because French is the language of love anyway, and the other person is doing something that I asked them to, so that they’re performing a role. And then we bring in some sort of resolution to our problems. So it’s quite silly kind of psychotherapy that you’re allowed to shoot the other person. I think that’s my favorite moment, but it’s quite funny, but it’s also quite useful, I feel in terms of communication. So that’s what I want to do.
I see, but you haven’t performed in Greek. in Greece.
I haven’t, no, I haven’t done that just because I wasn’t there. It wasn’t like out of choice. It was just because I was living in London. So I kind of all my jokes were in English, and I was writing in London in English. So that brings me to my next page, but I don’t know if I want to plug so much, because I’ve written these poetry books that no one knows about. So the one is called cherries by XXX, and the other one is called “Down and Out and Down and Out in London and London”, because I think that pretty much like describes my life, and they were written when I lived in London. And they’re living on Amazon at the moment, so you can buy them. They were, there were good books. They’re good books. They’re very insightful, but very emotional. And everyone gets it and doesn’t need to be a story that people follow. And they look like poetry, but that’s because I can’t press dot or coma on my typing skills because I touch time. So then every time I press Enter, and then there’s another line…
Sorry, you can’t type a comma or a full stop?
I can’t because I skipped the last class because I did this touch-typing course in Greece, and it was hot. It was like proper hot. There was no air conditioning at the time of my upbringing. And then I just skipped the last class altogether, and on the last class you were learning about comas and, you know, full stops and things. So I missed all that.
Well, thank you for your time, Maria.
Enjoy your day. Bye.
If want to keep up to date with Maria’s doings, or perhaps you want to buy one of her crazy books with no punctuation, you’ll find everything on her profile page.
And please, if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, rate us on AppleTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. I’m Martin Walker. See you next time.
