A biography for Nish Kumarhasn’t been written yet.
“But there comes a landing point, where you finally get to a stage where you have something to hang your hat on. Then your family see that this is definitely happening and you're making a success of it.”
“I spend a lot of time bathing in a glow of consensus but you also have to be willing to say something to people who might not agree with you and take the consequences of what follows.”
“The job of a comedian is to make people laugh, but a lot of my interests are in politics so I'm going to use that.”
“I'm sure when alternative comedy started, before which - Billy Connolly aside - standup was essentially a person being racist and sexist onstage, there was also the sense that this was the death of comedy. But it's just progress.”
“When we were growing up we were all asked to accept ourselves as British citizens, and I still hold on to this idea that multicultural Britain is possible.”
“I once got chased off stage by a heavy-metal band.”
“Having spent half my time at university studying English literature, I know from experience that reading lists often contain more white men than Jacob Rees-Mogg's last birthday party.”
“If you're reaching for a local reference to drop for a place that is typical of everything wrong with Britain, you would switch between Croydon or Bromley. There is a lot of deprivation there, but it's not one of the poorest parts of the country.”
“I don't feel I'm in competition with anyone. My sense is of it being like school: I don't want to beat anyone but I don't want to get left behind. That's a great motivator. I like impressing my friends.”
“For many of us, football is both a source of frustration and absolute euphoria.”
“I spend a lot of time bathing in a glow of consensus, but you have to be willing to say something to people who might not agree with you and take the consequences of what follows.”
“I just love buying myself presents. Is that a crime?”
“I'm in the middle of an existential crisis in how I approach comedy about these big issues. I sometimes find, when I get drawn on the subject of race, it's too close to home for me and I can't articulate what I'm trying to get across.”
“I'm interested in offence and why people take offence in certain ways about certain things.”
“All comedy shows make me feel better about everything.”
“My parents wanted me to be a lawyer.”
“Frustration with the trains is inevitable, given the daily difficulties commuters face.”
“I wasn't as cynical about Britain as a lot of friends of mine who are also people of colour.”
“Every day I wake up and think: 'Am I part of the problem? Am I helping further entrench the political divide? All the raging mouthpieces of the right that I'm furious with - am I just the same but on the left?' I have no easy answers to that.”
“When I am on stage, I am often thinking about what I will eat after the show.”