When I was in fifth grade writing classes, the teacher would give us a subject to write about. It was always a clichéd topic: What's more important, money or happiness? Things like that.
I hated having to write what everyone else would write and arrive at the same conclusion. I felt manipulated by topics designed to lead me to the “right” answer. So I did the opposite. I took all the facts and twisted them, creating nonsensical justifications to prove that wrong was right.
When I read my essays out loud in class, the kids laughed at very specific points. Years later, I learned to call them punchlines.
UNIVERSITY CRUSH
The next time I started writing was at the University of Tehran. I was an opinionated 20-year-old, and there was a student association that did political activities, such as hanging pictures of protesters killed during the Green Movement on the walls of their office. It was the perfect fit, and soon I developed a crush on the guy who had been elected head of the association.
That turned out to be enough motivation to get involved. I volunteered to run their magazine and started writing. I found it impossible to write about politics and current affairs without laughing at their absurdities – and that has stuck with me.
I remember publishing my first edition of the magazine. People sarcastically called it GolAgha, which is the most famous Iranian satire magazine from the 1990s. It was meant as constructive criticism of my approach, but I took it as a compliment.
What better way is there to question something than by making fun of it?
MOVING TO BERLIN
I moved to Europe in 2021, and I hated being an immigrant. I used to be cool, literate, confident, and fashionable – fashionable enough to get arrested by the morality police aged 19. After I emigrated, I was none of those things anymore.
I experienced racism for the first time, and I was also angry that people seemed so happy. I couldn’t just walk around, live my life, and forget the pain and suffering I had left behind.
I knew I was extremely lucky to be there. I knew I had survived something. But I also couldn’t do anything with it. So I started doing stand-up.
I wanted to force people to listen to what I had to say, and I figured if I made them laugh, they might actually stay. That’s how I found a platform to scream my anger, make dark jokes, and share my fucked-up thoughts with random strangers.
It worked. It turned out I was funny after all.
I couldn’t just walk around, live my life, and forget the pain and suffering I had left behind
WAR
Four years into comedy, the 12-Day War between Iran, the United States, and Israel broke out. I posted a video about how much I hate war. Who would have thought that would become the most controversial thing ever to come out of my mouth?
In the video, I explained that I didn't support foreign forces invading Iran to “save us”. I got so much hate for that. Sometimes I still go back and read the comments to humble myself.
More than a thousand comments calling me brainwashed, an IRGC spy, the W-word, and fatherless. The last one, to be fair, is actually true.
I also received supportive comments. One person wrote, “Your brain is bigger than your tits.”
While the comments were exploding and the video was going viral, all I could think was: ‘Thank God I decided to put on a bra before I hit record.’
Thanks to both the haters and the supporters, that video got me a TV gig at Arte.
Attila Forster
EDINBURGH FRINGE
In 2023 and 2024, I went to the Edinburgh Fringe for gigs and compilation shows and later brought a triple-header there. To my surprise, we were the only all-female dark comedy act I knew of.
That mattered to me.
I think we need more women saying what they actually think, especially when it is dark, angry, political, inappropriate, contradictory, and hard to package nicely.
This year, I’m bringing my solo show, 1979: Personality Disorder, to CocoBoho from 18 to 30 August 2026 at 5:15 pm. It is a show about being an Iranian woman and making it everybody else’s problem. Get your tickets here.
