{"id":518091,"date":"2026-04-07T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518091\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:45:08","slug":"just-so-cheeky-kemah-bob-on-foc-fest-the-celebration-for-femmes-of-colour-in-comedy-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518091\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just so cheeky!\u2019 Kemah Bob on FOC Fest, the celebration for femmes of colour in comedy | Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kemah Bob\u2019s face lights up when they tell me about their \u201cpassion project that has got really out of hand\u201d. In 2018, the Texan standup created FOC It Up<\/a>, a comedy club for femmes of colour, after wanting to work with more people of colour \u201cthat weren\u2019t dudes\u201d. \u201cIt really was that simple,\u201d they grin. Starting as an hour-long slot within a festival run by the cabaret company The Cocoa Butter Club<\/a>, it has grown into a nurturing space for many comedians: they\u2019ve hosted countless mixed-bill comedy nights, launched a podcast and taken shows to the Edinburgh fringe. \u201cI wanted to have a space that felt different \u2013 warm and inclusive,\u201d says Bob. \u201cNot in a performative way. In the way that\u2019s like: they\u2019re all here, and that\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not one to stand still, Bob is preparing for the club\u2019s biggest event yet \u2013 a full day of workshops, masterclasses and networking opportunities, finishing with a \u201cbanging\u201d comedy show at Soho theatre. Bob laughs when announcing the event\u2019s name: \u201cFOC Fest! It is just so cheeky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I started doing comedy, I wasn\u2019t really sure of myself \u2026 I want other people to have access to that. It\u2019s a pretty sick job,\u201d Bob says. But the festival is not solely aimed at aspiring comedians. \u201cUsing humour to reclaim yourself and laugh at difficult things is a great tool for everyone.\u201d Over the course of the day, there are sessions including a standup masterclass for trans and queer people, a workshop that teaches participants to navigate \u201cbig feelings\u201d through comedy, as well as industry panels with guests including Nana Hughes and Julia McKenzie.<\/p>\n

While the workshops and panels are open to everyone, Bob adds, \u201cwhite audience members are encouraged to check their privilege at the door\u201d. Making the day accessible for FOC It Up\u2019s target audience is a primary concern: \u201cSo while we welcome other people to come along and take part, it\u2019s not actually built for them, you know? \u2026 I hope people get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018People still see our voices as a trend\u2019 \u2026 from left: Brooke Evison, Kate Cheka, Saven Chadha, Aisha Amanduri, Nayonica Ghosh and Kemah Bob. Photograph: Mariana Feijo<\/p>\n

Bob has wanted to put on \u201can event bigger than our usual shows\u201d for years but it has been an \u201cexhausting\u201d battle to get here. Despite Bob being a prominent voice in UK comedy for nearly a decade, the club still operates without any funding. \u201cWe have no financial backing; we are literally just using the extra of what we\u2019ve made, because there\u2019s no money in live events at the scale we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

After just an hour in their company, Bob\u2019s work ethic is clear. They mention the companies they\u2019ve reached out to for sponsorship \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s not been in anyone\u2019s budget\u201d \u2013 and the funding schemes they\u2019ve written lengthy applications for. \u201cIt feels like it is less worth it to put money behind initiatives like ours, whereas a few years ago it might have been more of a priority.\u201d Still, they hope that the festival will be a strong example of what they have to offer. \u201cI really do feel the potential of it, as a platform and as a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have things changed since Bob launched the club in 2018? While it\u2019s now less common to be the only femme of colour on a comedy bill, Bob says there is still a lot of room for progress. The death of George Floyd in 2020 \u201cperformatively\u201d changed things for a while: \u201cAll of a sudden I went from having no TV work to loads of it,\u201d they say. \u201cBut as quickly as that became important, it lost its importance when all the performative activism had been achieved \u2026 it kind of speaks to the fact that people still see our voices as a trend, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Bob\u2019s dreams for the club are sky high; they dream of it becoming an international institution. \u201cIt would be so cool if we could have artists [on our bills] from New York or artists from India or Berlin, like a cross-pollination,\u201d they say. Bob would love for it to keep expanding into larger spaces and to be a source of support for other comedians who want to fund their own work, too. \u201cThis is the first FOC Fest, but it is certainly not going to be the last,\u201d Bob says. \u201cThe talent within our community is endless \u2013 and the hunger for this is boundless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kemah Bob\u2019s face lights up when they tell me about their \u201cpassion project that has got really out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-518091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}