It took bravery and tenacity for Shazia Mirza to defy her parents’ wishes and pivot from a career as a science teacher in a tough inner city school to become a successful stand up comic.
But despite sell out tours and appearances on the likes of EastEnders, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Celebrity SAS, when Shazia hit midlife, her confidence began to wane.
“For a long time I forgot how good I was at what I do,” the 53-year-old tells Ateh Jewel on this week’s episode of HELLO!’s Second Act podcast.
“I used to come out at a gig and think, of course they’re going to laugh. I’ve done it so many times, I know how to do this.
“But you can lose your confidence as you get older. Sometimes you put on weight or don’t look as good as what you used to and get self-conscious or think, ‘Maybe I’m just not that good anymore.’ ‘I’ve done ok, but not as good as that person’ and you compare.
“Because you’re still going up the mountain, you don’t look down to see how far you’ve come.
“You have to have good friends to remind you just how good you are, how great you look, how far you’ve come, what you’ve overcome to achieve.”
Growing up in Birmingham, Shazia felt she ‘had no voice’ as she tried to conform to being a ‘good Muslim woman’ for her strict family. When one of her students stole science equipment to a dealer in exchange for drugs, it gave her the push – and the material – to follow her dream and become a comedian.
“I just remember looking out the window thinking, you know what? I cannot do this for the rest of my life just so that my parents can say my daughter is a scientist.
“I felt all my life I had no choice but to break these barriers down one by one, otherwise I would just be a really unhappy woman. What would be the point of me being alive?”
Her old students – some in prison – reached out, impressed that she was on TV. Yet her parents were ‘horrifed’, only acknowledging her career when she landed a role as a doctor on EastEnders. “I felt sorry for my mum because I chose to do this, I didn’t expect her to be abused for it.”
The comedy circuit has changed for the better since she started out, Shazia says, with women talking about ‘taboo’ topics such as menopause and middle age. Getting older in her career is, she adds, a bonus. “You only really get good when you get older because you have things to talk about. You don’t care.”
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