FORMER political advisor turned comedian Ayesha Hazarika shares her personal experience of British politics and looks at the “state of the nation” in her new stand-up tour coming to Salisbury.

State of the Nation lifts the lid on what life is really like behind the scenes in Westminster and asks what is next for British politics.

As Ayesha explains the tour has come at a “fortuitous” time: “It is an incredible time for politics, there is so much happening and my show is all about politics. It has been great from that point of view and the show is very much about looking at what is happening in politics now, because it is so topical, and takes the audience member on a journey through politics and my own story – what I did in politics. Hopefully giving people a good insight into what it is really like.”

Ayesha worked in politics for about 20 years as a civil servant and then as a senior political advisor. She started her career as a stand-up comedian before taking a break to become a special advisor for the Labour Party.

“I had always been fascinated by both comedy and politics. My favourite show growing up was Spitting Image,” she says.

“I was working in politics as a civil servant and found it really interesting but I did have this yearning to do something slightly different and a lot of my work colleagues and friends said you are funny you’re a really good laugh you should try stand up so I thought ‘right ok, why not’.”

She hit the comedy circuit after completing a stand up comedy course. Her career path took another turn when she says she was offered a “serious job in politics” and decided to “leave comedy for a bit”.

She said having humour is a great skill in politics and there are “quite a few parallels” between politicians and comedians.

In the show she talks about Brexit, Trump, current politics and the Labour Party.

She said: “If you look at current politics and just think what a mess, the nation is in the state that it is, do come along and hopefully I can shed some light on how we have ended up in this complete madness. It is like political therapy for everybody, myself included.”

This is the first time Ayesha has performed in the city and she says she is “very excited” to be coming to Salisbury Arts Centre. She will also be joined by special guest, political commentator Tim Montgomerie.

The tour comes to Salisbury Arts Centre next Friday. For tickets call 01722 321744 or go to salisburyartscentre.co.uk (July 14).