Gina Yashere is one determined lady. Booked to play the Hay Festival recently, she set off from London with six and a half hours to spare, only to encounter the mother of all traffic jams 78 miles from her destination.

So Yashere, determined not to miss her show and informed by the police that it was illegal to walk along a motorway, decided to go it cross country, "tramping though fields, climbing over fences, getting chased by cows".

She made it, eventually, only an hour later than scheduled. But she's not sure she'd do it again.

"I've got these beautiful Adidas trainers, black on one side, red on the other, never seen them anywhere else," she says. "And now they're stuck in the boot of my car, absolutely caked in mud. Do you reckon I could stick 'em in the washing machine?"

A London lass born and bred, though her parents come from Nigeria, in the past five years Yashere has won over live and TV audiences with her bolshy, down-to-earth style.

Her Edinburgh debut saw her hailed as "a British rival for Whoopi Goldberg" and she is best known for her character Tanya the Ragga girl, which she devised for Lenny Henry's BBC1 show.

It is Tanya, in fact, who gives Yashere's new touring show its title although strictly speaking it should really read I Don't Fink So!

"Tanya's a young ethnic girl, 22, from east London, and every week she regales the nation about whatever she's been doing," explains Yashere, "whether it's failing her driving test or standing outside Clapton Fried Chicken with her new boyfriend.

"It just really caught on 'cos she's so real. I got the character from sitting on the bus watching young girls talking."

Although she's pretty down with the kids now (her youngest audience age dropped to 11 following her appearance on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, and just listen to her talk about her trainers), Yashere didn't go near the back of the bus when she was a kid.

Her overbearing, overprotective Nigerian mum, now a favourite of her live sets, was the sort to show her daughter photos of traffic accidents to put her off going on school coach trips.

"It's not just Nigerian mums," she laughs. "I get a lot of Jewish people coming up after the show saying 'that's my mum too'. My mum loves my comedy though, 'cos she's famous now, in't she. She actually wanted to charge me commission for using her image."

Yashere recently experienced first hand Nigeria's "heaving" comedy scene. And it's interesting to hear about the similarities in their types of targets.

"A lot of the comedy's about taking the mickey out of various different tribes," she explains. "Like certain tribes are known for being the chavs and certain tribes are known for being stingy.

"I think I'd go down pretty well 'cos the Nigerian ethic is the same wherever you are in the world learn as much as you can, earn as much as you can and look after your family."

But right now, Yashere, who Chortle once crowned "the queen of trash", has her work cut out just "researching" her current show.

"I am addicted to Big Brother," she confesses. "I haven't missed an episode mate, every single one. I record it and watch it the morning after my show. But it's costing me money. £40 to get Ceaser out, £30 on Grace. I love to hate."

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