Maia Tassalini is a writer and comedian from London who began performing comedy in 2024 following a strong reception for her short film GUTS. Later that year reached the final of the BBC New Comedian of the Year Award. In 2025 she was part of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve. She makes her full Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2026 with ‘I Was 22 and Stunning’. We spoke to Maia about the show, how the Pleasance Comedy Reserve changed the game for her, and how Monica Lewinsky ‘made humiliation mythic’.

Can you tell us about ‘I Was 22 and Stunning’?

It’s a show about Monica Lewinsky, but also about the kind of girl who becomes obsessed with Monica Lewinsky. I first found out who she was when I was thirteen and a drag queen told me I looked exactly like her. Predictably, that made my brain go ‘awooga’ and I’ve been fascinated by her ever since. The show is really about ambition, shame, girlhood, the internet and that enormous desire you have when you’re young for something extraordinary to happen to you.

For those who might be unfamiliar with you, how would you describe your comedy and your approach to performance?

I like to think that I’m your friend’s older sister who has just got home, sits at the end of the bed and has Some Shit to Say. I like to tell big, sprawling stories that bounce between history, pop culture and deeply humiliating things that have happened to me. I love taking something that feels enormous and cultural and filtering it through one very specific perspective.

The show title references the treatment endured by Monica Lewinsky (which I’m old enough to remember), whom you describe as making ‘humiliation look mythic’. What do you mean by that interesting phrase, and how did Monica’s experience resonate with you?

I think Monica’s story has taken on the shape of mythology. She became less a person than a symbol of public humiliation, desire and, shame. But also, there is a grandeur and a seedy glamour to her story that, in the wrong person’s brain (mine), can be alluring. She was twenty-two, wanted something bigger from life, made a catastrophic decision, and then became defined by it forever. I think most of us recognise some version of that feeling, and this show is me reckoning with that.

You were a member of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve in 2025. How was that as an experience, and how did it help to prepare you for a full debut show?

I still can’t quite believe I got it. It was invaluable and it changed everything for me. The Pleasance, and Ryan Taylor specifically, have been my biggest supporters and cheerleaders on the road to debuting and there’s absolutely no way I’d be doing it without them. And they never make you feel the weight or pressure of that (intimidatingly large) investment; they genuinely just want to support acts because they believe in them. When we got to the Fringe, I asked Ryan a million questions about exactly what set I should do, how many new jokes I could try out per show, what kind of MCing he wanted, etc., and he just said, ‘Those fifteen minutes on stage are entirely yours, do literally whatever you want.’ It didn’t matter that it was a sold-out show with an expectant audience; our only goal was to go on stage and grow.

You wrote and starred in a short film called GUTS, partially inspired by your experiences as a plus-size model. Can you tell us about the film?

GUTS is a comedy short about body image, performance, and the strange transactional relationship women are often expected to have with their own appearance. It was inspired by some utterly bizarre experiences I’ve had when moonlighting as a plus-size model. The iconic Jan Ravens and I go toe-to-toe and it ends with me puffing on a bedazzled vape and her downing a bottle of pink gin.

What are your hopes for the show? What would constitute a successful Fringe for you?

I want to spend the month doing a show I really, really love, one that couldn’t have been written by anyone but me. I want it to find its audience, and for people to tell their friends! If I can leave the Fringe knowing I kept my head held high, worked hard, drank a few dirty martinis, and spent time with my friends, it will have been a raging success.

What for you are the best and worst things about the Fringe?

The best thing is you’re basically at adult comedy camp. That’s also the worst thing. It’s such a singular experience to eat, sleep and breathe comedy for an entire month. You sort of enter a different dimension where nothing else exists. Also, time moves differently in Edinburgh and one week is technically three months in the real world. The worst thing is missing my friends (although I make them all come and visit me) and tripping over the cobblestones in the Pleasance Courtyard in my heels. It’s an anti-diva conspiracy.

Besides ‘I Was 22 and Stunning’, can we expect to see you performing elsewhere during August; guest spots, compilation shows, etc?

I’m hoping to flounce into a few shows across the month, but mainly post-show I’ll be at home having a tea party with my Monica cardboard cutout.

Are there any other shows/ performers at the Fringe that you would recommend?

Rob Preston, Amy Webber, Dom McGovern, Harriet Richardson, Davina Bentley, Marty Gleeson, Em Humble, Sophie Garrad, Lil Wenker, Frankie Thompson, and OF COURSE the Pleasance Comedy Reserve!

‘I Was 22 and Stunning‘ is at Bunker 3 at Pleasance Courtyard from Wed 5 to Sun 30 Aug 2026