I had the recent pleasure of interviewing the hilarious Summer Banks (yes that's her real name). You may not be surprised with a name like Summer, that she originally comes from the sunshine state of California. She's quick to point out though, that firstly, her parents were not the typical 'River Phoenix' hippy types and secondly, she does not come from the glamorous end of California, think bible belt. Summer has a very well developed cynicism, more in line with her relatives across the pond, the British, as oppose to her jolly American counterparts. It's actually very difficult to imagine Summer living amongst the conservatism and insuppressible ebullience of Californian society. Perhaps that's why she escaped to Yale, where she held her famous naked parties and why, as soon as she could, Summer swapped sun, sea and surf for the liberalism and acceptance of Berlin society. Upon arrival she began performing regularly across the city and became a theatre critic for a well known magazine, but, it's her latest venture into the world of comedy, that really has Berlin talking.

I met with her for coffee and chat at Kaffe Mitte. It's hard to keep up with Summer when she talks as it's so interesting to watch the zillions of facial expressions she produces in the space of a minute, but I did my best...

Your humour is quite dry, German humour fairly obvious, by and large, do the natives get you here?
You can never be sure with natives, their customs, rituals, obsession with having the right change at supermarkets. You can spend years trying to figure them out and then they'll do something that comes out of nowhere. In all seriousness, the people who get my humour the most are the Brits, which is odd since I'm American and perform in Germany.

You're not only performing for the German populace though, your audience in international, was this daunting at first?
In my first set all of the end part was based around the death of Ted Kennedy and I wasn't sure anyone would know enough to get it. But it turned out the majority of the audience were American, which shouldn't have been surprising given the show was in Kreuzkolln.

You take alot of your inspiration for your comedy acts from Berlin. What's so funny?
Berlin is a teenager. Teenagers are awkward. Awkward is funny.

How did you get into the funny stuff?
I cut open my knee last August while skinny dipping in the Spree (ew), and couldn't leave my flat for weeks so I had nothing else to do except write material or watch tons of shit on the TV.

A friend of mine working as a comedian in the UK once said that 'standup is full of people who need a hug.' How far would you agree with this statement?
I need a hug. Oh fuck that, I need a massage  from two very fit and well oiled masseuses

As a seasoned Berliner, can you talk us through your perfect day in the city?
Go laze by the Landwehr canal, read some trashy Krimi, catch up with a friend over a bottle of wine and Erdnuss flips. Watch some maybe good and definitely pretentious performance at HAU. Eat Turkish pizza on the way to a party in a flat/club or under an s-bahn bridge. Remember everything that happened the next day. Wake up the next afternoon with a mysterious call on the telephone, that this time, I managed not to lose.

A little birdy told me you used to hold naked parties back in your native California. Any plans to get one going in Berlin?
All the fun would be taken out of it because FFK is such a huge thing here.  Nudity is interesting in the states because we're so repressed that it's still subversive to take your panties off, especially with Bush. I don't know how you'd subvert Berliners, maybe a chastity party. Oooooo, or a burqa party!

If you would like to see Summer Banks perform then check out the Kookaburra Comedy Club every Tuesday at 8.30pm or Saturday at 11.45, alternatively message Summer for details HERE.