Mawaan Rizwan on his family dynamics, and attending clown school

Mawaan Rizwan says his mum would have ‘killed’ him if she wasn’t cast in his BBC comedy Juice – but that his dad has very little interest in his entertainment career.

The sitcom reunited for a second series last month and co-stars Rizwan's real-life brother Nabhaan and mother Shahnaz Rizwan as the brother and mother of his character Jamma.

Speaking on the Dish From Waitrose podcast, he explained that his mum – who had appeared in a number of black and white films in her native Pakistan – had always been a performer.

He said: ‘Growing up my mum would always put  community plays on. The immigrants in our community centre… she would teach them English via making them do plays that they didn't want to do. 

‘We were always doing acting on the weekends. So it was a very natural progression to be like, "Mum, I'm making a TV show – obviously you're gonna be in it." Because she would also kill me if she wasn’t. I didn't have a choice, man!  I didn't have a choice.  [She’s] too funny.’

In contrast, his father did not want to get involved, which was some blessing as ‘I was bringing enough family dynamics on to set’.

He added that his dad did complain ‘why didn't you put me in this? To which he responded: ‘Because you can't act… I’ve told you.’

Rizwan added: ‘He’s not shy of telling me when, when he doesn't like any of my work. He once turned up to a show, and  left halfway through because he "got the gist". Genuinely.'

‘It's because they [my parents] have seen it all. I've probably done a version of that growing up, performed at them. He's over it.

‘But he is secretly proud. I'll know it because when I meet his friends they tell me how much he's been talking about me. And I'm like, I wish he would just tell me directly, but… I take it.’

He also told hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett that he loved putting wigs on for his shows as it’s the equivalent of a clown’s red nose  as ‘it keeps this character in his humility’. 

Rizwan, 33, spoke about his training at the prestigious École Philippe Gaulier, whose alumni include Sacha Baron Cohen, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter and countless Edinburgh Fringe comedians.

‘It was very expensive,’ he explained. ‘It was in the suburbs of Paris in a little town called Etampes. 

‘And it's taught by this guy, like, he's like 90-something I think now.

‘He sits there, this old, old professor with round red glasses, with a drum and you go up and you do your clown act, and if it’s shit he bangs a drum and says, "You are shit." And then you have to sit down.'

‘There was like 30 people in the class, you all get up one by one, you have to do a challenge they set you, like do your best impression of a washing machine. Then you do your best, and then he gets everyone in the class to tell you how shit that was. Unless it was good, which it really was with me.’

‘You know the film Whiplash? It's like that with the red nose. Nothing funny about it. Really intense."

‘I was there for the summer course, that was all I could afford. Just the summer. People do it for three years. 

‘The summer was enough. It broke me. And what I loved about it, there's a, there's a romanticism about like, old school French-circus culture.’

Gaullier is actually 82, and stepped down from teaching regularly when he turned 80, with most the classes at his school now led by his assistants. 

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Published: 2 Oct 2025