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Tokenism on British TV drove Gina Yashere to LA - it was either that, or wait for Lenny Henry to die before getting her own show

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Gina Yashere
'They look at us all the same' ... Yashere. Photograph: Sarah Lee

Your new show is called Skinny Bitch. Why?

I've lost four stone in the past 10 months and I look very different to how British audiences will remember me from when I was last here doing shows.

Why are you now based in LA?

Britain is still 15 or 20 years behind America as far as black performers are concerned; there is still a very tokenistic attitude. You get new white comedians coming through all the time - Russell Brand, Alan Carr, Jimmy Carr - and we've had Lenny Henry for 35 years. It's like a nightclub policy: one black comedian comes in as one goes out. I'm mid-30s.

I can't wait for Lenny Henry to die just so I can get a TV show.

Why aren't you more mainstream?

I am mainstream. Come to my live gigs and my audiences are 50% white, 50% black; I straddle that line perfectly. But the powers-that-be in television are still white middle-class men and they look at me and they don't see mainstream; they see black woman first. Most white comedians who can sell out theatres the way I do would have their own TV show by now, but it's not the same for black comics. Look at all the black actors that have gone to America - Idris Elba, who was in The Wire, for instance. He couldn't get arrested in England and now look at him - he's a huge star. I've been in America not even 10 months and I became the first British comic to do Def Comedy Jam. Programmes like that launched the careers of Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, Bernie Mac; it's an iconic show. I got a standing ovation.

Do black comics scare white audiences?

No. When I'm over here doing comedy clubs, 90% of the time I'm standing in a room full of white people. If I only did black crowds I wouldn't make a living. If white people were scared of black comedy, Chris Rock would not be selling out huge arenas like the O2. My last tour went to places like Tunbridge Wells where there are no black people, and I sold out.

What do you think of the black comedy shows that have been on television recently?

No comment.

No comment because you don't want to slag off your friends or no comment because you'd like a show yourself so you don't want to upset the BBC?

You're trying to get me in trouble. All I'm going to say is there's not enough. Why are black comics all fighting for that one TV show? And if that one person gets a TV show the rest of us feel like we've been passed over for promotion? Jocelyn Jee Esien gets her show, and because she's got a TV show I know that I'm never going to get one, because they've got their "black female comedian" token slot filled. They look at us all the same, and yet they can have 100 white blokes on TV at one time and it's still not enough.

Are you bitter?

I'm frustrated, and I know if I'd stayed in England I would have become bitter, and that's why I've left. I don't want to be bitter, I'm a happy person.

Do you worry when you do impressions of your mother that you're making fun of Nigerians?

My mum loves it. She'll come to my shows and gets a standing ovation. She says, [adopts strong Nigerian accent] "Yes, that is me. In fact, I want commission because she is using me for the act." I'm always respectful. I'm just exaggerating the fact that Nigerians are very academically minded and we want our kids to do well. She pushed me and that is what's given me my work ethic. I do talk about the email scams and other things we're known for, but I'm putting Nigeria on the map.

· Gina Yashere's UK tour starts today. Details on

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