What Monica Lewinsky taught comedian Maia Tassalini about shame, girlhood and growing up

Maia Tassalini: I Was 22 and Stunning is a witty, playful and emotionally rich hour using Monica Lewinsky as both a muse and mirror. Bringing a Gen Z lens to the 1990s and drawing on her own experiences as a former plus-size model, Maia Tassalini explores body image, beauty standards, gossip, internet cruelty and the cultural obsession with endlessly rebooting women’s lives. We caught up with her to hear more about the show.

At 13, someone told you that you looked like Monica Lewinsky, and you say it "permanently altered your brain chemistry". When did you realise that throwaway comment had stayed with you for so long?

Probably when I noticed I was writing a huge amount of stand-up about it. It’s amazing what floats to the top of your consciousness when you’re mining for comedy inspiration. But also, I realised I still couldn't hear her name without instinctively feeling embarrassed without really knowing why. I didn't really know the details of what had happened to her, I just understood that she was shorthand for a woman who had somehow become a joke. I absorbed that before I understood the history.

I Was 22 and Stunning uses Monica Lewinsky as a starting point and you've described her as both the "muse" and the "mirror" for this show. What made her the right figure through which to tell your own story?

She's the muse because her story opens the door into conversations about celebrity, shame, desire and the way women become public property. But she's also the mirror because I recognised in both of us that youthful hunger for significance. When you're young, stability can feel like failure and intensity can feel like meaning. Monica became a reflection for that part of myself.

The show explores decades of female figures in the media. Tell us what you learnt about the way females and their lives are packaged and consumed across different eras?

Technology changes but the appetite for women’s humiliation doesn’t. It's very comforting to imagine we've matured out of that behaviour as a society because the language used by the media has changed, but you just need to go online for two minutes to see it’s very much alive and kicking. We love building women up, tearing them down and then rediscovering them twenty years later. The redemption arc has become just as marketable as the downfall.

Your comedy tackles subjects including shame, gossip and online judgement, but it's also described as being unexpectedly tender. Was it important to you that audiences reflected as much as they laughed?

I think being in someone’s company for an hour is an incredibly intimate human experience. In a way, it’s hard for me to not find moments of reflection in a piece of work someone has spent such a long time crafting. My show is a celebration of girlhood, of womanhood and of making mistakes. I have so much affection for those things, and I think you can feel it as the audience. It’s certainly not a sad show, but I hope it at least encourages an excess of compassion.

The show asks whether the cultural expectation for women to aspire to narrow beauty ideals has ever really disappeared. What are your thoughts on that?

There was a period where it genuinely felt as though we were moving towards a broader understanding of beauty, but recently, with the societal descent to the right, there's been a noticeable return to ultra-thin ideals. Women have always been told to shrink themselves, to be as small as possible. Bodies have now become a political weapon to prove your discipline, your dedication to ‘wellness’ and your moral superiority. My show is a rejection of that. You’re making your full Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2026. What does that milestone mean to you personally at this stage of your career?

I’m still very early in my career so debuting this soon is a big swing. It’s been hard, which I knew it would be, but it’s also been the most fulfilling creative project I’ve ever done. I believe it’s my job as someone who creates things to push myself to stay out of my comfort zone and just make stuff, without inhibitions or fixation about its reception. I could wait until I feel one hundred percent ready, but I know I’ll never feel like that. Done is better than perfect!

What would you like audiences to take from your show?

I want them to feel renewed, like they’ve just had a fabulous night out with their best friend. I want them to remember the younger versions of themselves, before they knew better, with fondness, and to have a warm curiosity for the mistakes they made.

Maia Tassalini: I Was 22 and Stunning will be performed at 6pm at Pleasance Courtyard from 5th – 30th August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Booking link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/maia-tassalini-i-was-22-and-stunning