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‘I’ve built a career around making jokes to Swedes about themselves’

MY SWEDISH CAREER: Humour is famously subjective. One person’s ‘hot comedy’ might leave someone else cold. And never is that more apparent than when you’re performing comedy shows across languages and cultures. But for British/Kiwi comedian Al Pitcher, that’s exactly where he’s carved his career; making jokes to Swedes about their own social quirks.

Published: 14 May 2019 06:59 CEST
'I've built a career around making jokes to Swedes about themselves'
Al Pitcher has found himself a comedian specialising in observations around Swedish society. Photo: Al Pitcher

Having come to Sweden from England in 2010, Pitcher found his new home a fertile territory for comedy.

“As someone that’s moved to Sweden as an adult you see stuff that someone who’s grown up here doesn’t see. People who’ve always lived here accept certain things as normal because they’re used to them, but a lot of my comedy is around things like, ‘What are all these loppis [flea markets] about?’ Things that I’ve noticed, which to a Swede seem completely natural.”

Pitcher’s comedy career started almost 900 miles away in England, a country that he describes as ‘the World Cup of comedy’. “You get great acts from all over the world playing there and you can book two or three gigs a night, so you’re thrown in at the deep end.”

“In England it’s generally assumed that you should push an international joke that would work anywhere in the world. But now I write jokes specifically for Swedes. It’s like I have a little lane in the highway and I stay within it.”

Pitcher's particular style of observational comedy plays out well in Sweden – though he has found that his audiences can often be surprised to see themselves represented in his humour. “Swedes have a self-deprecating sense of ‘Why would you bother with little old us? Why don’t you do a joke about the Germans?’ attitude. That mentality is constant. It’s very lagom.”

His time in Sweden has made Pitcher something of a Swedish cultural expert outside of the country, with his humour sometimes spilling into anthropological territory. “I did a run of shows at Edinburgh festival in 2017 and I ended up explaining what ‘fy fan’ meant and what surströmming was. It basically turned into me lecturing the audience on Sweden, rather than performing a comedy show.”

“I just hope that now there’s a load of people walking around Scotland, banging their thumbs and saying, ‘fy fan!’”

READ ALSO: The ten weirdest taboos you must never break in Sweden

Pitcher is no stranger to observing from the outside. Having lived in England until the age of seven before moving to New Zealand, he spent a childhood being considered ‘other’. “When I came back to the UK people used to call me Crocodile Dundee.”

“I’ve always been in a place where I haven’t felt that I totally belonged. I know a lot of people have that feeling, so I wanted to write something that focused on that.”

And he did; it’s this sense of not having access to the appropriate cultural codes that became the basis of his new STV series, Al Pitcher på paus. Written with British comedian Ben Kersley, the pair came to the project with a similar aim: creating something that Swedes and newcomers alike could recognize.

Ben Kersley – the co-writer behind SVT's Al Pitcher på paus. Photo: Ben Kersley

“We got together and wrote this idea of my character being a new father in Sweden and not wanting to be involved with anything other than looking after his child. He ends up getting himself into a lot of trouble, finding himself in different bizarre situations.”

The eight-part series, made up of 15-minute episodes, features scenarios drawing attention to the peculiarities of Swedish life. “In one episode my character has to go and get a new passport, but the officials at the passport office won’t accept his old one as proof of identification, because it’s out of date. Of course, that’s why he needs a new one, so he ends up in a Kafka-esque nonsensical position,” says Pitcher.

The series has been well-received, watched by an even balance of Swedes wishing to see themselves from the outside and those who’ve come to Sweden later in life. While the jokes land well among a native audience, there have been times in Pitcher’s career when his humour has not translated so well, leaving him on stage facing every comedian’s nightmare: a sea of furrowed brows.

“I’ve had a couple of jokes that have totally bombed in Sweden.” he recalls. “There was one where I talk about how I’m like a magpie and I see shiny things and get distracted. I did this whole bit about magpies to total silence.”

“Afterwards audience members came up to me and asked, ‘What’s this ‘mag pie’? Do you eat this pie? And what’s a mag?’ They’d all been imagining a pie that really liked sparkly objects. That was hard to explain.”

MY SWEDISH CAREER: Read more interviews with foreign talent in Sweden here

It’s not just on stage that Pitcher has found awkward misunderstandings crop up. He recounts a recent conversation with a taxi driver in which he was asked if he would be the only passenger. “I replied, 'Yeah, just me and all of my mates.’ Then we sat there waiting for at least two minutes, before I explained that I had been trying to be funny.”

“It’s awkward to have to explain that you were joking. Particularly for a comedian. It really takes the joy out of the situation.”

And when speaking in Swedish, the Kiwi has found misunderstandings arise, too. “I see people at parties talking and I try to join in their conversations. I’ll say something like, ‘Yeah it’s really terrible, the war that’s going on there,’ and they reply, ‘We were talking about dog shampoo.’ You can get yourself into some real confusion.”

Pitcher in a scene from Al Pitcher på paus. Photo: Al Pitcher

Pitcher does have a few stock Swedish phrases up his sleeve, ones he uses to pepper his day-to-day conversations. “Fy fan helps in most situations. And, of course, ‘Jaha’ is perfect for any eventuality – getting a bad Christmas present, or solving a murder. It’s always appropriate.”

And now that Al Pitcher på paus is live as a web series on SVT Play – as well as showing on SVT 1 (after Das Boot, which, he comments, “is one of my life aspirations ticked off”), he’s busy working on new projects.

Currently he’s writing a new tour for 2020; a long process. “Stand-up is unique – it’s not like you’re a musician and you play your favourite songs whenever you tour. With stand-up you have to dream up brand-new ideas. It’s almost like having loads of party tricks, going to an event and people saying: ‘no you can’t use any of those, mate. Already seen them.’”

Despite these challenges, he’s also found the time to write and record a stand-up comedy special coming out on SVT later in 2019, entitled ‘Sverige Syndrome’.

It’s a golden moment in Al Pitcher’s career, but he has a clear vision of who he’d be if comedy hadn’t worked out. “If I weren’t a comedian I’d be in a pub shouting my stories at people. At anyone who’d listen. I’d be the resident pub lurker.”

He stops to consider that thought for a moment. “I’d quite like that. Maybe that’s one for the future.”

To watch Al Pitcher på paus on SVT Play, visit here.

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READER INSIGHTS

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who’ve been there, done that

The Swedish job market poses unique challenges for newcomers. The Local's readers share their best tips for cracking the career code.

Published: 10 April 2024 11:32 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2024 15:50 CEST
How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who've been there, done that

Network, network, network!

A statistic that often gets tossed around is that seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are obtained through personal connections, and there’s no doubt that a good network is crucial to your job hunt, making the labour market extra challenging for newcomers to the country.

In fact, networking was the main tip mentioned by The Local’s readers.

“The job market is quite hot in Sweden, and talent is in short supply. People hiring do not have a lot of time to find the right talent, and tips from friends, colleagues and former colleagues are the way to first, find out organisations are hiring, and secondly, get your CV on the short list,” said Kyle, a Canadian reader who works in innovation management in Gothenburg.

“If you are going for a major employer like Volvo, network gets you in the door, as HR does not have much to do with hiring… the hiring managers do all of it and have no time, due to the insane number of consensus meetings. If you are looking for smaller organisations, they have even less time to find people, and networking is their primary way to find talent,” he added.

NETWORKING IN SWEDEN:

Some of the networking tips readers mentioned were going to job fairs, getting an internship to help you establish connections in your preferred field, joining clubs (this could be anything from your local gardening association to meetups for coders, but focus on clubs that may be popular among people working in your chosen field), and drawing on your organic network of friends, neighbours and others.

Don’t neglect the groundwork

The saying “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is getting worn out (and people may look at you funny if you turn up to interviews in a Batman suit), but there’s truth to the notion of making sure you know what you want – and preparing for it.

In other words, don’t wait for a job ad to appear before you start to customise your CV and figure out what skill set you need. Create your CV now so that you’re ready to tweak it to your dream job – you could even have a general look at job ads in your field to see what requirements are needed. And don’t forget to spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that it fits with your career goals.

“I believe that several factors contribute to successfully landing a desirable job in Sweden. It’s essential to prepare to meet the requirements beyond just having a university degree. Many individuals realise these requirements only after completing their studies when they start searching for a job, which can be too late,” said Adnan Aslam from Pakistan, who works as a food inspector.

“I recommend identifying the job advertisements for positions you aspire to hold in the future and then preparing for those requirements during your studies. For me, acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the Swedish language and obtaining a Swedish driving licence were crucial. I pursued these goals during my studies and was able to secure a desirable job before graduating,” he added.

READ ALSO:

Felipe Cabral even has a GPT assistant trained on his own CVs and old cover letters, and said the set-up only takes ten minutes if you already have your documents. “With that in place, you can give instructions like: Read this job description and create a tailored version of my CV and letter for it. (…) Remember to always review and ask it not to create data aside from your documents.”

Be flexible and ready to adapt

Moving to a new place inevitably means having to learn not just the practicalities such as how to write a CV or which websites to use to look for job openings, but also learning how to navigate a new culture with all its unspoken expectations.

Swedish workplaces are generally less hierarchical than many other countries, but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want without anyone raising an eyebrow. Swedes are usually direct, but be careful of being too abrasive or boastful: raising your voice, even during a spirited argument, or banging your own drum to show off your skills may not go down well.

“Talk, deliberate, complain like a Swede and you’ll come across like you know what the job entails, so your trustworthiness increases,” said an Indian data analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Office politics are just as strong in Sweden as anywhere else. The flat hierarchy is deceiving as social hierarchy is enforced quite a bit in that lack of formal hierarchy. Take your time in learning these dynamics wherever you work before revealing your talent and capabilities. Expect those internal politics to happen, and they won’t hurt so much when they do,” said Kyle, the Canadian reader in Gothenburg.

This article about Swedish office politics may be useful.

Stay true to yourself

Adapting to your surroundings is one thing. Completely changing who you are is another.

For one thing, your happiness is as important as your career progression, and for another, your foreignness need not be an impediment: it’s also a skill that sets you apart from the rest. It means you have unique experience, and also, in the right setting, provides an opportunity to sometimes violate those social rules we mentioned above, because people assume you will, anyway.

“Trust is key. Build trust in your network, work with integrity. It’s OK to violate jantelagen if you are maintaining integrity. Sometimes your outsider and more honest/open opinion will burn bridges, especially those that may feel threatened by talent. But it will build trust with other colleagues who see it as brave and more trustworthy to work with,” said Kyle from Canada.

Hunker down for the long haul

We don’t want to scare you, because there are plenty of examples of people who quickly find their dream job in Sweden and settle into their new workplace, enjoying perks such as long summer holidays, generous parental leave and the famous work-life balance.

But if you do find it tougher than you expected: know that you’re not alone.

Several readers who responded to the survey said they were still trying to find a job in Sweden.

“I found jobs all over Europe but not here. They say they have a lack of experienced senior engineers but the don’t seem to be doing much to solve this,” said a Brazilian in Gothenburg.

A reader from Bangladesh said she was “at a loss” as to how to make a career change from her current AI role in Stockholm, despite many years of experience as an IT project manager.

“Over the past 18 months, I’ve submitted over 600 applications to various organisations. Unfortunately, despite being overqualified for some positions, I’ve faced rejections at every turn, from both large and small companies. The job market here, especially for foreign-born women, feels overwhelmingly challenging,” she said, adding that the struggle had impacted her mental health.

The Local has on several occasions reported on foreign residents’ struggle to get a foot on the Swedish job ladder, with many facing hurdles such as employers’ unfamiliarity with international degrees, discrimination, or a lack of network that can provide paths into a company.

So during the job hunt, don’t forget to care for yourself. Share your concerns with fellow job-seekers, ask for help and join networking groups – this is good not just for creating new contacts, but also in terms of your social well-being and meeting people who are in a similar situation.

And finally, as one British reader in Stockholm advised, keep looking: “Be open-minded with the opportunities that present themselves. It isn’t an easy market to enter and doesn’t feel inclusive.” But he added, “don’t give up”.

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