“I’m the BC autistic – before it was cool,” says Ria Lina.
Half Filipino, half German, British, raised in Holland and with an American accent, Ria Lina is not easy to categorise.
The former forensic scientist, turned comic, with a spray of multi-coloured hair is coming to the Fringe for the first time in nine years, with her new show Riabellion.
“My brain isn’t neurotypical – it lights up like a special Christmas tree.”
Originally diagnosed as Asperger’s, Lina is now classed as autistic. Which means she’s had years of this.
“Now everyone is allowed to be different – but we had to work really hard to learn how to mask and to do things the way everybody else did them.”
Having raised two teenage children with her now ex-husband, Ria is exploring the idea of daring to be openly and unapologetically different.
“My last show was about coming out of a 20-year marriage and finding myself single. I had been very cocooned. Now I realise I am better off being by myself.
“I have two teenagers having their own rebellion at home while I’m having my own rebellion.
“I think it is time to rebel. Everything is in rebellion now – and I will be making a call to action in the show,” she says.
“I’ll be talking about why we do things the way we do them.”
One of the reasons she loves comedy is because allows people to say what they really think. “Comedy is a place where you can speak truth to power. You can say things nobody else is saying. You can say things which would get you sacked if you said them at work. You can even get cancelled and come back from it.” Lina was one of the original performers in Andrew Doyle’s ‘Comedy Unleashed’, which put together line-ups of comics with outspoken opinions. “I’m a real believer in freedom of speech – to be able to talk about anything on stage.
“It’s all for the joke.”
She moved away from the Comedy Unleashed scene, when she started to feel the audiences were expecting a particular political outlook, rather than being open to all sorts of ideas.
Ria calls her brain ‘a large language model’. And as a scientist and a comic she has a uniquely analytical view of what’s happening in the culture.
“We have only had social media for 20 years but with this has come this extreme wish to take control of what people are saying.
“Because everything is public everyone can be cancelled – even for something you said years ago. It is very Scarlet Letter.“But we are still fighting for civil rights and for women’s rights. Women in Switzerland only got the vote in 1971. It’s not long ago.”
Ria Lina came up to Edinburgh for a recce in 2024 for a few days. “It seems quieter than it used to be. I remember it being so full of people, flyerers, jugglers clowns. All the comics used to go to Late n’ Live at 1pm and stay till five in the morning. Now people go to shows in the afternoon and go home for dinner.”
Following the trend her new show will be on at 14.25 in the afternoon at the Monkey Barrel.
Last time did a full run, in 2016, her twenty-year marriage came to an end. Now happily single she’s joyfully anticipating the onset of middle age. She’s still in her thirties but loves the idea of getting older.
“I had kids in my early twenties so I’ve had 20 years of bleeding for no reason. The ovaries are like goldfish – they don’t remember. Menopause is the best rebellion against the patriarchy.”
Lina is also toying with embracing the concept of the ‘Karen’. “Viva la Karen – or ‘Connie’, as the equivalent would be for an Asian person. She reckons older people are less afraid to voice their inner thoughts – and that can only be a good thing.
“Karen can mean racist – but it can also mean a person who says what they think.
“It’s such a freeing thing. I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life feeling responsible for everybody.
“People say when you hit menopause you become invisible. I think that sounds great. That means you can say whatever you really want to say.”
Ria Lina: Rebellion: 14.25 Monkey Barrel, until August 24
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ria-lina-riabellion
