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Interview by Sade Akintola

Upcoming comedian Usman Amin, 18 starting acting

career in his local college, land-ing a star role in their production of “Waiting for Godot”. His latest shows include a hilarious show at the London Palladium.Usman was later offered a place at Birmingham school of acting. What fi rst infl uenced you to want to study acting?Acting got me into comedy, I loved

watching comedians I think they have the best jobs in the world. I always thought that making peo-

ple laugh meant that you had to be a good actor so I decided to learnWho’s your inspiration? I am obsessed with Lee Evans, I

think he’s a great comedian. I used to watch him and think

“This is quite cool”, so that’s when I decided I wanted to make people laugh. Who doesn’t want to make people

laugh? Being funny is a very valu-able personality trait. Although most of my friends laugh

at me, instead of laughing with me. How has your family reacted

to your chosen carrier path?My family has been really support-

ive of my choices, at fi rst they couldn’t really understand what the

fascination was for me. Especially my grandparents they

kept telling themselves that I’d soon come round to a carrier in medicine or law something to boast about. I knew that would never happen so

I just left them in their denial.They eventually kind of gave up

trying to fi gure it out and just went with it. Now they’re my biggest fans, they seem to enjoy my jokes.

But they’re family so they’re obligated to laugh at my jokes even if there not funny. I’m cool with that as long as I get my laughs I’m good.How did you get your fi rst

stand up gig?Well, it’s a funny story actually.

I would say it was mainly down to how clumsy I am.

At the time I was already getting some material together for an as-sessment at acting school.

So I attended quite a lot of stand-up gigs to see what it was like.

And one gig I stumbled into was a open gig, at the door the security guard gave me this sheet of paper to sign my name in so I just did it, without really thinking about it.

However I didn’t know the list I signed was the set list. Then this guy called me up just

before it was my turn, luckily I had some material ready.

What challenges do you have with fi nding material?Well It can be diffi cult because dif-

ferent things make different people laugh, so I have to try to

make sure that everyone can relate to at least some of what I’m saying. And sometimes I just miss the

mark and there’s silence. Impres-sions are also a large part of my act because I’m good at them, I’ve been told that I have a funny face so it just works. What is your most embarrass-

ing moment on stage? There was this time I was on stage

in Coventry everything started out great the crowd was friendly and people seemed to be having a good time. Then I think they got a little bit bored with my material and the jokes just weren’ that funny.By then I started to panic and I just

wanted to get some kind of reaction out of them. So I just made jokes about stair

lifts and terrorist. Probably not the best topics to brighten their evenings with.Where do you see yourself in

ten years time?Ten years’ time… I hope that by

then I’ll be a well-known come-dian. I think the lucky thing is that I’ve

fi gured out what exactly I want to do, plus I really enjoy it so all I need to concentrate on is being the best at it. I don’t see myself ever getting

tired of making people laugh, I’m defi nitely in it for the long haul. Ten years is enough time for me to

get exactly where I want to be, it’ll be fun getting there, who knows what could happen?

The Aston Press

“Apparently I have a funny face

so it works”

Look out Lee Evans theres a brand new funny man in town

There has been a reported increase in the number of complaints about the police force not fulfi lling their duties in the local community. People have complained about

an apparent lack of consistency in certain cases they deem unimportant. The residence have condemmed

the effort of the local police force calling them “lazy and useless”. Local authorities have spoken in

relation to the many accusations from the residence.“The west midlands police have

been working tirelessly to ensure the comfort and safety of the general public, these new developments and all complaints made will be thor

oughly investigated in due coarse”.The police force has been criticised

for the inadequate manner in which they handle certain cases.The police have been accused of

neglecting certain cases.The oppinion of the general public

appears to be that the police are not doing their jobs to the correct and expected standards. It is estimated that there has been

approximately 155 complaints about the police in the last year or so. These fi gures are presicted to see an

unfortunate increase as the rates of crime continues to steadily rise.The police authority’s professional

standards and quality committee will be analysing the rise in complaints.

Local Police reported to be slacking in duties

There has been some renovations at Aston

Hall in order to improve the area by providing the area with its own small dose of high culture.

The planned renovations will provide a new shop, café and reception area.

The new archeological displays along with the excavations will also be read and avaliable for public viewing and guided tours.

There will be regular tours

around the building. There has also been an

addition to the new Lady Holte’s garden with spectac-ular pathways and planting along with other landscape works throughout the park.

There will also be a number of new sports pitch-es and areas for children to play in, making it a fun safe environment to bring your kids along during the day.

The opening times are from Tuesdays to Sundays at

Public Debate

News on the Aston Hall Restoration and other events

By Sade Akintola

Diswo is a project based creative idea collaboration network with the tools to allow you to develop and help realise your ideas.

Visit www.diswo.com

See what other local residence

have said concerning the ssues raised in todays news,

find out how the police depart-

ment have reas-sured the public.

www.astonpress.co.uk

By Sade Akintola

Usman Kalid at local park

Usman Kalid looking for ispiration

ASTON pressTHE

Exclusive interview with young upcoming comedian.

Aston’s local council plans extreme change in housing.

OCTOBER 14TH 2010 www.birmingham,.co.uk/press

INSIDE TODAY

By Sade Akintola

The local council are drawing up plans to begin major changes in the local are.

The council aims to rejuvenate the local community by improving leisure facilities and providing more employment opportunities.

The building plans are said to be based on a lot of contribution from the local residence. The council gave many people the opportunity to voice their opinions on what they felt needed a change and how they want it to be done.

These opinions were voice through pub-lic meetings and questionnaires. Most of the residence made complaints about the old build-ings. Consequently housing refurbishment has become a priority in the new plans.

Housing is said to be in for the biggest trans-formation as residence have been complaining about the debilitated buildings.

“This area just keeps getting worse and worse, and it looks terrible and old”.

Another major concern for the local residence is the lack of leisure centres and youth centre. Many associated the vandalism in the area to the fact that there is nothing productive for the young people in the area to do out of school.

The young people also agreed with this state-ment saying, “Its really boring around here, there’s never really anything to do, so we just fi nd things to do to entertain ourselves”.

The project name AAP otherwise known as Area Action Plan is a land use plan that regu-lates policies to guide the development process.

These policies are essential to the develop-ment plan as they determine the appropriate planning measures that need to be taken.

The development plans will not be exclu-sive to only Aston, the plans will also include Nechells and the Lozells area in the renewal.

The plans are still in preparation and local residence will be updated with information regularly, and how they will be effected.

The regeneration project will begin in the next couple of years, the construction time is not set in stone as plans are still in the works.

It is obvious that the local residence are happy with the plans, and are fairly eager to see them begin.

FREE

There could be radical changes in university funding as fees are increased to improve the level of education at degree level.

These new changes could mean that people from all backgrounds will be able to receive the highest level of education that is available from the specifi c institutions. The student fi nance plan is a proposal by

Lord Brown, the proposal will mean that students that have graduated will not begin paying back their student loans until they are earning £21,000 per year. Which also means that although students will

be paying more for certain courses at uni-versity, they will only be paying back small amounts over a period of time.

The current cap on university fees which is £3,290 per year will be removed, as the fees for certain courses are increased.

This means that the top universities could

charge unlimited fees.The worry concerning this proposal is that

the increase in fees could put students off applying for university due to the amount of debt they could be left with after graduating.

Some students will inevitably have to take out more and more loans to cover the cost of living which would mean more debt.

This would result in many people being thousands of pounds in debt before they’ve even graduated from university.

Some graduates have commented on these developments and how it effects them;

“It is an unfortunate result of the credit crunch which it effects people who really need fi nancial help. Those who can afford it will have the opportunity get to higher education. However those who can’t afford it will not be able to better themselves”.

Council housing in need of renewal

Students are now facing an increase in university fees

NEWS One stop Shopping centre

NEWS Aston Hall’s new lookThere has been a renova-tion at Aston Hall in order to improve the area by providing the area with its own dose of high culture.

page 13

News on upcoming talent show for new stars begins on the 11th. page 10

A spectacular fi re works display this bon fi re night details inside.

page 5

EVENTS Bon fi re night special

NEWS More info on development planIf you have anything to contribute to the new area plans please contact us. The contact details are on the Birmingham city coun-cil web site. We welcome any new ideas and opinions.

page 15

The new plans to improve the Aston ward.

SPORT

Interview on page 7 See inside for more details page 15

See the results of the latest Aston Villa football match Page 26

Find out who will plays Birmingham city football team next monthPage 27

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