KC Shornima on SNL, Emotional Detachment, and Turning Life into Laughs

From the writers’ room of Saturday Night Live to the stages of Edinburgh Fringe, KC Shornima blends razor-sharp wit with an unflinching eye for the absurd. In her latest show, Detachment Style, she dives into personal history, emotional distance, and the art of finding the funniest punchline in even the darkest corners. Ahead of her Pleasance Courtyard run, KC talks writing habits, creative detachment, and why sometimes the best therapy is just a really good joke

For someone who’s never seen your work, how would you describe your comedic voice - and what can audiences expect from Detachment Style?

Your bestie, but also going to expose your porn habitTruffle pig; smart, refined taste but also don’t draw a line / know where to stop

You grew up during the Nepali Civil War, spent years apart from your parents, and now write for SNL. How has that journey shaped the way you tell stories?

The revolution is now televised but just from deep in the writer’s room

What does your writing process look like - are you someone who sits down to write or do you have alternative methods?

Every day I sit down to write. It’s pretty chill. I’ll sit with a cup of coffee and maybe 1000 chocolate bars (“fun size” because I have self discipline). I work for Weekend Update, which is the news portion of SNL, so we have a lot of setups from the news. Usually it helps to know more about the background and surrounding players. So, I try to read into the topics. Let’s say the news that week is about Trump meeting with Zelensky. I’ll google the story to get some insane quotes from our dear leader. Soon, I’ll have 20 tabs open. I will find myself deep into a Wikipedia page about Afrosinya, the woman who had an affair with Alexei Petrovich, son of Peter the Great, and eventually betrayed him leading to what many historians believe is his murder at the hands of his own father. Then, I get a fifth cup of coffee and wonder why I am on the verge of a panic attack. Before I know it, the day is over. But don’t worry, I’ll stay up all night, wired from the coffee and chocolates, and at around 3am, I’ll write something brilliant and new and utterly revelatory about how Trump is fat and orange, and quite possibly stupid.

I follow the same writing process for my standup, except there’s no real deadline for standup, so this routine can go on for days sometimes just for me to land on a pun.

As an SNL writer, you're used to a collaborative room. How did it feel to shift gears into something as raw, personal, and solo as this show?

Embarrassing.

You’ve said emotional detachment has shaped a lot of your adult life. How do you write comedy that’s deeply personal without crossing the line into self-exposure or emotional burnout?I focus on the jokes. This isn’t one of those things where I get on stage and leave it all out there for people to make sense of on their own. I have a therapist. I pay him a lot to help me make sense of my life, and it’s largely so I don’t make people pay to come see me so I can somehow “heal” through the process. This show is jokes. If there is something that doesn’t land as a hard joke, I’m not gonna do it. And really, what is more emotionally detached than a joke.

What do you hope audiences take away from the show?

I’m right, and everyone else in my life, including my dog, is wrong. How can someone so hot be so funny?

KC Shornima will be performing Detachment Style at Pleasance Courtyard - Bunker One from July 30 - August 24 at 6:10pm. Ticket link HERE.