"While only 26, he has the relaxed delivery and confidence of a more seasoned comic." Nione Meakin reviews Nish Kumar's debut solo show.
Who is Nish Kumar? Well, he’s a proud British Asian who will literally beat people around the head with his politics; someone who is regularly confused as both a Jew and a Muslim; a man who can get away with phrases like “Proustian wank”.
While familiar to Fringe-goers as one half of The Gentleman of Leisure, this autobiographical show is Kumar’s first solo outing and he’s in his element. While only 26, he has the relaxed delivery and confidence of a more seasoned comic, teasing his audience and adlibbing with ease. The material too is more high-reaching than many of his peers’; he takes on ethnic stereotypes and racism with the same lightness of touch as he details the excruciating experience of watching Hollywood sex scenes with his father.
He’s a clever clogs alright (see:’Proustian wank’) but he has the self-awareness to play it for laughs, mocking his high-falutin’ school history projects and musing on how misleading certain words are: “Jingoism doesn’t sound bad! It sounds like a children’s TV show.” One of the greatest pleasures of his set is his turn of phrase, as when he laments how his terminal singledom means he should probably be described as a lapsed heterosexual, or describes a dawning realisation as ‘the shit tip of a poo iceberg’.
It’s also refreshing to see a young comic with something to say. Instead of the usual comedic anecdotes about hangovers and girlfriends, he gives an interesting perspective on the British Asian experience, its complications and subtleties, and the reason his parents despair at his choice of career while he sees it as proof of cultural assimilation. In the process, he makes us all think a bit harder about what it really means to be British. If that all sounds a bit heavy, it’s not; this is an intelligent, silly and entirely engaging hour from a comic who looks set to get better and better.
Nione Meakin
Nish Kumar: Who Is Nish Kumar? is at the Soho Theatre from 24th-26th January at 19:15pm.
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