Reviewing comedy shows is something a little out of the ordinary for me. Before visiting the Old Fire Station to see Ahir Shah’s comedy performance, Duffer, I wondered if I would know what to write about it. After all, it’s hard to drag ‘it was funny’ out to 400 words… However, I quickly realised that there’s actually very little difference between a comedy show and a one-handed play – it’s someone crafting a piece of writing, delivering it to the audience, and hoping that we ‘get’ it.
Shah’s performance is primarily focussed around his family and his identity. Duffer is the pet name given to him by his beloved Dadi, his grandmother who brings him up for the first five years of his life before being deported from the UK back to India after a change in immigration laws. Much of the set is centred on his relationship with this woman who is both significantly present and significantly absent for all of his life, and how he comes to terms with this, and with her death.
I realise that this doesn’t make the show sound funny at all, but it is. Shah has an infectious giggle, and a way of laughing at his own lines which is appealing. He also has a masterful way of pulling the rug out from under his audience which is incredibly disarming – one minute you’re laughing, and the next moment, you’re rocked by a line about death, suicide, mental health issues, or race. Shah is at his funniest when he is telling tales of his father who resolutely refuses to assimilate into any aspect of western culture, and at his most heartbreaking when he describes his grandmother on her deathbed. His political rants are pointed, and I think this is where he is at his best – critiquing systemic racism and unjust immigration policies in impassioned tirades that provoke applause from a sympathetic audience. There are a few moments at the start of the show and after the interval where he interacts directly with the audience and which drag on for much too long, but when he is into the performance properly, he brings a frenetic energy and comic timing which is really enjoyable to watch.
This is not a comedy show that goes for wall-to-wall laughs, but it’s definitely something that leaves the audience with ‘things to think about’, and I highly recommend it! ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 28th February 2019
