Hardeep Singh Kohli is a Fringe favourite and you can tell immediately by his stage presence that he is relaxed with the audience. He is suave and wears his pink turban and kilt well; he knows what he is doing.
This show feels like it's in cruise control
His show combines his stance on politics with an autobiographical account of his early years, selecting certain episodes to dwell upon. The two intertwine well and as a Scot who now lives in London, I was able to relate to many of the Scottish-flavoured anecdotes he told and you can tell Singh Kohli is a very proud Glaswegian.
It was enjoyable to hear the comic’s recollections of his childhood, though sometimes the relationship between the comedy and politics was uneasy and at times it was challenging to establish whether he was joking or not. He would often expect laughter and then emphasise he was not joking. This left many people on edge. His references to ‘no voters’ were repeated many times often falling to an audience who didn’t respond positively.
There was far too much material for the hour and after a quick time check, three quarters of the way through, the comedian panicked and quickly sped through some material which seemed interesting and important. Some of Singh Kohli’s references in regards to the climate were fairly strong and trying to convey these messages while being under time pressure distorted his message and verged on defamation. He could have saved himself by fully explaining his point in a more sound manner, which would have substantially helped.
Singh Kohli is a very good performer and does not have any problems interacting with the audience, but this show feels like it's in cruise control. While there was much to commend in the show, the material could have been more thought out, and structured considerably better.
