If you are a millennial/Gen-Y/Gen-X-er you need to see Neel Kolhatkar. He’s an Aussie YouTube sensation with a huge social media following, and it’s clear to see why.
Neel Kolhatkar will have you shaking your head and looking into your hands crying with laughter
When Kolhatkar first enters the room, his humour and jokes sort of ‘creep up’ on you – you’re lulled into a false sense of security with his casual chitchat manner, and before you realise it you’ve been hit with a line that makes you laugh but cover your eyes cringing at the same time.
Kolhatkar eases in to the set with a bit of audience Q&A in a down-to-earth manner that really helps us all feel at home in his presence. Talking about his experience growing up as an Aussie-Indian in Sydney, he touches on a variety of topics including bullying, drugs, underage drinking and losing your virginity. Kolhatkar is so charismatic and friendly that all of the cringey, taboo topics he discusses don’t become seedy or creepy like they would in other scenarios.
As an Indo-Australian, Kolhatkar reserves a large part of his stand-up for talking about his experience with racial stereotypes. Again, his likeable personality and character help these impersonations, jokes and stereotypes become genuinely hysterical at points and he avoids being overly offensive or taking any jokes ‘too far’. He rose to fame on YouTube with his impersonations, and it is definitely one of the strongest parts of his set – and something, that I promise, all young women especially will relate to.
One of the most impressive qualities to Kolhatkar’s performance was the way he weaved his experiences of high school and being a young 20-something into comparisons of the current global political climate and race issues. It gave this show something more than just laugh-out-loud jokes and one-liners and gave it a witty, clever edge that left me wanting to hear more.
Neel Kolhatkar will have you shaking your head and looking into your hands crying with laughter, he will have you wishing the show hadn’t been only an hour (it’s also worth seeing purely for his singing attempts!) You want to snap up a ticket to see this young Aussie talent before they’re gone.
