Nish Kumar is in the throes of an identity crisis, only in this instance it is other people being confused about him, rather than him about himself. Born in Britain to Indian parents from an ethnically diverse region of the subcontinent, he has found himself labelled by others as a Jew, a Brazilian, and a Muslim, among others. He is none of these: ‘British Indian is the box I tick on the census form’, he states. To those more cynical comedy goers, fear not; this is not a show with jokes aimed at pleasing only one ethnic or cultural group. Kumar derives his comedic material from these cases of mistaken identity/ethnicity but does not aim his jokes solely at the peoples or cultures he is perceived as being part of.
Nish Kumar is a Comedian is solid observational comedy, the stories and punchlines coming at us fluidly and with a nice mix of Kumar’s own personal experiences thrown in as well. The characters in his stories, be they racists, drunken businessmen, or exaggerated versions of Kumar himself, are portrayed excellently and confidently and the show is accompanied by a slideshow of memes featuring Kumar as ‘the confused Muslim’, an ironic if unintentional response, he acknowledges, to his 2012 show, Who is Nish Kumar?
My only criticism would be that sometimes he moves a bit too fast and, while Kumar himself may know where he is in his routine and how it got there, we the audience are struggling to link the current joke into an overall framework. That said, Kumar links his stories together nicely more often than not in true observational style and even when he doesn’t it’s not like we’re not laughing. Kumar works his modest venue well, making light of his parents’ apparent disappointment in him and his struggles in life in general. To those of a nervous disposition, while audience participation does feature, Kumar is a perfect gentleman and avoids alienation while showing off his improved skills. This is a hour of good observational humour; Nish Kumar is most certainly a comedian.
