Describing his genre as ‘racist comedy’ and insisting that the show is not funny, Paul Chowdhry presents 55 minutes of offensive material that is often as uncomfortable as it is funny. Apparently an exploration into racism, this is but a thin veneer of educational value as there is very little in the way of intellectualism, unless you count imitating Indian audience members as some meta-statement on imperialism.
Chowdhry is rude and unlikable, but this does not stop him from being funny. He seems to alienate the audience deliberately in his engagement, which for the majority of the show works for his material and creates a different experience from many stand-up routines. However, after a while he began to lose the audience and it became increasingly difficult to elicit any form of response upon asking. This is probably due to his constant insistence to insult and accuse, so naturally nobody was willing to answer a single question by the end. Consequently the final 10 minutes felt tense and uneasy.
His material may be intense, but his edgy style is hard-hitting and often hilarious. His less controversial material is not quite as well constructed, which leaves Chowdhry in a frustrating limbo: when his rudeness becomes grating, he does not have much to fall back on. Nonetheless, this must not detract from how good the first half an hour or so of the show is.
