Even from the offstage pre-amble, which wryly and shrewdly disassociates the use of the phrase ‘The N Word’ from the word itself - telling us that the former phrase won’t be in the show, but the word will be all over the place - W Kamau Bell unleashes a scabrous, shrewd and hilarious assault on racial assumptions and taboos. Questions of race in comedic terms are arguably far more charged with energy and danger than sexuality or political standpoints, and an hour in the company of Bell plots an intelligent, challenging and brilliantly funny course through topics where many comedians fear to tread.What makes Bell’s show so refreshing is that he doesn’t just mark up racial difference for comedic scrutiny, but openly attacks the categories used, in a way that manages to be both intellectually probing and conducive to some great comic set-pieces. His insistence that race only exists culturally rather than biologically pulls the rug under the feet of lesser comics who would rather maintain racial difference for the sake of cheap observational material. Emphasising that racial difference as absurd allows him opportunities for hilarious analyses of attempts to separate people for no reason at all – from the oddities of the census categories to the bizarre racial stereotyping he finds in American baseball logos. When Bell brings his perspective to bear on subjects closer to home for a UK audience, such as a blistering attack on dubious comments recently made by David Starkey on Newsnight, the results are devastating. The mostly white middle-class audience bristles with tension, as this is bought back to Bell’s insistence that this kind of statement being interpreted as the voice of ‘white people’ should make the audience think twice about lumping groups into racial categories. It makes for potent and occasionally uncomfortable listening.But whenever there is a worry of the show turning into a didactic speech, Bell will release the tension and discomfort in the audience with a cathartic punchline. In comparing racial mixing in America to badly cut drugs, before bringing this informed perspective back to destroy the stereotype of the black drug dealer, Bell engages with the tropes of racial difference, before undermining and exploding them for comic effect. It is this kind of invention and intelligence, which situates jokes within genuinely thoughtful ideas, that makes Bell’s show so invigorating. Though he may occasionally be too idea-heavy to keep the laughs flowing, and sometimes misjudge how willing his audience are to go along with him, W Kamau Bell has the potential to develop into a comic force to be reckoned with.
