Nish Kumar speaks with a speed and an urgency of someone who desperately needs to get three shows’ worth of material and substance into a single evening’s performance. Maybe even four show’s worth. There is not a squeaky pip’s worth of space as he canters through the current political curriculum, doubling down on the burning world’s leaders of past and present, billionaires and far-right propaganda, as well as real questions of the future and what might happen next. Fortunately the fury is peppered with punchlines too, barrelling through at breakneck speed and delivered in scattergun fashion. All you can do is strap in and hold on tight for the duration.
There is so much information it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea to have a crib sheet given out at the end. The show is interesting as well as intense. Kumar shares later that he came to stand up by way of stuffing jokes into his school debates, refusing to sacrifice the gags when his debating career took off further at university, and that nugget rings clear in his show’s structure and delivery. His refusal to let go of either argument or laughter is the line all else hangs from. Sometimes the balance might not be entirely there, but for the most part it’s tightly bound together.
The show is not just a wind tunnel of scary information with punchlines either. ‘Angry Humour…’ is aggressively playful too, such as when Kumar smartly and entertainingly takes apart each generation from Baby Boomers to Alphas, and his repeated punctuated callbacks to expand his fan pool. There is even a moment when he is moderately tempered and tempo’ed, when he steps into audience interaction with genuine curiosity about the younger audience members’ opinions, with a lovely back and forth with a particularly game parent. Giving the impression that this slowed down time brings fresh information to him, and as well as being paced to allow others breathing space to join in.
To stop us leaving in a depression of chuckling global fatalism, Kumar introduces a good line in personal material midway through the second half – and it works, lightening the intense vibe. His ADHD diagnosis is now from not just everyone around him but from an official source, and his love for Amy Annette is actually a little bit inspiring as well as a delightful and non-cheesy note on staying the distance in a partnership.
‘Angry Humour…’ is smart, and totally engaging even as it’s so filled with information it’s easy to mourn the bits I might’ve lost in the mix, and from a now veteran comic who absolutely knows his onions when it comes to satire and the soap opera that is the global political stage. His familiarity with the material is thorough, making his takes powerful. It’s a kindness that they’re also entertaining. His ongoing curiosity, fact-finding, open enquiry to young thoughts, and uplifting delicate love in his own companion leaves us with a grateful lightness that not everything is still set.
Picture credit: Matt Stronge
****
