Shappi Khorsandi: Because I’m Shappi at The Stdio Bradford Review
Shappi Khorsandi:
Because I’m Shappi
The Studio, Bradford
21 May 2015
Reviewed by Rachel Legg
We (my husband and I) arrived at this well-attended evening of stand-up from British-Iranian comedienne Shappi Khorsandi with no particular expectations. We knew from her television appearances that she could be very funny indeed on occasion, but also somewhat less so at times. All I can say about those appearances, with hindsight, is that the way she “comes across” on the screen does not do her live comedy justice.
This was definitely a show of two halves, I don’t know whether warm-up acts are being provided elsewhere on this tour, but it quickly became clear (and, in fact, Shappi admitted as much) that she was used to having one. The half-hour before the interval therefore consisted of her “being her own warm-up act”, and, like the television appearances mentioned above, this half-hour was often very funny, but there were also stretches that fell rather flat. An attempt at audience participation faltered when Khorsandi was unable to find anyone that she could truly “spar with”, meaning that, a few obviously well-honed jokes aside, she had to fall back on ad-libbed monologues. The result was that there was no real structure, and therefore no “build-up” in terms of where the big laughs came.
But what a change the longer (nearly an hour) second half brought! Khorsandi had obviously used the preceding time onstage to get the measure of her audience, and post-interval she clearly felt comfortable enough to settle into her carefully-crafted familiar routine, one that pinballed seemingly chaotically between topics as diverse as dating and sex, living on a council estate, childhood friends, motherhood, politics, racism, her Twitter habit, and reflections on her father and the persecution that forced him to move to the UK, but which (again, with hindsight) had every bit of the structure that the first half had lacked. This half was brilliantly funny at times and quite poignant at others and thoroughly entertaining throughout.
A quick note about the “suitability” of Khorsandi’s material for younger audience members: like many stand-ups, her live incarnation is noticeably less sanitised than her television one. Not only are her discussions of sexuality uninhibited, but her routine is liberally sprinkled with expletives. I lost count of the number of times she used the F-word, and the C-word put in at least one appearance. Audience members therefore need to be “age of consent upwards”. However this was very good evening out and I wouldn’t hesitate to go see her again next time she tours up here.
Rating: 4/5
Shappi Khorsandi is currently on tour around the UK. For more more information, tour dates and venues or to book tickets visit www.shappi.co.uk.
The Studio, Morley Street, Bradford, BD7 1AJ | 01274 432000
