Omid Djalili at Glasgow Comedy Festival
King’s Theatre, Glasgow
Four stars
IT is a bold and confident stand-up who can transform a cavernous venue like the King’s into a club-like venue for experiment, yet that was what Djalili appeared to do on Saturday night. If his routine began on terrain he has clearly trod carefully before, it ended in an encore that seemed very fresh indeed, even if there was an element of set-up with his technician in its execution. For once the cliché about an act taking the audience on a journey was actually true, and you could feel it in the theatre.
It would be wrong to give away that ending, although I am not so familiar with his work to know how new it is, but there was certainly a palpable sense that it was a confidence in his relationship with the audience – and by extension with Glasgow and Scotland – that took him there, with all of us happily tagging along for the ride. Comparison with the sometimes controversial work of Stewart Lee would not be inappropriate.
The main difference is that Djalili combines that edginess – daring to make jokes that are entirely at odds with the mocking of lazy preconceptions about race and religion that is central to his whole comedic persona – with a thoroughly show-business front, name-dropping with impunity and referencing his celebrity life-style as a Holywood actor. There are African-American stars who have careers that are built on the same combination of skills, but it is most unusual in a British performer.
As his warm-up man, Boothby Graffoe both knew his place and took full advantage of it, with a pithy set that featured a version of the familiar reprise-for-latecomers schtick that should prohibit any imitation.
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