Shappi Khorsandi - Work in Progress

Having failed to interest any of my friends I went to this comedy gig on my own.

Shappi is a female comic of Iranian descent so ticks several PC boxes. I have seen her a couple of times before and enjoyed her sets. This one not so much, but then again "Work in Progress" was the title and that was the point. She was trying out new material and the Soho Theatre often puts on well-known comics out trying to refine their material. I have often heard it said that as a comic you only really know if a joke is funny if you put it before an audience and they laugh. So we were the guinea-pigs.

Well this was still worth going to if only to see comedy at a developmental stage. Not word perfect, and some jokes, as she noticed, didn't quite work. Some of the one liners were the best. I liked for example. "My brother is going to be gay....When my father dies."

Shappi has quite a winning personality - she did very well with a heckler - well no, "heckler" is the wrong word - a very drunken Aussie lady who had gone past the stage where one recognised that everyone can hear you talking. One felt that just chatting to the audience would have worked pretty well. A headline slot at my local comedy club would suit her perfectly. She just didn't fill a whole hour consistently.

As with many other ethnic comics there is just too much emphasis on racism. I think this is a pity. Much better was her stuff about her relationships and kids and dating - stuff that is relevant to the audience. The thing with anti-racist material is that its just so bland - it's hardly controversial, and its almost always played out to a young, liberal and white audience. Its just such an easy target, but also one that is far from relevant. Which was also evident from her material on this, which related to her childhood. Of course it did, as in these PC times there just isn't enough racism out there to be amusing about. It's in the same category as jokes about posh people or the royal family - just easy, lazy targets. Its a bit like doing anti-Thatcher material and trying to pass it off as current. Above all, its just been done so much there isn't anything new. And to the extent there is new stuff to be done on it, Paul Choudhury does it so much better.

But I am sure the finished product will be better, and I certainly don't regret the evening out - not least the £10 ticket price - except perhaps for the un-air-conditioned Tube journey home twinned with being held up due to signalling failure. Oh for the Chinese Metro with air-conditioning, spacious trains and seemingly no signalling...