Paul Chowdhry is a very funny, honest, down-to-earth comedian with the ability to command his audience’s attention and handle anything thrown at him. Chowdhry jokes about the most controversial topics in the world and still somehow has you laughing… even if you feel slightly uncomfortable.
Chowdhry’s performance was great; he was energetic and very engaging. His interaction with the audience particularly deserves recognition; he handled everything that was dished at him well, turning every reply into a joke, making jokes out of audience members’ names, jobs, cars and even coughs! He even managed to get away with jokes about sensitive subjects such as racism and paedophilia. At times he straddled the line between funny and offensive, but in general he balanced the two perfectly, creating comedy from the most taboo topics.
Most of his material was brilliant, although he did drag out and repeat the same jokes a few too many times, making the show a little stale and slightly boring on occasion. Some of the topics did feel very old, such as Michael Jackson and Operation Yewtree. He also used a lot of inside jokes that only Indian audience members would understand, which did alienate the rest of the audience.
Overall the show was good however: Chowdhry had good command of the stage, the right level of confidence and strong improvisation skills, all of which worked well to engage with the audience. All I would say is that some of the content of the material needs to be rethought/brought up to date.
