2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Anil Desai review
This show is really awful. I'm getting straight to the point. Sometimes comedy can be bad, but most of the time the intentions are good... I'm beginning to question whether Desai even wanted to make a good show.
For starters it was drastically under-prepared. This year Desai is incorporating characters into his show, so has a curtain on stage - here he single-handedly managed the most unprofessional costume changes I've ever seen... and I've witnessed many am-dram productions. Desai talks to the audience as he changes, which feels like an awkward conversation over a changing room door, not the least because he has nothing to say.
When the characters did appear, they were painfully unfunny, stereotypically lazy and had nowhere to go. I was nearly offended that Desai thought I should be finding these creatures amusing.
The stand-up wasn't much better. Anil Desai does seem like a really nice guy, but that is where it ends I'm afraid. He spends much of the time bragging about his sexual escapades, performing average impressions, telling banal stories, and basically doing anything really apart from being funny.
It felt like a game of children's dress up, only more depressing.