British Comedy Guide

Nish Kumar's debut stand-up special coming to Sky

Tuesday 6th June 2023, 8:33am by Jay Richardson

Late Night Mash. Nish Kumar
  • Nish Kumar has recorded his first stand-up special for Sky Comedy
  • Based upon his show Your Power, Your Control, the special will air on 1st August and recounts the incident in which Kumar was pelted with a bread roll at a charity gig
  • Kumar said: "I'm very pleased. Largely because I paid to film it myself on spec. I'm relieved but my accountant is also relieved"

Nish Kumar's debut stand-up special will air on Sky Comedy, the comic has revealed, recalling the infamous incident when he was pelted with a bread roll at the Lord's Taveners Christmas lunch.

The former host of The Mash Report becomes the latest high-profile comic to have his show snapped up by the broadcaster, which aired specials from Katherine Ryan and Rob Beckett last year.

Based on his acclaimed touring show, Your Power, Your Control, the special will air on 1st August, Kumar told fellow comic James Gill on his Always Be Comedy podcast. The show also recounts the fallout from the 2019 incident at the charity gig, how Kumar was subjected to racist abuse and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I'm very pleased" he told Gill. "Largely because I paid to film it myself on spec. I'm relieved but my accountant is also relieved."

The recording consolidates Kumar's relationship with Sky, after he and Josh Widdicombe made the six-part series Hold The Front Page for the broadcaster earlier this year, in which the pair experienced being reporters in local newspapers around the country.

Kumar recently launched the political podcast Pod Save The UK, which he hosts with Guardian journalist Coco Khan.

And he has revealed how James Acaster also became a victim of the bread roll.

"I am umbilically connected for the rest of my life to bread rolls. It's a tragedy because I love bread." Kumar told presenter Nick Grimshaw and chef Angela Hartnett on their Dish podcast.

Indeed, it has become such an in-joke among comedians that when he was doing his best man speech at fellow comic Tom Neenan's wedding, two weeks after the notorious event, Ahir Shah threw a roll at him.

"But unfortunately, Ahir Shah is not particularly one of our more physically capable specimen specimens," Kumar reflected. "He missed and hit James Acaster in the face."

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