Ahir Shah: Golden comedy review – Off-handedly funny
The award-winning comic fails to stick the landing in this sprawling, haphazard discussion of class
Ahir Shah won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2023 with a show that began as a work-in-progress. But he can’t echo the trick here with an hour that feels underwritten and unformed. He’s off-handedly funny in describing so many of his fellow stand-ups as left-leaning radicals born of privilege. But when he evokes his friend Pierre Novellie’s handling of his autism diagnosis, as a lead-in to clarifying his own disrupted and disturbed thoughts, he suffers by comparison, with Novellie always crystal clear in conveying his points and making his experiences relatable.
Exploring class, from the caste system his Indian parents tried to dispatch to the dustbin of history to an upbringing defined by worries about paying the bills, Shah has been beset by an anxiety that seems to span generations, manifesting itself in tormenting mental and physical affliction. This malaise is all the more striking for the whirlwind romance Shah enjoyed with his Irish wife, the apparent ease with which they initially settled into married life in London and the status games the golden-toned, posh-sounding comic plays with his spouse about who enjoys more of a colonial mindset. Although poised in his retelling, Shah has clearly suffered terribly in recent years. And while he’s gone characteristically deep in dredging for answers, his haphazard thoughts have yet to cohere into anything approaching satisfying articulation.
Ahir Shah: Golden, Pleasance Courtyard, until 30 August, 7.30pm; picture: Matt Stronge.