Aliya Kanani is a naturally warm and funny person. Her stand-up delivery feels very instinctive, especially in the timing of her own delightful giggles. She plays the character of an intelligent girl who has decided it’s often easier to adopt an air-headed persona when she’s dealing with people who patronise, judge, or try to sexually intimidate her. When making light of awkward scenarios, she’s trademarking the sound of an arsehole closing up.

^{Pictures: Monica Pronk}

Although effective in parts, there’s perhaps too much of that persona in this hour to provoke the heartiest laughter. Way funnier are the bits where it appears that Kanani is playing out her authentic self, such as on the phone to her friends, laughing genuinely about the complications of having an IUD fitted. 

It’s understandable, however, why she has exaggerated the frivolity. Wherever she’s travelled, Kanani has been hounded by the question, ‘where are you from?’ The answer ‘Canada’ has rarely satisfied people’s concern to know her ethnicity. A closing speech reveals how she nearly quit comedy when people tried to reduce her humour to a matter of skin colour. It’s a strong debut, but Kanani’s got too much comic potential to waste time justifying herself.

Reviewed at Just The Tonic At The Tron as part of Edinburgh Fringe.