Ifrah Qureshi: 48 Flaws Of Power comedy review – One to watch
This debut hour from the Scottish newcomer shows heaps of promise
Edinburgh-born and Glasgow-based Ifrah Qureshi is already a well-known face on the Scottish comedy scene. But this is her debut Fringe hour, a show, she says, about how she tried to defeat her Asian mother. Her mum recently moved in with her and Qureshi immediately regressed to acting like a teenager: cue lots of disagreements. Turning to Google for advice, she settled on self-help book, 48 Laws Of Power.
Qureshi frames her material around the book’s ‘power plays’, weaving in tales from her life: her sister’s inter-racial marriage, her work in IT, Muslim dating apps, the manosphere. She’s an adept raconteur, though not every tangent lands.
It’s when she speaks to her experiences as a Scottish Muslim (a ‘semi-skimmed’ one to her mum’s full fat) that her material is strongest. She holds a lens up to her (mostly white) audience, asking when it’s ok to laugh at stereotypes. The structure is slightly muddled and the pacing a bit off, with an abrupt ending that she admits isn’t fully thought through. It’s a shame as there’s a sharper hour in here: still, on this evidence, Qureshi is one to watch.
Ifrah Qureshi: 48 Flaws Of Power, The Stand 3 & 4, until 30 August, 8.15pm; picture: Trudy Stade.