Outwardly, Kanan Gill would seem to have so much going for him. A stand-up career on multiple continents, a book deal and sufficient leisure time for the left-leaning comic to indulge his authoritarian fantasies in a computer game, trusting in the bread and circuses approach to civilisation-building. With lofty artistic ideals, he won’t deign to promote his book on social media, guffaws at the fools taken in by financial scams and is set on a path to self-improvement, absorbing ancient wisdom and connecting with his Punjabi roots by better learning the language.

Yet on a flight from Mumbai, sat next to an American so comfortable in his ignorance, Gill’s insecurities bubble to the surface. Not so much an international jetsetter, he’s actually going quietly out of his mind in his own home. Some health issues prompt a drive-by blood test but rather than marvelling at the speed and efficiency of modern medicine, the supremely skilled observational comic and hypochondriac spirals into a projection of how his results might be abused. Similarly, he can’t properly focus on his online Punjabi, his tutor’s restless dedication prompting him to escalating lies about his own supposedly busy schedule.

Relating his language struggles, Gill has been gifted a 1980s textbook with wildly implausible scenarios ripe for his animated incredulity. For sure, he’s shooting fish in a barrel here but it’s an uproarious, signature bit. And he proves himself equally adept at self-mockery in his pampered purchase of a top-of-the-line toaster, the epitome of first world problems piling higher and higher as he shows that, left to his own devices and appliances, he will invariably find disaster. Like many of the best anecdotal comics with a degree of financial comfort, Kanan Gill possesses the ability to not only seem relatable but endearingly, irredeemably pathetic, a frivolous idiot with a boundless capacity for personal harm. 

Kanan Gill: Not This Again is on tour until Sunday 13 September; reviewed at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh; picture: Jenny Forward-Hayter.