Sid Singh makes much play of how this is a divisive show,  believing at least half the audience will agree with the critic who this summer gave him his first two-star review in 15 years of comedy.

There are certainly some hard-hitting elements of the hour – although Singh’s cheery, affable performance coats any of the more potentially contentious points about colonialism and identity. Not that younger, liberal audiences are likely take too much issue with the notion that Britons know little about the full horrors of empire, even if he probably won’t be invited to the Reform party conference any time soon. 

Being ‘half British, half Indian, half American’, as he describes himself with gleeful disregard to arithmetic, gives the comic a global perspective, while being a lawyer gives him the tools to make persuasive arguments. That he works on refugee human rights makes him all the more informed.   

However we start, rather gently, with a story of how, as a non-celebrity comedian at his first Edinburgh Fringe, he played to a few uninterested punters on a bus (and not the one that’s a hip venue).  There’s not much too this, but it serves as an icebreaker and lowers the comic’s status, increasing his already obvious likeablity.

Singh’s strongest material is probably about fellow Indian comedians he sees as pandering to liberal white audience’s expectations about noble immigrants’ struggle against adversity or the semi-mystic ‘wisdom of the ancients’.  He has an especially pointed diss for the show that won Ahir Shah the Edinburgh Comedy Award, without quite going as far as naming him.

But then Singh’s family does not provide the same and palatable narrative as those comedians, and the messy history he tells takes in the Mughal Empire and the less-than romantic reality behind the creation of the Taj Mahal.

It’s certainly informative, while the very fact that this is being talked about seems significant and timely as he highlights race-based issues we can’t brush under the carpet, as last summer’s far-right riots and Donald Trump’s election victory have proved.

Whether it’s all funny might be a moot point – that it wasn’t was the conclusion of that two-star review, not any ideological objection. But Singh always delivers his message cheerily, connecting through passion without being aggressive or preachy. And while most punters will inevitably forget his call-to-arms message about collective resistance by the time they’re on the bus home, it’s better than having no message at all.

And Singh practises what he preaches, putting his comedy earnings towards the legal charities he works with: The Joint Council For The Welfare of Immigrants in the UK, and The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies in the US. So just by buying a ticket, you’re doing good.