Review by Steve Bennett

Stand-up fans should remember the name Kumail Nanjiani, as you’ll be hearing a lot more of it in the future. Even if not always properly pronounced.

With his sharp, obtuse wit and refusal to take the obvious route in terms of topics or punchlines, he’s the stand-out on the current line-up of Headliners, the Melbourne festival’s nightly showcase of leading American comedians.

He has certainly taken to the city, too, opening his barnstorming routine with local material that dodges all the usual clichés, setting a precedent the rest of the set doggedly follows.

Thirtysomething Nanjiani was born in Karachi, but wisely stays away from any dull generic ‘ethnic humour’. There are personal tales about his process through the US immigration system, and a brilliant anecdote about a peculiar Pakistani birthday celebration, but the hilarity – and it is hilarious – comes from his quirky observational eye and vividly-painted images.

It’s expertly delivered: slick and well-timed and with a casual, playful charm that endears. And while the set is driven by stories from his life in New York drawing you in, there are smart gags and witty phrases at every tight turn.

The polar opposite, in fact, of angsty compere Andy Kindler, whose shtick is to cack-handedly deliver his jokes of varying quality, then analyse why they went wrong and berate the audience for not giving him the requisite credit.

His Jewish insecurities, manifested in desperate approval-seeking and relentless self-criticism, make for a memorable persona, even before you add the attention-deficit disorder that sends him on myriad diversions, all commented upon, by compulsion.

He finds it a struggle to get laughs, but that’s not to say the crowd aren’t enjoying that struggle, but he almost doesn’t allow chuckles to build up since the set, quite deliberately, never acquires enough momentum. He’s Kryptonite to professionalism, which makes a unique tonic for festival-goers overdosing too much slick comedy, while baffling the rest. Or ‘majority’ as they are otherwise known.

Headliners’ headliner Keith Robinson – also seen opening for Wanda Sykes this festival – is a bawdy, domineering comic who wages war on ‘political correctness’, which is his cue for some suggestions of how black people behave differently to white people, or men differently to women. His spurious argument is that by laughing together we heal.

There are plenty of stereotypes here, and ideas you may have heard before, but he generally expresses them in a sharp, fresh way – while the polished punchlines are delivered with such efficient force, the audience can’t resist. Talking fast and close to the mic, with a relentless rhythm, he creates a wave of laughs that he rides all the way home. It may be a triumph of technique over inspiration – but, man, what technique.

Review date: 6 Apr 2012
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival