Review by Paul Fleckney

In Edinburgh, the king of audience interaction is Jason Byrne. He zips about the stage, simultaneously flattering and taking the piss out of his people while inveigling stories, often about his home life, into the mix.

Hardeep Singh Kholi’s hour at the Pleasance Dome was essentially a clunky version of what Byrne does. It’s pretty effective – those in attendance certainly enjoyed themselves as he ran through his list of Scottish stereotypes – but it’s a remarkably lightweight product.

With audience work taking precedence, it takes him a good half hour to reach the anecdotes – and he is very good with speaking to his fans, doing a similar push-me-pull-you as Byrne does of knocking them down then building them up. Kholi unashamedly pitches the show at his Scottish brethren, with every mention of a local area (particular around his hometown Glasgow) met by a knee-jerk generalisation. He knows his crowd, and is playing to it by serving up the easy stuff.

When a story of any substance does materialise, it’s such a rarity that it has a sort of artificial importance conferred on it. Then it builds towards a climax and a big, single pay-off that may as well have a 'Laugh Now!' card held up with it. It feels more like getting the audience to respond to cues rather than having an actual good story – nor do his tales seem plausible to me, which undermines their appeal. His style of storytelling feels similar to Billy Connolly, just without that force-of-nature delivery of the Big Yin that makes his so irresistible.

Kholi’s anecdote about taking in a friend of his for Christmas is at least interesting, giving us a little insight into this family life (exaggerated though it probably is), less gripping is his tale of cycling up an Edinburgh street towards a ne'er-do-well 'jakey'.

His parting story about what happened when he spoke to Harrison Ford at an A-list party again seems designed to push buttons, rather than being vaguely genuine. But, as with much of what Kholi does in this hour, it does what it’s supposed to do.

Review date: 19 Aug 2015
Reviewed by: Paul Fleckney
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome