Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Eunice Olumide – fashion designer, DJ, model, actor, presenter, and political commentator – now makes her Fringe debut as a comedian. And it’s well worth spending an hour in her company, despite uneven material that’s sometimes underwritten.

She shares her experiences as a Scottish-Nigerian woman, from the novelty of her accent when she’s in London to white people automatically equating being black with being cool. We get some nicely drawn character studies of family members, and this opening routine is warm, funny and engaging.

There’s a compelling section when Olumide talks about her first experiences of appearing on live TV, firstly on Question Time in 2019 and then on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show, recounting the on-air argument about whether being black had held her back in wanting to be a presenter.

Olumide manages to find laugh-out-loud moments in some serious subject matter. Her joy at performing this show is infectious, and there’s a real bond between her and her audience. 

Much less successful is Olumide’s take on British and American politicians, which never gets beyond the level of referencing Boris Johnson’s hair and Joe Biden’s age. It was disappointing she didn’t have a fresh take.

Later comes another standout routine about the ‘Karens’ that Olumide encounters at every turn, with the three archetypes vividly painted. This leads to a powerful retelling of the incident when white woman Amy Cooper called the cops on an unthreatening man in New York’s Central Park just because he was black. And at the end, we get the origin story of how she became AfroPolitiCool at the assembly on her first day at school, having been ‘othered’ by the head teacher as ‘a BAME’.

It’s a strong finish to a show with much to enjoy, allowing Olumide to add another credit to her many talents.

• AfroPolitiCool’s run at The Stand’s New Town Theatre is now over.

Review date: 24 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Matt Carwardine-Palmer
Reviewed at: The Stand's New Town Theatre