Review of the American comic at Soho Theatre

Whatever happened to comedians being hapless, socially inept losers? Zainab Johnson is elegant, graceful and warm – a woman who seems to have her shit together and whose only ‘toxic trait’, by her own description, is optimism.

She’s charisma and charm personified, and is greeted on to the Soho Theatre stage – her first time performing in London  – with enthusiastic, affirming heckles from fans who want to be her friend. And of course she deals with them sweetly.

When she later asks the crowd about befit single, she makes it seems like she cares about the responses, beyond it being a  segue to her next routine. No wonder she’s mobbed in the bar after the show by selfie-seekers, who she generously entertains.

But don’t mistake her soft demeanour for blandness as Johnson’s sharpened her wry observational comedy with pithy writing and an astute attitude, taking down everyday absurdities with sharp wit as well as kindness.

Much of the routines seem to be a response to dubious advice from friends, such as getting a gun or leaving signs around her home to persuade home invaders that she’s not a woman living alone, which she deconstructs forensically. Even if it turns out that she got that gun after all.

That could be seen as a metaphor for nice-gal comedy that is more deadly than it seems . Occasionally there are even some barbs, albeit of a gentle variety mocking men who post with acoustic guitars on the dating apps to the ‘short kings’ the 5ft 11in comic has sometimes gone out with. 

But even here the teasing is affectionate, with a typically big sense of mischief. She prefaces a description of an awkward date with the disclaimer that she doesn’t want to be mean to the well-meaning guy as ‘you have to keep the nice ones nice’. It gets an ‘awww’ from the audience. Likewise, the threat of being attacked by man wielding a bucket of his own shit in New York is told as if whimsical slapstick.

Johnson can offer social commentary if she wants to. Her Amazon Prime Video special Hijab Off! told of growing up black and Muslim as part of a large family in Harlem. But this tour is a more conversational, folksy piece, cleverly using the fact that she’s not making any grand points  to make her grand point.

That chatty approach means she gets off to a slow start, giving us a bit of a catch-up about her tours around Europe, that is little more than conversational chit-chat, but it’s all part of the charm offensive. 

And if other routines are making a lot out of a little – a post office running out of stamps, for instance – well that’s part of her thoroughly endearing shtick, too, as she moves up the gears at her own steady pace.

Her thorough unpicking of semantic points can be Seinfeldesque, but less comically uptight, as she takes a premise apart from every angle. If a few of these maybe appear unnecessary… well, she’s such good company that you can indulge her now and again.

That’s probably most true for her closing story about an opossum that became a regularvisitor to her new Californian home – and wouldn’t you know it, Johnson’s even sympathetic for an ugly marsupial she describes as looking as if ‘rat ate a dog’. Being unflinchingly empathetic is the power behind every expertly told anecdote.

• Zainab Johnson is at Soho Theatre until Saturday

Review date: 20 Nov 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett