Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Aditya Gautam has a warm, unassuming charm that forges an instant rapport, even with a small Monday-night audience. It would feel intimate even if the crowd was a sizeable multiple more, he’s just got that chilled sense of quiet confidence.

His take on the immigrant experience is absorbing, too, both in his journey from India to Australia – in which he honestly admits corners may have been cut on his student visa, no one tell thee Department for Home Affairs – and in talking about both cultures. 

Bread-and-butter for almost every overseas act, the latter, but Gautam has original takes to share on topics such as why a Bollywood classic is an infinitely better romcom than Titanic and how India’s physically fragile rupee banknotes have an evocative edge over Australia’s plastic currency.

His tone is almost universally positive – he’s not here to pour scorn on any culture, just describe things wittily, such as his compatriots eager engaging in conversations in English, whether they are proficient in the language or not,

Jokes about the Indians taking over are cheerily tongue-in-cheek, as he’s not a politician act. His observations are about the everyday, not the bigger picture. That said, an early iteration of the show was called Australia’s First Indian Prime Minister, before he realised all his promotion was conserved political advertising. And as a Brit, I can caution that such a diversity breakthrough might not entirely be the cause of celebration he hopes…

That there’s nothing especially hard-hitting here applies to the jokes as well as the material, and real killer punchlines are thin on the ground. But Gautam’s second show is a thoroughly engaging and consistently droll walk through his life and the two cultures he strides, sure to leave you feeling positive inside.

Review date: 9 Apr 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival