Review: Ahir Shah: ‘Control’, The Comedy Box

“Appeals for understanding have to work both ways.  An appeal for understanding means one side being patient while the other stops being horrendous. Otherwise it’s not an appeal for understanding, it’s an appeal for Stockholm syndrome.”

Control is Ahir Shah’s Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated treatise on political trauma. A British-Indian, self-confessed member of the metropolitan liberal elite, Shah is stuck in a post-Brexit purgatory: torn between acknowledging the validity of the other side’s opinion and finding that, when examined, that opinion came down on the side of the argument that “sided with everyone who…regarded me and my family as subhuman.”

As the show moves on we see that Shah is also grappling between nostalgic mourning for pre-Brexit Britain, and a deeply personal awareness that the explosion of far-right politics in 2016 only revealed something nasty that was there all along. “For the last 300 years Britain has regarded authoritarianism as a very successful export. The only way that Britain is immune to it is via the Biggie principle: You don’t get high on your own supply.”

For Shah, the referendum result ultimately came down to whether you were OK siding with racists. “Left and right were divided, both within and between each other. Classes were divided. Generations were divided. Families were divided. Racists, very much not divided. There wasn’t anyone saying, ‘well, I hate immigrants [Shah used a different word here…] as much as the next guy, but I am concerned about the implications of leaving the single market’.”

Speaking to a largely white audience at The Comedy Box in Bedminster, Shah reminded us of how incredibly ignorant we are of the history of British colonialism. So much so that Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox could announce on TV that Britain was the only country in Europe that didn’t need to be ashamed of any of its 20th-century history (Shah’s mum’s reaction: “O – M – Ganesh”).

I didn’t agree with all of Shah’s opinions, but this was a show about what it means to look at our political complacency straight in the face: and in that, it was very effective. The friend who recommended Control warned me that “he does sound really posh though”, accurately pigeonholing my class-warrior-inspired taste in stand-up. I was brought up short in my prejudices midway through the second half, however, when in response to a heckler Shah howled: “Listen to the voice that is currently coming out of this face. There are unpleasant historical reasons behind this. My ancestors spent centuries being involuntarily globalised the shit out of and now I sound like a fucking butler.”

Often hyper-articulate (think Russell Brand meets Marcus Brigstocke), Ahir Shah has created a tightly argued lecture that is also very funny (“Do you know how difficult it is to put this many jokes into an actual work of academic political philosophy?”). Unlike some polemicist comedians though, there’s a personal, emotional depth here, which supplies 90% of the comedic tension. As a result Shah avoids the serious-point/joke/serious-point/joke rhythm that besets some of this genre and instead takes us on a journey that is as unexpected, funny and emotionally satisfying as that time when Angola bought 5% of Portugal.

Ahir Shah performed Control at the Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken on Friday, Feb 23. For more Comedy Box lineups, visit www.thecomedybox.co.uk

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